Lack of awareness

Author: 
SARAH ABDULLAH | ARAB NEWS
Publication Date: 
Mon, 2010-03-08 01:35

Others did not respond to Arab News at all when contacted.
The first place Arab News contacted a week before International Women’s Day was the Khadijah bint Khwailid Businesswomen’s Center, based at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce.
Two people in the center were contacted separately. Both said nothing was happening before calling back later to say that something was actually being planned.
Three days later, Arab News learned that a lecture about Khadijah bint Khwailid was to be held.
However this event was postponed according to the center’s director, Dr. Basma Omair, as the keynote speaker was not in the area.
Nonetheless Omair promised to let Arab News know when the lecture would take place.
Arab News also contacted the Businesswomen’s Center at the Chambers of Commerce in the Eastern Province and Riyadh and found no events were being planned there either.
Various members of the Human Rights Commission (HRC) were contacted for two consecutive days but there was no response.
The National Society of Human Rights’ (NSHR) Jeddah office told Arab News that it was unsure if any activities were taking place and asked us to contact their Riyadh office. There was no answer.
The Human Rights First Society, which is currently unlicensed and unrecognized by the Saudi government as a human rights organization in the Kingdom, said they were commemorating the day.
Arab News spoke to organization founder and president Ibrahim Al-Mugaiteeb, who said that they would be drafting and sending a letter to the United Nation’s Department for Women’s Affairs and other humans rights organizations around the world, explaining the current lack of rights for women living in the Kingdom.
“Most problems concerning women are directly related to the laws concerning male guardianship and the social barriers that stem from men having the upper hand in all matters in this country,” Al-Mugaiteeb told Arab News.
He explained that several women in the Kingdom have told him about the very despairing situations they are in, which cannot be resolved. Some of them who have lost hope have resorted to drastic measures.
“Because women have very few rights, in some cases they have resorted to killing dominating male family members who are hurting them in some way or contemplated suicide,” he explained.
He said that he wants to see the day when women can have a real social identity and be able to go to public offices, police stations and other places and be as respected as a man.
However, he said women should also be more active in fighting for their rights themselves.
“As long as the authorities keep saying no to certain issues and women sit back and accept it, no positive change in favor of women’s rights will ever occur, ending in progress for none, the opposite of this year’s theme.”

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