JEDDAH — “We are here to mediate between the Saudi government and its people and to guide citizens to the door and push for the rights of people and if they find the door locked we are here to help them find the key,” said Jowhara Al-Angari, elected vice president and co-founder of the National Society for Human Rights in Jeddah, while explaining their role in not only the empowerment of women but of the whole of Saudi Society.
Despite the fact that Islam, over 14 centuries ago, gave Saudi women human, economic, political and social rights many believe that the fight for these rights and the liberation movement began in the 20th century. However Muslims know that in fact these rights were revealed by Allah to a man named Muhammad (peace be upon him) as early as the 7th century. It is because of this misconception that Saudi women have remained overshadowed as a result of cultural and traditional prejudice, ultimately leading to the discrimination of their rights as Saudi citizens.
An examination of the Kingdom’s laws relating to female nationals reveal that women are to date prohibited by law to drive, open a business on their own, buy a home and invest in real estate. Even the simplest act of reporting a crime to the local police department must be done by a woman’s guardian or mehram.
It is for reasons like these that Saudi women are still considered to be one of the most deprived minority groups in terms of liberation, gender equality and human rights on the globe. This is what motivated Al-Angari to co-found the National Society of Human Rights (NSHR) in accordance with a royal decree in AH1412.
The NSHR, with its headquarters in Riyadh, was founded with the objective of focusing on the importance of human rights in social life with the desire for patriotic participation in facing the challenges affecting the Kingdom. This would be achieved by truthfully identifying and addressing these weaknesses while assisting the state in achieving justice and fighting oppression through the defense of Islamic or Shariah law.
When asked by Arab News the reasons behind women lacking rights in the Kingdom, Al-Angari said, “These are regulatory examples that emphasize a low percentage of trust in women in our society. I believe that all Saudi nationals, whether male or female, should have the same rights and it’s for this reason that I was one of the first to call for the issuance of women’s national ID cards. When they announced the legalization of the ID card and that women were allowed to have one with the stipulation of a guardian’s approval, I was the first not to get one for myself.”
She further added that the purpose of calling for the issuance of the national identification card was to narrow the gap of gender inequality in society.
“The reason for this I believe is that some see tradition as religion, when in contrast women in Islam were the first to be chosen by election proving that women may voice their opinions and participate in politics. Women in the past, during the time of the Prophet, used to fight beside him on the battlefield. This shows that women should be allowed to become members of the Kingdom’s armed forces. Islam never prevented women from doing any job as long as they stuck to Islamic principles and Shariah law,” she said.
In the last three years, since the establishment of the Jeddah branch of National Society of Human Rights (NSHR), Al-Angari with a BA in Anthropology from the American University in Beirut, Lebanon, described how the society has been striving to improve human rights in the Kingdom. “In our first month we met with Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, Crown Prince Sultan and Interior Minister Prince Naif and described what our objectives in opening the NSHR would be. Since that time we have been working to discover our issues, some of which are problems regarding women such as balancing work and home, different types of abuse and family affairs. For example, currently, we are collecting information to study the efforts of coming up with a solution to present to the ministry listing what we need in order to reach our goals. First, we need research centers in different parts of the Kingdom that can treat each case uniquely because the causes in a certain social problem may be different, for instance, in Riyadh than in Jeddah or Jizan. We need to measure and study these obstacles and find solutions based on the particular region,” she said.
She also added that the dilemma of ignorance facing the Kingdom in relation to the rights of citizens was another challenge that the NSHR is focusing on.
“I strongly believe that we need a booklet that simply describes the rights of citizens, whether male or female. That booklet should include rights and obligations from birth to death of each citizen. It should be distributed in the hand of every person when obtaining the national identification card as well as when school registrations are done and I want to stress that everyone should memorize it,” she said, adding, “This will be useful in cases when citizens must go before a judge. I have noticed that some judges will inform people of their rights but some judges just assume they know their rights. The publication of the ‘Citizen Rights’ booklet would assist in solving this confusion.”
Al-Angari also spoke about problems relating to married life and family affairs and the high rate of divorce that has been gripping the Kingdom in the last decade.
“I would like to see a rule put into place like the one that Malaysia has adopted which states that a couple cannot get a marriage certificate only after the completion of a course in homemaking,” she said.
“We also need to zero in on family abuse in establishing a special unit of family police consisting of the Social Affairs Ministry. Our current police force simply isn’t trained for these situations. Each police department should be equipped with staff made up of psychologists, social workers and a religious scholar or sheikh. In this way people will be able to use qualified staff to deal with their social problems on a professional level. I also believe we need the establishment of a family court that deals strictly with family affairs that would house the same professional staff to receive the family and resolve problems, some of which would not even need to go to a higher legal court,” she said.
The mother of three said that the Kingdom to date lacks a center that deals with cases of child abuse and that establishing such a center would be an objective of the NSHR.
“I feel that in times such as divorce the most innocent victims are children and in respect to this I would like to ask for two things. The first being the raising of the age of a male child to choose where he would like to live — either with his mother or father — from the age of seven to age 15, because a child at seven has just reached the age of accountability before Allah and is still too young to make such an important decision. A 15-year-old boy has lived with both parents and has a better understanding of his parents,” she said, adding that life has changed drastically compared to previous times. She says that even social problems of today have become much different due to the rapid growth of major cities in the Kingdom, advances in technology and globalization.
Therefore, she proposes that a list of crimes and punishments be drawn up as a set of guidelines that all judges can rely on in giving fair sentences and rulings in the Kingdom’s courts.
Asked about the most difficult aspect of her job in the fight for human rights, Al-Angari said,
“My job is not difficult if one knows the meaning of the word difficult. Yes, we are working hard at the moment in establishing new branches in the Kingdom to better reach those in need but the most important thing is that we are working on two sides: that of the Saudi government and that of the people in which for me, working with the government is easier than working with the people or masses because trust is very important and we have to diminish the traditional attitudes that have been holding us back in the past.”
A true example of Arab News’ theme of the empowerment of Saudi women not to mention a role model to Saudi women and women around the globe, Al-Angari unselfishly disagreed with describing her work as empowerment saying, “Empowerment means, to anyone who truly understands the meaning of the word itself, that women want to overcome and also the word connotes power but I feel it is the wrong word to use to describe what we at the NSHR are doing. We as women just need to be trusted and get our rights as equal citizens.
“That’s all we’re asking for. That Islam has already granted us. When it comes to getting our rights we are simply saying don’t give us more than Islam says but of course don’t give us less. Our dilemma in this society is again that there is the confusion of cultural traditions being taken as religious principles but I think as we create a national dialogue and discuss the subject more we will see improvement. This is essentially what NSHR is working toward.”