Woman rights in Saudi Arabia

It wasn’t too long ago when women won the right to vote in America which was during 1919-1920. Discrimination against women has diminished in many countries through out the years, but what about the places where women are still treated as inferiors? Discrimination and abuse of women in Saudi Arabia still exists today

   I feel that there are a lot of facts that people should learn about the Saudi Arabian society and how it affects the women there.  According to the article “Women’s Rights in Saudi Arabia” fromwww.truthout.org Saudi women face a lot of discrimination in many aspects of their lives. This includes education, employment, and the justice system. Looking at the statistics, many women in Saudi Arabia go to school and get their degrees, 70% of the female population are registered in universities although only 5% make up the workforce which is the lowermost percentage in the world.

   I’m not saying that America is a perfect country when it comes to the exploitation of women, we have our flaws. Our media always put up women as sex symbols, sometimes we don’t even realize how the younger generation of girls try so hard to look like supermodels. It’s sending subliminal messages to little girls and tells them how they are “supposed” to look.

   America’s domestic violence against women is topping the charts as well. There is still sexism in the United States but I believe looking at Saudi Arabia we are definitely not as bad.

   In Saudi Arabia, culture and religion makes a woman’s life segregated. There is actually seclusion under their own roofs, for instance, some rooms have separate doorways for men and women.

   Something that I’d really like to touch on is the legal system that females have inequity in as well. In the article I’ve mentioned before, there is a list of laws for why in most cases women are forbidden to testify in court. I find these reasons a bit funny, but it is somewhat true for the women over there because of their daily way of life. The laws are; “Women are much more emotional than men and will as a result of their emotions, distort their testimony.” “Women do not participate in public life, so they will not be capable of understanding what they observe.” “Women are dominated completely by men, who by the grace of God are deemed superior; therefore, women will give testimony according to what the last man told them.” Finally, “Women are forgetful, and their testimony cannot be considered reliable.” Some laws right?

   Women in Saudi Arabia are not allowed to ride bicycles or drive in any public roads or large cities. This is the only country in the world where females are forbidden to drive. Yet some still drive illegally on rural roads. Before 2008 women were not permitted to enter hotels without a chaperon.

   The rape cases are not taken seriously at all, it some how still is the women’s fault for getting raped. There was recently a case where a gang-rape victim was in prison by a Saudi court along with 200 lashes for disobeying the rules of “segregation of the sexes”.

   A list of videos starting with “Saudi Wife Shows us into her Home (part 1)” on Youtube has explained a lot about the daily lifestyle of Saudi Women. In the video the lady explains who she can and cannot be seen in front of wearing a full burkha. She talks about many more things that might make us Americans gasp in shock, but is pretty much normal to them… a part of their life, reality.

   I enjoyed watching the 2008 Olympics last year, but it was sad to learn that Saudi Arabia did not have a female representative because women’s sports are not permitted in their culture.

   No country has found a middle ground when it comes to how women are viewed in society.  Certain things in America are very open about women and in Saudi Arabia it's a sin for women to even show their faces.  We have the extremes on both sides.  Descrimination and abuse against women still does exist in certain countries, Saudi Arabia is just one of the few that stood out to me.  As I researched about this, I honestly thought that the rights these women have to obey were crazy!  Hopefully the advanced women's rights and groups of feminists will try to lessen the issues that women in Saudia Arabia have to face everyday.  Life will and can be easier if countries can find a middle ground in all of this