JEDDAH, 14 June 2004 — The third National Dialogue Forum, which focuses on women’s issues, opened on Saturday with a call to respect the equality between the sexes granted by Islam.

Opening the forum in Madinah, Chairman of the Two Holy Mosques Affairs Saleh Al-Hosayn said civic debate must be based on Islamic teachings and embrace plurality.

“Islam guarantees equality and does not differentiate between people based on race, sex or color,” he said. “It is a natural state that is achieved through ensuring people enjoy the same legal rights, dignity and obligations,” said the sheikh, who chairs the King Abdul Aziz Center for National Dialogue which sponsors the conference.

But he warned women working outside the home would not find enough time to raise their children and demanded a balance between women’s rights and their obligations.

The forum is the third of its kind since the center was established in August 2003 at the initiative of Crown Prince Abdullah. The center means to offer a platform for dialogue between all sides of the spectrum of opinion.

The second forum in January this year debated issues ranging from extremism, nepotism and violence to politics and economics.

The Madinah forum was widely expected to take up hot issues such as segregation and women driving.

A group of 32 prominent women from Madinah listed seven points they said the conference must tackle. They include protecting religious teachings guaranteeing segregation of the sexes, upholding the ban on women driving, ensuring proper implementation of religious rules on women’s rights and obligations, upholding the system of fatwa (religious edicts) currently being applied in the country and giving priority to issues relating to the family and marriage over other issues “that do not constitute a priority.”

Yet on the first day, one male participant challenged the segregation of the forum, where separate rooms for men and women are linked by closed-circuit TV.

Abdullah Al-Sadran, who works for Coca-Cola, said he saw no justification for separating men and women at a public national forum and asked if the “cultured elite” of society could really be incapable of respecting the boundaries in a mixed gathering.

A senior member of the Council of Ulema, Abdullah Al-Mutlaq, demanded to know whether Al-Sadran had asked the women at the gathering, who Al-Mutlaq believed would be more comfortable in a room of their own.

When the women’s turn came, Dr. Saliha Al-Hulais, of Umm Al-Qura University, promptly dismissed calls for equality between men and women.

Justice did not necessarily mean full equality, she argued.

However, other women participants said women faced genuine problems and these should be addressed. “How come we see all these injustices being committed against women if women are facing no real problems?” asked Dr. Hanan Al-Ahmadi, from the Institute of Public Administration in Riyadh.

In an attempt to counter the emphasis some participants placed on conspiracy theories, Dr. Marqouk Bin Tunbak, a professor of literature at King Saudi University, said people should focus on the real problems facing society instead of putting the blame on others.

Both male and female participants called for a review of the taboo shrouding local customs governing women’s lives. However, defenders said it was such customs that provided a sense of identity to people in the Kingdom.

Calls to end the need for a mahram or male guardian in almost every aspect of women’s lives and allow women to drive elicited particularly lively debate.

“If men find it impossible to reach their destination without a car, the situation facing women is even more difficult,” said Sheikh Mosa Bukhamsain, an Islamic scholar.

King Abdul Aziz Center Vice Chairman Dr. Rashid Al-Rajeh said the forum had no magic wand to solve every problem facing the country and urged a gradual approach to addressing these issues.