CDHR's Blog

Lessons for the Rest of the Arab Autocratic Dynasties in the Gulf

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Alyami) — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 20:59:00 +0000

CDHR’s Commentary: The ruling Al-Sabah Family of Kuwait is known as the least oppressive of the Gulf rulers. The family has also been throwing monies into people’s pockets, as well as into social programs, education, the health care system and even generous dowry stipends for decades. Politically and socially, the rulers of Kuwait are fairly liberal by the Gulf Arab standards. Obviously, these generous handouts and lenient ruling methods are not good enough for the Kuwaitis, especially the social media generation, as recent protests have shown.

People want the freedom to think for themselves and to rule their country in accordance with 21^st century’s values: individual liberty, accountability, transparency and rule of law instead of family, religion and men’s rule. This is what the Bahraini people are fighting and dying for and soon the same will erupt in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Emirates. Unlike any other Arab country, violent unrest in Saudi Arabia will cause unimaginable bloodshed even by the Iraqi, Yemeni, Libyan and Syrian standards. This is due to the violent nature of the Saudi system, partially instigated by the rulers' claims of ownership over the country as well as unresolved tribal, religious and regional issues. This scenario can be averted, but time is running out.

Instead of focusing on buying sophisticated military hardware for billions of dollars, the Saudi ruling family should wake up and embark on extensive reforms such as elections of the Shura Consultative Council and local municipal councils by all Saudis, men and women, above the age of 18. They should also transform the judicial system by staffing courts with capable and well-versed people instead of religious judges.

Ignoring the inevitable or continuing to buy their way out of trouble is not going to be enough for the Gulf rulers and what is happening in in Bahrain and Kuwait is a glaring lesson that should not be overlooked as people are forced into violence in order to obtain their legitimate rights.

If the Saudi rulers continue to manipulate power and public wealth, they will find themselves in the same position that the rest of the Arab rulers have and still are facing. This position is exemplified by the recently installed Egyptian President, Mohammed Morsi, whose palace in Cairo is surrounded by demonstrators chanting “Erhal”, or “leave” in Arabic.. The Gulf ruling families' allies in the West should be advising their clients to change the course before they lose it all.

Saudi Obsession with Women and Fear of Their Power

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Alyami) — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 17:49:00 +0000

The Saudi obsession with women's sexuality and fear of their power to expedite the collapse of the crumbling status quo is not accidental. Since the inception of the Saudi/Wahhabi alliance in the mid-18th century, one of its tactics has been to divide and conquer. The country has been divided along gender, regional, religious and ethnic lines since its formation in 1932.

However, things are changing thanks to social media, which is being used extensively by Saudis (in and out of the country) to discuss sources of oppression, such as the religious establishment, that have preyed on society in order to ensure its control in the name of god and in accordance with Saudi interpretation of Islam.

Women are rising up and demanding their legitimate and basic rights while the system continues to hold onto dated and unsustainable methods of ruling that became outdated two centuries ago.

http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21567411-kingdom-finds-novel-use-mobile-phones-sacred-texts

Saudi-Financed International Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Alyami) — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 16:59:00 +0000

CDHR’s Comment: At the opening of the Saudi-financed King Abdullah International Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue in Vienna, Austria, Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais, the Saudi head of the Presidency of the Two Holy Mosques, is reported to have said that the Center “…would promote human values, tolerance and peaceful coexistence among people of different religious faiths and cultures.” His misleading speech was amplified by the Saudi Foreign Minister, Saud Al-Faisal, who said that, “the sectarian differences are to be elements for understanding and not elements for collision.”

The question that must be asked of Dr. Al-Sudais and Saud Al-Faisal is how they can go around the world promoting religious tolerance while at home they discriminate against their Muslim minorities and consider them heretics.

Saudi Arabia is the only country where non-Muslims cannot practice their religious rituals openly and if caught doing so privately, they can be punished and deported. “Peaceful coexistence” means live and let live regardless of cultures, compulsory dress codes, gender, ethnicity and above all beliefs.

Why have Dr. Al-Sudais and Saud Al-Faisal not condemned the endemic discrimination against Saudi religious minorities, oppression of women in the name of god, and complete intolerance of non-Muslims? Saudi officials and their apologists cannot fool the world anymore, thanks to modern technology and many courageous Saudi men and women who openly denounce their country’s religious extremism and discrimination against people because of their religious orientations and gender.

Movie from Hasan Mahmud: "Divine Stone"

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Alyami) — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 15:20:00 +0000

Posted as received: Muslims are looking at themselves, their religion, and its impact on their societies.

http://www.hasanmahmud.com/2012/index.php/movie

Intensifying and Expanding Moral Religious Doctrine into the Heart of Central Asia

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Alyami) — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 17:02:00 +0000

CDHR’s Commentary: In collaboration with the incredibly weak and corrupt Afghani government, the Saudi monarchy has recently announced that it will invest $100 million in building one of the largest Islamic Centers in the world atop a mountain overlooking the Afghan’s impoverished capital, Kabul. The Center will be managed by the Saudi religious establishment and the Afghani Ministry for Hajj and Religious Affairs. The proposed King Abdullah’s Center will accommodate 15,000 worshipers at a time and provide an education for 5,000 religious students. The Center will be named after King Abdullah, which is not surprising since there are already three massive Islamic centers and mosques named after Saudi monarchs: King Fahd’s Centers in Culver City, California and London, England, and King Faisal’s Mosque in Islamabad, Pakistan, which is considered Pakistan’s national mosque.

Afghanistan is the poorest country in Central Asia, coming in nearly at the bottom of the human development index, with abysmal literacy and education rates, an almost complete lack of women's rights, low life expectancy, and wrenching high mortality rates for children, with nearly a fifth of all Afghan children dying before the age of five. The 100 million dollars the Saudis will invest in the Kabul Islamic Center could be better used for programs to improve literacy, infrastructure, or healthcare for the impoverished Afghan people; instead the Saudi King has decided to spend a huge sum of money to propagate Wahhabism in a country where most of the citizens are already religious zealots.

Outside interference by foreign powers has long plagued Afghanistan, but nothing can top the Saudi “Wahhabization” of the country; the establishment of King Abdullah’s Center in Kabul is yet another example of this. The Saudi government hopes to socialize and indoctrinate a new generation of religious students for political aims, just as they have in the past by means of the infamous Saudi funded madrassas in Pakistan’s tribal areas, which continue to be the primary source of recruitment for the Sunni Taliban extremist groups operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates were the only countries in the world to give diplomatic recognition to the extreme Taliban regime during its draconian rule over Afghanistan.

The construction of such a monumental religious institution in Afghanistan's capital is a maneuver by the Saudi rulers to ensure that their doctrinal hegemony remains not only over Afghanistan, following the withdrawal of the majority of foreign forces in 2014, but over all of the Sunni Muslims in Central and South East Asia, especially in the oil and other resource-rich former Soviet colonies.

State-Imposed Social Taboos Result in Tragedies

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Alyami) — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 16:52:00 +0000

CDHR’s Commentary: Due to the Saudi government’s harsh and unnatural policy against all forms of public musical and theatrical entertainment, Saudis resort to dangerous and illegal activities such as the outlawed nomadic tradition of live ammunitions to celebrate their “victories” or happy occasions. As shown in this article, such celebratory gunfire led to the deaths of more than twenty people due to the bullets damaging electric wires during recent wedding festivities. Live public music and dancing are prohibited because they are considered un-Islamic, and therefore must be banned.

Joyous activities are considered diversionary behaviors that interfere with people’s focus on prayers, God, and the goodwill of the rulers in Saudi Arabia. In other words, happy indulgences are considered evil or “the West’s decadent inventions,” designed to corrupt Saudi moral values and destroy Muslim cultures. The Saudi government and the Wahhabi religious establishment fear a population that is not always somber and concentrating on their devotion to Islam, as interpreted by the religious extremists and sanctioned by the Saudi rulers. They consider entertainment debauched, they strictly ban movie theaters and severely censor television shows, and they prohibit women from participating in sports, publically and privately.

Many Saudis spend their holiday breaks and annual vacations in Gulf countries in order to experience entertainment denied to them in their own country. The majority of movie theater goers in neighboring Bahrain during weekends and holiday periods are Saudis citizens. It is estimated that one million Saudis crossed the border to celebrate their most important religious holiday, Eid Adha, in Dubai to get away from their country’s stifling taboos and indulge in social activities not allowed in Saudi Arabia. Others resort to secret or banned activities such as playing in underground bands, knowing that they could be arrested and punished by the system’s omnipresent spying agents, specifically the state’s religious police, who enforce their interpretation of religious laws on all citizens and expatriates regardless of religious beliefs and orientations.

The tragic deaths and injuries during the recent Abqaiq wedding celebration in, eastern Saudi Arabia, as well as many other unreported incidents, could have been avoided had normal entertainment such as a musical band been allowed to entertain the families and invited guests, instead of forcing the celebrators to fire their guns in the air to show their joyous passion during weddings and other occasions and in the process, cause the deaths of innocent people.

Recruiting Female Religious Police: Progress or Regression?

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Alyami) — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 15:24:00 +0000

CDHR’s Commentary: The head of the notorious Saudi religious police (Mutaween, or domesticators), Mr. Abdul Latif Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh, a descendant of the founder of Wahhabism, Abdul Wahhab, feels a need to recruit female religious police to join his agency. It is assumed that he wants to recruit women because they will be more empathetic than the stick-touting bearded men who comb all public places to make sure that women are covered, shops are closed five times a day, and people are herded to mosques to pray whether they like it or not. Another assumption is that by hiring women, religious police will be in accordance with King Abdullah’s measured reform initiative. While there might be some merits to these assumptions, the system’s agenda is always different from its stated pronouncements.

One has to understand that the religious police have only one assignment, to spy on and terrorize people. The ruthlessness of the religious police intensified after King Faisal ascended to the Saudi throne in 1964 after he collaborated with the Ulama, the religious clerics, to overthrow his brother, King Saud, in a palace coup. In addition to enforcing the dress code, forcing people to pray five times a day, and making sure that women are invisible (covered in black), the religious police concentrate on surveillance of pro-reform and social justice activists whom they can easily accuse of religious failings or other social stigmas.

Recruitment of female religious police will not be based on kindness, open-mindedness, empathy, or better education than their male counterparts. Having female religious police spying on and controlling women’s activities and movements will make it more acceptable to the Saudi male population and make the system look more sensitive to local norms and as an equal opportunity employer. It is unlikely that female women religious police will be any gentler or kinder than men because they will be appointed from ultraconservative families and religious extremist backgrounds. Female religious police are more likely have internalized and accepted their status as inferior and subservient to men.

The idea of recruiting female religious police is to expand the system’s surveillance and hunt women who are known for their advocacy of change in society. Additionally, having women harassing women will create another layer of division among the already severely divided and segregated society along religious, tribal, gender and regional lines.

What the ruling elites fail to understand or acknowledge is that the Saudi people, like their counterparts in the region and the world, are becoming more aware of their regime’s duplicitous maneuvers and of their usurped rights. What the people want and deserve is emancipation from the yoke of religious, social, and political totalitarianism as opposed to handouts and the use of religion as a tool to control, silence and exploit the population.

Respecting Religions or Silencing Free Expression

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Alyami) — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 17:24:00 +0000

Respecting Religions or Silencing Free Expression

CDHR's Commentary: Speaking from his palatial royal palace in Mecca, the Saudi King Abdullah called on the United Nations to draft legislation that would make it illegal for any individual, group or country to insult “divine religions and prophets”. King Abdullah also stated that it “is obligatory upon each Muslim to defend our religion and all the prophets”. The timing of King Abdullah's call on the United Nations to limit individual freedom of expression under the pretext of blasphemy legislation coincided with the celebration of Eid Al-Adha, one of Islam's holiest occasions.

King Abdullah was addressing some three million Muslims who were in Mecca to perform the Hajj (pilgrimage) rituals, which every able Muslim must perform once in his/her lifetime. On the face of it, creating legislation to protect religious sensitivities seems harmless until one considers the full ramifications of the Saudi King's call to ban criticism of religions, specifically Islam. The intent of King’s global blasphemy initiatives is to criminalize any criticism of religion, even in democratic societies where freedom of expression is guaranteed and protected as an inalienable and natural right of every citizen. Blasphemy legislation will only serve to constrict universal human rights and enable tyrants silence their critics at home and abroad.

In Saudi Arabia, criticism of Islam, the Saudi ruling family and religious clerics are prohibited, and non-compliance with prohibition can result in severe punishment as exemplified by the case of Mr. Hamza Kashgari, a 23 year old columnist and an outspoken supporter of the Arab Spring and for women’s rights in Saudi Arabia long before his arrest by the Saudi authorities for tweeting an imaginary conversation between himself and the Prophet Muhammad. Currently Hamza Kashgari languishes in a Saudi prison and faces the prospect of the death penalty, the punishment for blasphemy in Saudi Arabia.

The plight of Hamza Kashgari, and that of many like him, shows the danger of the blasphemy legislation that King Abdullah and the 57 members of the Saudi-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation are advocating. In any democratic country, Kashgari's remarks or any similar remarks by others on Twitter or in public would have gone largely unnoticed. In the United States of America and other true democracies, inflammatory and vitriolic speeches are protected under the rule of law, as enshrined in the U.S. First Amendment.

If the United Nations adopts a blasphemy legislation, freedom of expression would be prohibited and dictatorial regimes like the Saudi monarchy will continue to have free hand in accusing individuals of blasphemous acts under the pretext of defending religion; when in fact their objective is to silence critics by incarcerating and in some cases executing them. This extremely dangerous proposal for blasphemy legislation must be rejected by Muslims who are struggling for emancipation from the yoke of tyranny and by the wider international community, especially Western democracies who are the real target of the blasphemous law the Saudis and other Muslim regimes are promoting.

Saudi Women Use Art to Examine Their Role in Society

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Alyami) — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 20:04:00 +0000

Saudi Women Use Art to Examine Their Role in Society

CDHR’s Commentary: Despite the many hurdles and restrictions imposed on Saudi women by their government and male-dominated society, they are making their voices heard and demanding their rights as equal citizens known to their government, media, male compatriots and the international community. Due to the Saudi gender apartheid system, women have long been relegated to a second class citizens’ status and consequently denied their most basic rights such as freedom of movement, mobility and even access to lifesaving medication without their male relatives’ approval.

However, Saudi women are becoming increasingly more creative, bold and defiant, as exemplified by the art exhibit of three Saudi women that opened recently in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. The exhibit focuses on “questions of identity and freedom” and addresses women’s issues and by extension the crippling attitude, policies and practices of the Saudi system toward women. Fittingly, the exhibit is called “Soft Power,” which testifies to the courage of these Saudi women who defy severe constraints and challenge their number one foe, the religious establishment, in a peaceful, but extraordinarily effective manner.

Not only are these three imaginative and creative women artists using their talents to express their feelings and point of view, they are also chipping away at the austere religious establishment’s severe opposition to images that depict anything they consider un-Islamic. Saudi artists, women and men, are beginning to use art frequently as a form of protest against the multitude of social, political, economic and other societal illnesses. Women are making measured progress in Saudi society, from art to law, albeit at a snail’s speed, but they are determined to break all taboos placed on them for no reason other than their gender.

Saudi Women: The March is Irreversible

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Alyami) — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 20:00:00 +0000

In September 2011, King Abdullah decreed that women would be appointed to the Shoura Council for the 2013 term, and based on this royal decree, the Shoura Council has begun to prepare itself and the chamber for the arrival of the would be appointed female members if the King’s decree is upheld.

Membership in the Shoura Council is an important step for Saudi women, who have long been marginalized by the male-dominated Saudi system. Women lack a voice in government and in society, as they are often seen as less than full citizens. This is due to severe institutionalized discriminatory restrictions on women, known as the male guardian system. However, women are increasingly and unabashedly standing up for their rights and demanding equality as full citizens, including the right to vote, full employment, and mobility, such as the right to drive.

Despite the measured psychological and social significance of appointing women to the Saudi national Consultative Council, Majlis Al-Shura, a closer look at the powerless council raises the question of whether the inclusion of women in the council will make a difference or will legitimize the regime’s deception by appearing in favor of women’s rights, while in reality enforcing social injustice. The council’s current 150 male members are appointed and paid by the King based on their loyalty to the ruling family, answering only to the King and not to the Saudi people. The would be appointed women members will similarly be appointed and paid by the King based on their loyalty to him and his family; therefore, they will not be representing the interests of the overwhelming majority of Saudi women.

The Shoura Council has no legislative power. The council cannot initiate, pass or enforce laws and while the council advises the King, he is not required to accept any of its suggestions (and he rarely does, if ever). For example, all decisions, including budgets, are initiated and determined before they are sent to the council for review and suggestions. Appointing women to the council is not likely to make one bit of difference in terms of changing the powerless council’s authority or the Saudi system’s continued discriminatory policies and practices against women. However, the fact that women will be appointed to the council is a positive step for women in achieving their usurped legitimate rights.

After being denied their basic rights for decades, small steps, albeit cosmetic, are important for women in Saudi Arabia. No one has any illusion that appointing women to the Shoura Council will result in quick and easy progress for them, but it is a step in the right direction because the more they gain recognition as full citizens, the stronger their demands will be and the less their enemies in society and institutions, especially the “religious” establishment, will be able to stop them from participating in and contributing to the political, social, economic, and educational well-being of Saudi society.

(cdhr.info)

Educated, Unemployed and No Longer Invisible, Despite Black Covering

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Alyami) — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 18:19:00 +0000

CDHR’s Commentary: Ninety percent (90%) of unemployed Saudis are women. They are educated, able and eager to earn an honest living, but are denied the right to work. This is happening in a country that employees an estimated 7 million foreign nationals in its public and private sectors. However, after being marginalized by their government and society since the inception of the Saudi state in 1932, women are silent no more. They are not only speaking up against their repression; they are advocating for a reorientation of Saudi society and the government’s political and economically driven discriminatory policies, dressed in religious and traditional excuses no one buys anymore, if they ever did.

Saudi women are demanding not only to work, but also to drive themselves to their places of employment in order to emancipate themselves from financial and mobile dependence on their male relatives the government’s handouts. Despite the resistance of the state’s autocratic and theocratic rulers and traditionalist males to women’s call for equality, women are slowly making their voices heard and some of their demands are being realized, albeit in a very limited way.

One of the major achievements Saudi women have accomplished in recent years is an increase in employment at stores that sell women’s lingerie. A number of years ago, a few courageous women, led by a Jeddah-based economics professor, Reem Asaad, organized a campaign to implement a shelved royal decree that called on businesses that sell women’s lingerie to hire Saudi saleswomen to replace the mostly foreign, male workers. The campaign gained domestic and global attention and propelled the Saudi King to support the women’s movement, or “Bra Revolution,” as described by some media outlets.

Despite Saudi King Abdullah’s support for the lingerie and make-up shops’ requirement to employ only Saudi saleswomen, it is evident that the government is doing very little to enforce this royal decree. Foreign workers continue to dominate industries that Saudi women are supposed to be operating in. In addition, the regime seems hesitant to increase employment opportunities for women in other fields. Instead, the regime is focusing on the “Saudization” of jobs (requiring employers to hire Saudis to replace foreign workers) in fields that are off limits to women.

A conference held on October 3^rd in Riyadh, entitled “Maximizing the Employment of Saudi Women,” discussed issues that lead to the exclusion of women from the public and private Saudi workforce such as the strict gender-regulation rules as well as how employers can create work environments for women that remain in line with the religious guidelines and cultural traditions that severely restrict women’s freedom.

Continuing to prevent Saudi women from using their full potentials to build a better and more prosperous country is hurting Saudi Arabia financially, politically and socially. A recent report by the British-based Oxford Strategic Consulting, which was presented at the Riyadh conference, found that increasing the number of Saudi women in the workforce would significantly increase Saudi Arabia’s GNP as well as boost productivity and innovation in the Kingdom. The report even gives suggestions on how to increase women’s participation in the workforce despite the numerous destructive limitations imposed on women by their institutions.

Despite the Saudi regime’s unstated reasoning for restricting women’s full employment, women are a force to be reckoned with and continuing to repress them can only lead to instability and a violent outcome. Like their counterparts in other Arab countries, Saudi women are leading the way in transforming their country’s pre-modern institutions and male-dominated perception and treatment of women. The Saudi oligarchs are pursuing a failed policy toward women. It is hard to understand the Saudi ruling family’s state of mind.

How can the ruling princes not understand that millions of educated Saudi women see the world differently than their nomadic mothers and grandmothers who could not read or write? How can the ruling princes not understand that modern, educated Saudi women spend much of their time on social media, debating their dissatisfaction with the status quo? Saudi women and men did not spend the recently celebrated national day dancing and singing in the streets (as it is not allowed), but instead decried their government’s failure to realize that the Saudi people, especially the younger generations, are part of a fast-changing world in their region and globally.

When Trust Leads to Heinous Crimes

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Alyami) — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 15:21:00 +0000

CDHR’s Analysis: The institutionalized destructive gender segregation (Gender Apartheid system) in Saudi Arabia has resulted in a multitude of social, political, educational and economic impediments to national unity, productivity, constructive competitiveness, religious tolerance and human development. However, Saudi women are the targets of the brutal, politically and economically instigated gender segregation system.

In a tragic crime similar to the case of the wrenching gang-raped Bint Al-Qatif, (daughter of Qatif), Saudi women can be punished for being raped while sitting in public negotiating the return of photos they gave to men they trust but who, in turn, threaten to use the photos given to them out of love to blackmail the givers.

Saudi women are an easy target for men’s heinous aggression because of the Saudi male dominated institutions, especially the arbitrary Saudi religious courts which are staffed by men who consider women less than full human beings and responsible for luring men to assault them.

However, women are not only rejecting the imposition of men’s control over their lives and livelihood; they have also become the most outspoken citizens against social injustices, discriminatory policies, intolerance, inequality and government’s inconsistent domestic and foreign policies regarding human rights.

What the international community, especially in the West, does not seem to understand and appreciate is the fact that Saudi women’s rights cannot be achieved without defeating the forces of darkness in Saudi society, namely the religious extremists.

TV Interview About Current Internal Saudi Events

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Alyami) — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 14:11:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onOERF9Ov4w

Saudi Authorities Denied Nigerian Muslim Women the Right to Worship Unless…

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Alyami) — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 17:08:00 +0000

Saudi Authorities Denied Nigerian Muslim Women the Right to Worship Unless…

CDHR’s Commentary: As portrayed in this article, the Saudi male-dominated cultural and political mores and practices, especially as they relate to women, are overstepping all borders of man-made and divine laws, including denying women their God given right to fulfill their religious obligations. One of Islam’s five pillars is the pilgrimage to Mecca by all “able bodies” at least once in one’s lifetime, known as the Hajj. A group of Nigerian women embarked on an expensive and long pilgrimage journey to Saudi Arabia to perform one of their religiously commanded pillars, but were held hostage at the port of their arrival in Saudi Arabia and deported back to Nigeria because they were not chaperoned by male relatives as the Saudi system demands of all women, regardless of their status within the Kingdom.

Saudi Arabia is the only country on earth where women’s movement, education, work, marriage and health are controlled by men under a denigrating system of institutionalized male guardianship. This system is designed to render women as perpetual minors, regardless of how educated, achieving, intelligent, old or rich they may be. Even though this system is attributed to tradition and religion, it is purely crafted and put in place by the Saudi authorities for political and economic reasons. Now the Saudi autocratic and theocratic rulers are enforcing their contempt for women on other societies worldwide.

By insisting on its bigoted policies against women, the Saudi regime is contributing to the divisiveness and instability of the country. Millions of educated and aspiring Saudi women are challenging the Saudi regime and its zealous religious establishment’s primordial policies and practices against gender equality. Women are demanding full citizenship including full employment, equality in the state’s segregated educational system, voting, driving and removal of the denigrating male guardian system, which the Saudi authorities used to deny the Nigerian Muslim women the right to perform Hajj, pilgrimage.

The Need for Equality in Saudi Divorce Laws

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Alyami) — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 19:11:00 +0000

The Saudi divorce laws remain absurdly unequal between men and women, even at a time when women are highly educated and capable of earning their own living and deciding what is best for them, including divorcing abusive spouses.

All a man has to do to divorce his wife is simply say “I divorce you” three times or in some cases even send a text message, to tell her that the marriage is over. But for a woman, divorce is a grueling, lengthy and expensive ordeal. A woman has two options, both of which are uphill battles. She can go to a Shariah court staffed by religious judges who consider women mentally incompetent, physically weak and emotionally unstable. She has to convince the court that her husband is abusive in order to obtain a divorce. The problem women face in this situation is that the judges consider men superior to women, even if they are abusive, of unsound mind, or are molesters.

Her other equally formidable choice is to “buy her freedom” from the unfit husband by repaying the original dowry money the father received from her husband for allowing the marriage. This is almost impossible for most Saudi women to do since the majority of them are not allowed to work and earn income.

All marriages in Saudi Arabia are arranged by and between men and there is no age limit according to the Islamic law. Eight-year-old girls could be forced into marrying men in their 70s and 80s.

The Saudi judicial system, which is based on unmodified Shariah law, is arbitrary and final decisions depend on the mood and judgment of the presiding judges. Despite the fact that there are debates about divorce, age limits and payments, abusive marriages are ubiquitous in Saudi Arabia. This is because of the arbitrary religious court system and the judges who consider women unworthy of respect and full citizenship.

(cdhr.info)

The Saudi Grand Mufti: Insulting The Prophet is Not All Bad

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Alyami) — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 15:50:00 +0000

The Saudi Grand Mufti: Insulting The Prophet is Not All Bad

CDHR’s Commentary: In what seemed to be a Saudi government dictated statement, the Saudi Grand Mufti (top religious authority), Abdul Aziz Al-Alshaikh, asked Muslims not to react violently against those who defame Islam and depict Prophet Mohammed negatively. At the same time, the cleric cautioned “…that all Muslims are willing to sacrifice their lives and properties for the cause of their dear Prophet (pbuh).” Inexplicably, the Mufti told Muslims that belittling Prophet Mohammed ‘… only helps in spreading the glory of the Prophet (pbuh) with greater vigor.’

While advising the infuriated Muslim protesters to refrain from violence, the Saudi Mufti asked ‘the international community to take steps to criminalize any act of abusing great prophets and messengers such as Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad (peace be upon them).’ It’s ironic that the head of the Saudi religious establishment, the Mufti, included the names of Moses and Jesus in the list of Prophets that must be glorified only. As per his divine instructions, Jews and Christians are not only forbidden from practicing their religious rituals publicly in Saudi Arabia, but if caught doing so privately, they can be punished and deported. In addition, this is the same Mufti who called for the destruction of Christian churches in the Arabian Peninsula.

The Saudi Mufti’s advice to the mobs of trigger happy Muslim extremists has to be taken with a grain of salt. His overriding objective, which he shares with 56 Muslim countries that form the Saudi-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), is to abolish freedom of the press and all forms of expression worldwide. He considers and forbids all forms of assemblage (except praying in mosques) antithesis to content and teachings of the Muslim faith. The good news is that, the religious establishment is losing its credential in Saudi Arabia and around the world. This is due to the fact that clerics are using religion to justify repressive and backward state policies.

Saudi Restless Population Demands Justice

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Alyami) — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 15:06:00 +0000

CDHR’s Commentary: Coinciding with Saudi state’s 82^nd National Day, relatives of illegally incarcerated Saudi citizens held two peaceful demonstrations; one in the desert outside of the Tarfiya Prison in Qassim Province (Central region) and the other in the capital Riyadh, outside of the Saudi government’s Human Rights Commission. The orderly and peaceful protestors which consisted of wives, children, fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters of the prisoners, were not chanting down with Saudi oligarchs or burning the Saudi flag; they were simply trying to find out as to why their relatives have been in Saudi dungeons without specific charges or opportunities to defend themselves in a court of law for years. One anguished, but determined protestor summed up the Saudi government’s arbitrary arrests and treatment of its prisoners in a blunt manner, "There are some prisoners who have been tortured, some who have completed their sentences, others who have not been charged and even some who have been found innocent but are still imprisoned." "We will stay here until we are heard."

Instead of listening to the grievances of the aggrieved protestors, the Saudi state’s security forces did what they are trained and instructed to do. They corralled and kept the protestors in the sizzling desert heat for one day without access to food or water as described by one protestor; "We are hungry and thirsty and looking for shade under vehicles." After the protestors’ entrapment for one day, they were told that they have been heard, their demands will be looked into and it was time for them to disperse. After they left the desert prison, the protestors were chased by the riot police who separated men from women and children, loaded dozens of men in government’s vehicles and took them to unknown locations.

From these events and deadlier confrontations between authorities and peaceful justice and freedom seeking protestors in other parts of the country, it is obvious that the Saudi autocratic regime is still living in a political coma. The Saudi regime continues to depend on brute force, bribery, arbitrary detentions and state manufactured and controlled religious courts to justify its policies of exclusions, discrimination, intimidation and prohibition of basic citizens’ rights to express themselves peacefully.

In the pretext of national security and “War on Terrorism”, any individual or group of people who call for democratic reforms, women’s rights, religious freedom, an end to discrimination based on gender, race and religious orientation or constitutional monarchy can be imprisoned without charges or trials for years. The Saudi regime’s continual failures to understand that a new generation of men and women are aspiring to a brighter, better and promising future. They no longer care about mosques and religious police. Like their counterparts in the Arab World and the rest of the world, they want freedom, emancipation from fear and a role in determining the future of their important country.

(cdhr.info)

Helping Saudi Women Work: More is Needed

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Alyami) — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 16:55:00 +0000

A company that helps women to find employment in Saudi Arabia is a significant step forward for women’s rights in the Kingdom. However connecting women with potential employers is not the only change needed for women to find work; they need to have easy access to transportation in order to travel to work, and many women who are currently unemployed cannot afford a driver and are not allowed to take public transportation. Once at work, a woman may have trouble communicating with colleagues and superiors if she is unable to be in the same room as men working for the company. Significant changes are needed in Saudi Arabia for women to not only be able to find employment, but for them to be able to work effectively and without undue hardships.

Article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/06/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-signals-openness-to-women-seeking-work.html?pagewanted=all

(cdhr.info)

A New Generation of Technocrats is Needed

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Alyami) — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 16:55:00 +0000

Given the fact that the majority (60-65%) of the Saudi population is about to graduate high school and college and enter into the workforce, the country needs a leadership that connects with these youth and meets their demands. As the current Saudi ruling princes grow older and frailer, they remain detached from the needs of the growing number of young people and their skyrocketing expectations. A new generation of technocrats needs to step up and steer the kingdom in the right direction.

Article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/next-up-in-the-middle-east-mess-saudi-arabias-succession-fight/2012/09/14/b316e7ec-fd44-11e1-a31e-804fccb658f9_story_1.html

(cdhr.info)

Saudi Court Orders Jail, Lashes to Three Shi'ites

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Alyami) — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 16:06:00 +0000

The Saudi judicial system continues to rely upon corporal punishment at a time when the system should be reforming itself to accommodate the demands of the increasingly restive population.

http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/saudi-arabia/saudi-court-orders-jail-lashes-to-three-shiites-1.1078862

The Saudi Judicial System Lacks Recourse for Women

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Alyami) — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 20:09:00 +0000

Known for its discriminatory practices against women, the Saudi judicial system gives men total control over every aspect of women’s lives, especially aspiring young women, as described in this article. Sadly, this is an example of how the Saudi judicial system not only denies Saudi women their basic human rights, but reinforces their oppression at the hands of their male relatives. What benefit does the Saudi court system find in forcing a young woman to remain single other than to satisfy their own male chauvinism and austere religious practice?

(cdhr.info)

Call-to-Prayer Loudspeaker System

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Alyami) — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 14:17:00 +0000

Recently, the Afghan mayor of the Helmand Province thanked King Abdullah for sending a new call-to-prayer loud sound system. The last thing that the residents of the Helmand Province in Afghanistan need is more encouragement to attend mosques. They are already among the most religiously devout in South Asia; is a loud call-to-prayer sound system what they need? Or would it benefit the poverty stricken Afghans more to improve their access to good education, food, healthcare facilities, running water and electricity?

http://www.alwatan.com.sa/Local/News_Detail.aspx?ArticleID=112320&CategoryID=5

(cdhr.info)

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Alyami) — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 14:56:00 +0000

Saudi women are proving to be the only hope for changing their country from its current dark political and social arrangement. Without them, Saudi Arabia will continue to be under the autocratic and theocratic ruling men whose policies are designed to dampen people's hopes and crush their aspirations.

Saudi women are saying enough is enough and the West will benefit significantly from Saudi women's successes. Saudi women's gains will lead to the loss of religious extremism and religious totalitarianism, as well as their lethal by-product – terrorism – of which democratic societies are the victims. Power to Haifa and to the millions of Saudi women who are determined to rid themselves of the yoke of injustice, degradation and marginalization.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-telluride-film-festival-wadjda-20120903,0,3998196.story

(cdhr.info)

"Cease the Killing"

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Alyami) — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 14:40:00 +0000

The killings in Syria are sustained by everyone's interest except that of the massacred Syrians and of Syria as a nation. The blame is on the ones who pull the triggers and those who provide the ammunition and the guns, as it was in Iraq, where external dictators fought their battles on Iraqi soil against the Iraqi people and those who came to liberate Iraq.

http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=2&id=30929

(cdhr.info)

ما لا يقال عن أزمة الحكم في السعودية

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Alyami) — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 23:29:00 +0000

27/يوليو/2012

تحليل مركز الديمقراطية وحقوق الإنسان في السعودية – واشنطن

إن تقدم الملك عبد الله في العمر بالإضافة إلى ما يعانيه من أمراض مزمنة تحدان من قدرته على القيام بواجباته كمسؤول تنفيذي. بالإضافة إلى ذلك، فإن وفاة الأميرين نايف وسلطان المسؤولان عن وزارتي الداخلية والدفاع في فترة زمنية وجيزة قد زادت من أعباء الملك وأحدث فراغا في القيادة في الوقت الذي تمر فيه البلاد والمنطقة بمرحلة حرجة تتطلب إدارة أكثر حيوية ونشاطا وقدرة على اتخاذ قرارات مصيرية تحافظ على استقرار البلاد وأمنها ووحدتها.

وعلى الرغم من السرية التي تدار بها الأمور في السعودية إلا أن من الواضح أن أحفاد الملك عبد العزيز هم من سيتولون أمر إدارة البلاد في السنوات القادمة بعد تقدم آبائهم في العمر ومعاناتهم من الأمراض، فهم يتقلدون حاليا مناصب رفيعة في كل من وزارة الداخلية وفي قيادة الحرس الوطني ووزارة الدفاع وإدارة المخابرات التي أوكلت مهما إدارتها إلى الأمير بندر بن سلطان مؤخرا.

إن نقل السلطة إلى الأحفاد دون اعتبار للشعب وحقه في اختيار ممثليه ومساءلتهم يمثل استمرارا لسياسة اقصاء المواطنين والمواطنات من المشاركة في الحكم وتكرارا لنفس الأخطاء التي تسببت في تفشي الظلم والفساد والمحسوبية وزادت من السخط الشعبي وهي ذات الأسباب التي دفعت الشعوب العربية إلى الانتفاض ضد حكامهم الذين احتكروا السلطة والثروة.

إن على الأحفاد تفادي الأخطاء التي وقع فيها آباءهم ورسم مسار جديد تكون فيه الكلمة للشعب إن كانوا يرغبون فعلا في تحقيق العدل والمساواة والعدالة الاجتماعية لكافة شرائح الشعب بغض النظر عن المذهب أو القبيلة أو الجنس أو اللون.

لقد دخلت الشعوب العربية مرحلة جديدة وعلى من سيتسلمون زمام الأمور في المملكة إدارك ذلك وأخذه بعين الاعتبار في المرحلة القادمة وإلا فإن مصيرهم لن يختلف عن مصير كل الأنظمة التي طغت وتجبرت وتنكرت للمطالب المشروعة لشعوبها.