I still have concerns about the role of women in the Shoura Council and I was painfully reminded of some of them yesterday. I was searching for an article related to the council when I ran across a picture of Nancy Peolosi, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, when she visited the Kingdom last April. She was standing with the Shoura chairman and members inside the council next to the chairman’s podium. The picture was a sore reminder that Saudi women are not allowed inside this exclusively male zone, and that there are no appointed women members in the council, only consultants. So what we offered our American guest was a rare gift, one that we Saudi women do not have even the possibility of enjoying.
But let’s shift our sights to more positive stuff: This week’s news that the Shoura Council had rejected a proposal to build more centers for the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice is significant. The statements made by the honorable Shoura members were valuable in setting the tone and role of this debate. When discussing the proposal to include women as commission members, one council member, Ahmed Al-Turki, said that it was not the right time to bring the matter up for discussion adding: “There have been violations from the Commission. These violations need to be corrected before we agree to this proposal.”
Dr. Khalil Al-Khalil said, “We do not want the Shoura Council to give a message that we are content with the Commission’s shortcomings,” and he went on to urge the council to hire qualified people. Other members agreed with him and thought that hiring women to work in the commission would make their jobs in dealing with women easier, and would offer more job opportunities for women.
The topic is still open for discussion and, I should add, this is a healthy sign and means that the council is becoming a strong body in its own right. Though we complain loudly about the negative aspects of many groups and organizations, it is only right and fair to comment when the opposite is true. The Shoura Council has taken it upon itself to address major issues in Saudi society and coming out with recommendations. Now, whether we agree or disagree with those recommendations is beside the point here. The most important thing is the principle: To have a body able to discuss and reject or approve things with social and political resonance is a good step toward the growth of a progressive Saudi system of governance.
But to go back to the Virtue Commission, it seems to be a sensitive issue to lots of people in the Kingdom. Readers have written to me saying that the criticism of the commission is not warranted and that the commission as an organization is necessary in our society. As I respect all opinions, I have to say to those readers that criticism and discussion are healthy, and that not to bring things into the open is what creates problems and allows wounds to fester. And in all our discussions, we are expressing an opinion and a concern for this country.
***
Salman Rushdie ... Again!
It seems that people in Muslim countries are always looking for something that offends them so they can get worked up and excited, start a riot and burn effigies. And of course, the place where we can always find something to cause unnecessary provocation and outrage is the West. Queen Elizabeth’s bestowing a knighthood on author Salman Rushdie this week caused a new uproar in the Muslim world about how the West allegedly hates Islam — as if we have not heard all this before in previous controversies. The original uproar over Rushdie’s novel “The Satanic Verses” was in 1989, and that is what made him a household name around the world.
I think we Muslims are wasting our time protesting about what happens in other countries when the whole Islamic world has far bigger problems to face within its own borders. The constant fighting between Muslims is a subject that we should think very seriously about, and we should stop causing trouble outside our borders, no matter how strongly we feel about certain issues.
At the end of the day it seems as if we are giving free publicity to the people we say hate us. A fatwa against Rushdie made him one of the most respected writers in Britain and the campaign against a previously unknown Danish cartoonist made him a celebrity. When our house is in flames, it is no time to complain that a neighbor is slandering you. We need to take care of our own house first before worrying about somebody else’s.
— Abeer Mishkhas is an editor at Al-Sharq Alawsat newspaper in London.
