Fucking Igor Stravinsky himself could not have composed a more dischordant symphony had he sonically incarnated the cognitive dissonance in this article, as Saudi women respond to a United Nations poll:
Saudi Women respond to UN Questions on Rights
Sunday, 20 January 2008
By Maha Sami Aboulola
JEDDAH - SAUDI businesswomen on Saturday spoke up in defense of Islam but blamed the society for the country's questionable record on gender-equality.
Saudi officials were questioned on Thursday by a UN expert panel on women's rights about numerous infringements on gender-equality that occur in Saudi Arabia, according to an account of the UN meeting published in Geneva on Friday.
Reacting to the questions raised by the 23-member UN committee of experts - most of them women - on Saudi norms that give men the right to twice the inheritance women are allowed, and make women obliged to have a "Mehram" (male guardian) accompany them for many of life's daily tasks, Dr. Amira Kashgari, an outspoken voice for Saudi women's rights, told Saudi Gazette: "Islam gave woman her rights 1,400 years ago but now we don't have these right just because of the society."
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) is an expert body composed of 23 experts on women's issues from around the world, mandated to watch over progress for women in countries that signed the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which as of 2000 includes Saudi Arabia.
According to minutes of the meeting, one of the CEDAW experts asked the Saudi delegation: "What is the legal basis in Saudi society that justifies this guardian system? ... Is it necessary to maintain this system in the 21st century?"
"Without the presence of this tutor (guardian), a woman cannot study, access health services, marry, travel abroad, have a business or even access an ambulance in an emergency," the member noted.
In response, Dr. Lubna Al-Ansari, a woman in the Saudi delegation, said the questions were largely based on "misconceptions."
"Women are flourishing in different areas ... Whether she can have a passport and travel, the answer is yes. We can travel on our own ... For instance, for me, I have permission from my husband, so I can move freely and go wherever I want," according to a press release by UN Watch, a Geneva-based human rights organization (NGO) founded in 1993 to monitor UN compliance with the principles of its Charter.
You say Shar-ee-a, I say Shar-I-a.
Shareea, Sharia, let's call the whole thing off.
Saudi Women respond to UN Questions on Rights
Sunday, 20 January 2008
By Maha Sami Aboulola
JEDDAH - SAUDI businesswomen on Saturday spoke up in defense of Islam but blamed the society for the country's questionable record on gender-equality.
Saudi officials were questioned on Thursday by a UN expert panel on women's rights about numerous infringements on gender-equality that occur in Saudi Arabia, according to an account of the UN meeting published in Geneva on Friday.
Reacting to the questions raised by the 23-member UN committee of experts - most of them women - on Saudi norms that give men the right to twice the inheritance women are allowed, and make women obliged to have a "Mehram" (male guardian) accompany them for many of life's daily tasks, Dr. Amira Kashgari, an outspoken voice for Saudi women's rights, told Saudi Gazette: "Islam gave woman her rights 1,400 years ago but now we don't have these right just because of the society."
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) is an expert body composed of 23 experts on women's issues from around the world, mandated to watch over progress for women in countries that signed the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which as of 2000 includes Saudi Arabia.
According to minutes of the meeting, one of the CEDAW experts asked the Saudi delegation: "What is the legal basis in Saudi society that justifies this guardian system? ... Is it necessary to maintain this system in the 21st century?"
"Without the presence of this tutor (guardian), a woman cannot study, access health services, marry, travel abroad, have a business or even access an ambulance in an emergency," the member noted.
In response, Dr. Lubna Al-Ansari, a woman in the Saudi delegation, said the questions were largely based on "misconceptions."
"Women are flourishing in different areas ... Whether she can have a passport and travel, the answer is yes. We can travel on our own ... For instance, for me, I have permission from my husband, so I can move freely and go wherever I want," according to a press release by UN Watch, a Geneva-based human rights organization (NGO) founded in 1993 to monitor UN compliance with the principles of its Charter.
You say Shar-ee-a, I say Shar-I-a.
Shareea, Sharia, let's call the whole thing off.
4 comments:
The sad thing is that a lot of Americans can't tell the difference between freedom and permission either, and so are capable of being taken in by an "argument" such as Al-Ansari's.
Thank you sir, may I have another?
You say Shar-ee-a, I say Shar-I-a.
Shareea, Sharia, let's call the whole thing off.
LOL..nice one, Pastorius.
I like the comment of the last woman; she's got the permission of her husband so she can go wherever she likes.
I wonder if it's a trip by trip permission or if it's more of a blanket permission. Maybe renewable after each decade, depending on whether she still looks good...or it's all off if she burns the toast.
Maybe she ought to ask for it in writing...But then again, would it hold up in a Sha-ree-ah court?
:-/
Those are very good questions.
And, I would imagine that if the husband granted permission, she went on a trip, and then while she was on the trip, the husband decided he objected, then, she could be in some serious trouble.
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