For all the women in our lives

In 1936, after signing an international treaty to end slavery around the world, the King of Saudi Arabia issued a decree ending the importation of new slaves into the country and regulating the condition of existing ones. It took us around 30 years to see the complete abolition of slavery in our country in 1962.
Today, we are heading to a confrontation not less critical to that legendary quantum leap which led to the issuance of laws that guaranteed freedom to all Saudis. The government, accompanied by many civil activists is pushing to introduce new laws regarding the neglected rights of Saudi women, which aims to promote them in three vital domains.
The first is issuing the required legislations to empower women in the labor market, which I’m very glad to see that we covered a lot of ground in the last year in getting more Saudi women to have a competitive edge against an appalling unemployment statistics. Saudi women are breaking grounds in many work areas with the support of strong and brave new laws by the Ministry of Labor.
The second domain is still not as advanced as women work empowerment. According to a social services study done by an academic in Imam Mohammad Bin Saud Islamic University last year, there have been more than 5000 marriages where the bride is under the age of 14 in Saudi Arabia.
New laws aiming to set an age limit both by the Interior and Justice Ministries are trying to take the steps necessary to put new regulations into practice.
But the most devastating injustice that is still infiltrating and demeaning our humanity is our failure to apply strict incrementing laws against the abuse of women.
What makes this issue a complicated subject is that domestic violence is not yet considered against the law. The strict social privacy that is considered a contiguous characteristic of the Saudi community is making it very hard to tackle this intolerable offense.
A recent survey done by Alriyadh newspaper on the occasion of International Women’s Day, which is marked on March 8 every year, has indicated that the number one problem that concerns Saudi women is spousal oppression. The continuous disappointment in providing our mothers, sisters, wives, and daughters with the necessary laws to protect them from physical and psychological harm can change to become our next jump in the advancement of our society and emancipation of women.

A tweet: “There is one universal truth, applicable to all countries, cultures and communities: violence against women is never acceptable, never excusable, never tolerable.”

— Ban Ki-moon

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