Saudi feminist blocked from leaving country
posted at 1:00 pm on July 12, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
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Wajeha al-Huwaider had her passport in order and wanted to take a 45-minute cab ride for a summer vacation on the Bahraini coast, a popular destination in eastern Saudi Arabia. Despite having her papers ready for inspection, a border guard refused to allow al-Huwaider to join her fellow Saudis into Bahrain, as a male guardian was not present to give his permission. That’s par for the course for Saudi Arabia’s most prominent activist for womens’ rights:
Wajeha al-Huwaider picked up her passport, got in a taxi, and headed from her home in eastern Saudi Arabia to the nearby island kingdom of Bahrain — a 45-minute drive that many Saudis take to get away for the weekend.
Despite having a valid passport, Saudi authorities at the border sent al-Huwaider home. That’s because in Saudi Arabia, a woman needs permission from her male guardian before she can leave the country.
Al-Huwaider — a vocal women’s rights activist in Saudi Arabia — knew before she left that she would be turned away at the border. Her attempted trip was simply to make a point about the Saudi guardianship system that she says “controls all aspects of women’s lives.”
“Either you treat us like mature citizens or let us leave the country (permanently),” she told CNN.
She’s urging all Saudi women who are tired of “being oppressed” to go “to any border and try to cross it without permission from their male relative.”
Saudi Arabia has one of the most repressive legal systems in the world when it comes to the rights of women. Literally, women can do nothing for themselves without the permission of their closest male relative, usually a husband, father, or brother, but in some cases a son. They cannot drive, they cannot vote, and as al-Huwaider demonstrated this weekend, they can’t even take a cab across the border with a valid passport. Women are chattel, property to be protected and bartered — and dominated.
Al-Huwaider has worked for years to change the plight of Saudi women. She had reached prominence as an opinion journalist for the Arab Times, until her criticisms got a little too pointed for the royal family. Her work as an activist is reported in depth by Joshua Muravchik in his book The Next Founders: Voices of Democracy in the Middle East, published just two months ago. It’s a book of hope, showing that al-Huwaider and others in the region keep working to free their nations from the tyranny that breeds extremism and violence. If you have yet to read it, start now.
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Get to the back of the Camel Aisha !
William Amos on July 12, 2009 at 1:03 PM
It’s the Islam, stupid.
The Saudis are simply the guardians of the dismal dogmas.
profitsbeard on July 12, 2009 at 1:04 PM
And where is the support from feminists in this country? [crickets chirping]
rmgraha on July 12, 2009 at 1:07 PM
The feminists are too busy bowing to Obama who bowed to the Saudi king.
myrenovations on July 12, 2009 at 1:08 PM
Too busy bashing Sarah Palin.
Knucklehead on July 12, 2009 at 1:11 PM
I would be on the first flight out and never turn back.
txag92 on July 12, 2009 at 1:13 PM
Silly women can fly out of there Mohammed doesnt want them on planes
William Amos on July 12, 2009 at 1:16 PM
How are you going to get to the airport? Seems to me there is a major opportuity here for an enterprising feminist to start a Rent a Guardian service.
a capella on July 12, 2009 at 1:19 PM
William Amos on July 12, 2009 at 1:16 PM
I’d pay some random Mohammed $20 to get me on a flight then never go back. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
txag92 on July 12, 2009 at 1:19 PM
How are you going to get to the airport? Seems to me there is a major opportuity here for an enterprising feminist to start a Rent a Guardian service.
a capella on July 12, 2009 at 1:19 PM
EXACTLY!
txag92 on July 12, 2009 at 1:20 PM
I’m rather surprised that saudi women can have their own passports. Shouldn’t they be on their guardian’s passport, like a child?
OldEnglish on July 12, 2009 at 1:25 PM
Good thing we are not drilling for our own oil……….
…….. better keep sending the Saudis our money so they can spread this behavior all over the world.
Seven Percent Solution on July 12, 2009 at 1:29 PM
Sharia (islamic) law makes women the chattel property of a male, her father until she’s married, then her husband.
But we cannot judge islam, because that would be insensitive.
Rebar on July 12, 2009 at 1:31 PM
A Muslim woman alone with a male not her relative is an adulteress, subject to the severest punishments.
As for male relatives taking advantage of the opportunity for extortion, I’m pretty sure that’s already common practice.
Maquis on July 12, 2009 at 1:32 PM
Maybe it is time for an abaya burning movement in Saudia Arabia.
fourdeucer on July 12, 2009 at 1:35 PM
There you go, thinking like a good American capitalist again…
IrishEi on July 12, 2009 at 1:39 PM
I see your point. But children (even newborn infants) must have a passport to enter/exit a country.
Cody Baker on July 12, 2009 at 1:43 PM
This is the wedge issue that might undo all the wrongs that is called Islam.
.
http://www.arabisto.com/article/Blogs/Sabria_Jawhar/Saudi_women_must_redefine_what_is_Saudi_society_if_they_are_to_achieve_more_rights/36799
.
Saudi women must redefine what is ‘Saudi society’ if they are to achieve more rights
Sabria Jawhar
Published 05/20/2009 – 4:32 a.m. CST
.
.
What is the Saudi Arabian style and modus operandi to maintain the status quo? Who really knows but some of those things are changing. Women are slowly emerging from “the modesty view” in the role of the women should be subordinate to that of the Saudi men within these oppressive societies. I’ll give it a generation or so from now before the real issues of equality are addressed let alone achieved.
Americannodash on July 12, 2009 at 1:48 PM
Ok, thanks for the info. I have not been abroad for more than thirty years, and my kids were on my passport when I entered Australia.
OldEnglish on July 12, 2009 at 1:50 PM
We’ve known this stuff for decades. Too bad none of our presidents have the fortitude to discuss it. It’s like the uncle who beats his wife but nobody will talk about it.
Mojave Mark on July 12, 2009 at 1:50 PM
Press enter twice between paragraphs. No need for the period between them. The space doesn’t show in preview, but will be there once you post.
Cody Baker on July 12, 2009 at 1:51 PM
Cro-magnon men meet Homo-Sapien woman.
Limerick on July 12, 2009 at 1:55 PM
One thing you fail to mention is that this repression of women is justified by and maintained in the name of Islam. One of the pillars of the totalitarian society mandated by Sharia law is the in-all-but-name chattel slavery of women. Ayaan Hirsi Ali makes the very good point that women in the Muslim world will never be truly free until they escape Islam itself.
irishspy on July 12, 2009 at 1:56 PM
Point taken. Here’s my counter.
With the level of cousin-cousin marriages, aren’t most of them already each other’s relatives?:) Cash in on incest, I say.
a capella on July 12, 2009 at 1:57 PM
She has that “lesbian/feminist” look,if you let her out, don’t bring her here.We’re overrun with them.
Jeff from WI on July 12, 2009 at 2:19 PM
jeff from WI,
why don’t you stick to cheese-rolling and dressing up cows in fancy dress? Jackass. I mean that in the best possible way, of course.
Fortunata on July 12, 2009 at 2:39 PM
The Saudis’ (lack of) respect for women was blatantly obvious to me many years ago while deployed to Riyadh. We were driving to work and a large van passed by us on the highway. The row behind the driver was filled with men. The next row had two goats on it. Then there was a curtain, pulled closed. Behind the curtain…you guessed it…a row of women. In their abayas, of course.
I’ve had little to no respect for the Saudis ever since.
mjtyson on July 12, 2009 at 3:08 PM
But everything else in in the Magic Kingdom is just swell is it?
Is that the same unnamed ideology of repression that Bush warned about in his last speech but declined to put a name on it? It would certainly be disrespectful of Islam to mention it in conjunction with tyranny or evil wouldn’t it?
And you all must be respectful of Islam and Muslims or goodness knows what you will find in your roast beef sandwich next month.
BL@KBIRD on July 12, 2009 at 3:09 PM
I apologize for America’s role in this…and for America, in general.
whitetop on July 12, 2009 at 3:16 PM
I’d do more cheese rolling but I live too close to Madison and it’s over-run with lesbian/feminists.
Jeff from WI on July 12, 2009 at 3:16 PM
I don’t think it makes much sense to call her a “feminist”. She is not trying to get all the rights of men in Saudi Arabia, let alone anything more, she is just trying to get something above slave level.
KentAllard on July 12, 2009 at 3:33 PM
Well OK, but I’m not scared of cows or feminists. I usually try to talk some sense into them. In my experience, cows don’t shuffle their feet as much when confronted with Islam and its horrors.
Fortunata on July 12, 2009 at 4:21 PM
But.. but.. Obama gave a speech in Cairo dammit !! he said that women can be equal participants in civil society as well.How come the Saudis are not listening ??
Do they expect Obama to bow to their King again ?? its not easy doing that with a six foot frame, but I heard Obama is such a graceful man..guess he needs to take a trip to Riyadh and deliver a lecture about women’s rights… this time he may have to fall head first at the feet of the Saudi King so that he listens !
Lectures in the US election campaign – lectures in Cairo, lectures in Ghana, lectures, lectures every where !!
Seriously,this country has elected a lecturer to President. and that seems like the only thing that he has got.
nagee76 on July 12, 2009 at 4:25 PM
Cows don’t care too much who is moving them or milking them.
Jeff from WI on July 12, 2009 at 4:36 PM
That poor slob would soon have his head separated from his body by one of the kingdom’s overworked executioners.
Annar on July 12, 2009 at 4:50 PM
Where is the feminist outrage from the western world in support of their Saudi sisters?
DL13 on July 12, 2009 at 5:01 PM
LOL!! Not as smelly as lesbian feminists though…
My cousins have a dairy farm and I have a list of names from the feminist greats: Gloria, Margaret, Annie, Harriet, etc.
Fortunata on July 12, 2009 at 5:18 PM
We (conservatives) are trying. It’s not helped by conservative knuckle-draggers (ahem, you know who you are). The problem is that contemporary feminism has been almost totally b*ggered by Marxism; trying to disentangle them is a difficult task especially for those of us in the crucible…modern academia.
Fortunata on July 12, 2009 at 5:36 PM
Complaints from feminists in this country, while welcome, would only be rhetoric at this point. The Saudi’s have no more respect for our feminists than they do their own, less probably. Do not know what, if anything, will effect change there, but do not see it in the wind anytime soon since their laws are skewed in such a way as to openly and unashamedly prevent it.
jeanie on July 12, 2009 at 5:37 PM
So does the Old Testament.
The bigger problem is that it would be hypocritical (unless you have the good sense to be an atheist).
hicsuget on July 12, 2009 at 6:25 PM
A conservative feminist in academia? I feel for you. My sincere best wishes.
hicsuget on July 12, 2009 at 6:26 PM
I’ve been there. I’ve seen the terrible things that happen on that Island of Sin, Bahrain. The first thing some of those women will do is show their face with no burka. Then they may DRINK ALCOHOL! After that, who knows what the devil inside them might make them do.
In the words of Uncle Billy, “It’s a pickle,George. A real pickle.”
Mr. Grump on July 12, 2009 at 6:30 PM
It’s very simple. They want to say something but they also don’t want to offend the Religion of Peace, so the best thing to do is to vote Present. After all, this is their superhero:
http://afrocityblog.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/obama-feminist.jpg
Michelle Dubois on July 12, 2009 at 6:54 PM
Orwellian ain’t it!
Seems to me,that if the females in Saudi Arabia want
to be able to breath,or have any basic human rights,
there going to have to start a ‘Civil war,with their
males!!
All’s fair,in Love and War!!
canopfor on July 12, 2009 at 7:17 PM
I have always found it interesting that the Saudis allow no other religious institutions, churches etc in the kingdom while they openly operate/fund radical Wahhabist mosques all over the US and entire world with no push back form us or anyone.
Someone should force the dialogue at least.
patrick neid on July 12, 2009 at 8:05 PM
I was deployed in Riyadh with an AF tanker task force, five days after the Airborne arrived, way back when, before the military recognized the need to segregate us from the society we had come to defend. Granted the liberty to wander, we flocked to the local mall to buy pirated music on cassettes and see the sights.
One of my exploratory ventures had me cross paths with a Saudi woman in a short corridor where, for a brief moment, there were no Saudi men to object to her behaving as a human being. She made eye contact and smiled discreetly yet disarmingly, I reciprocated appropriately and we passed without a word. Had this occurred in the view of one of their religious police or even a Saudi male she would have been at the very least severely beaten.
Having come face to face with their religious police, many of which qualified to became such as a result of having memorized the koran in prison, and witnessing in their eyes a barely restrained desire to wield their staffs in the service of Allah’s demand for modesty and supremacy, I know beyond doubt the danger is very real to all Saudi women.
It was horrible to me to be in a society where showing respect or courtesy to a woman put her in danger, to know that the only way I could avoid bringing them harm was to behave as if they did not even exist. Yet this one woman, when she had the momentary liberty to express her humanity in a womanly fashion without consequence, did so warmly and without reservation, and I knew then that their supposed enthusiasm for their own captivity is a cruel lie. They would escape it if they could.
Shame our first Muslim President can’t speak out for freedom in the Islamic world, but Liberty is just not his style, being so Neo-Conservative and all, with all those pesky restrictions on would-be re-makers of society and on well-meaning dictators and such…
Maquis on July 12, 2009 at 8:35 PM
If the libs spent a third of the time they spend bashing Christianity to critique Islam, these women would be better off in no time.
Iblis on July 12, 2009 at 9:46 PM
lololol
Jeff from WI on July 12, 2009 at 10:09 PM
islam is slavery…pure and simple, for all involved. Women are the slaves of the male slaves to islam.
No islam…Know Peace…Know islam…throw up!
islam is a lie and Truth is killing it.
Army Brat on July 12, 2009 at 10:35 PM
Bingo. Those brainless bra-burning b***hes have done a sum total of jack squat for women who are truly being oppressed.
Dark-Star on July 12, 2009 at 10:53 PM
Ah, the old “moral equivalency” canard.
The fact is, islam treats women as property RIGHT NOW TODAY, not 2000 years ago.
So shove that old tired leftist/atheist crap where it belongs.
Rebar on July 12, 2009 at 10:58 PM
Couldn’t she just ride in the baggage compartment. I mean after all Muslim women are owned like a piece of cheap luggage. Or they could put her in a cage like they do with pets.
Geochelone on July 12, 2009 at 10:58 PM
OK so so you want to compare how Israel treats its women to Saudi Arabia? Or are you trying to take a swipe at Christians as well as Jews? Quite a stretch don’t you think?
So all believers are hypocritical because they condemn the oppression of females? You have to be an atheist to do that? Wow. You anti-theists are nasty.
Christian Conservative on July 12, 2009 at 11:07 PM
Dude…
…atheism didn’t provide the passion for civil rights.
In the meantime, we have a MUCH bigger problem created by the post modern intelligentsia.
Saltysam on July 13, 2009 at 12:07 AM
This woman is lucky she was only turned away at the border. Especially as she was doing this to make a statement.
4shoes on July 13, 2009 at 12:12 AM
They won’t let the women out because each suicide martyr needs 72 virgins; and once incentive is destroyed, morale and motivation follow.
sawbuck on July 13, 2009 at 2:55 AM
Third world ignorance. Money covers a lot of sins.
ultracon on July 13, 2009 at 4:02 AM
Sorry, I read the story several times and fail to see the problem…It would take away the “I voted for him because he was so cute” effect, wait: That was Barney Frank….never mind.
right2bright on July 13, 2009 at 6:35 AM
If women were allowed to leave when they wanted, who’d do the washing and vacuuming?
Jeff from WI on July 13, 2009 at 7:12 AM
Why don’t we just bomb Saudi Arabia until they stop it?
Libertarian Joseph on July 13, 2009 at 8:28 AM
I do wonder what the percentage of children born to single mothers is there though. I know it’s killing our country here where women have the most freedom.
Jeff from WI on July 13, 2009 at 9:43 AM
Well, seeing as you are stoned to death for infidelity…probably not many “single mothers” are alive.
right2bright on July 13, 2009 at 9:58 AM
Could be….I wonder how many women are on welfare there?
Jeff from WI on July 13, 2009 at 10:02 AM
Well, you know what they say. Women belong in the kitchen and the bedroom. (roll my eyes).
Especially in saudi arabia.
EMR on July 13, 2009 at 10:47 AM
Just because a Saudi woman like Wajeha al-Huwaider wants more rights for Saudi women doesn’t mean we should support her. Saudi women are still Saudis who are basically murderously bigoted savages who won the oil lotto. Whatever good they do for women’s rights are far outweighed by all the evil Wahhabi doctrines they carry in their heads.
Not only should Saudi women not be allowed out of Saudi Arabia, Saudi men should not be allowed out. And really, it would be a far better world if there were no Saudi Arabia at all.
Tantor on July 13, 2009 at 10:56 AM
I’ll go along with that
Jeff from WI on July 13, 2009 at 11:05 AM
And what’s Sarah Palin saying about it?
factoid on July 13, 2009 at 1:48 PM
IMHO, you can add Iran and @$$crackistan to that list. We’re actually about to lose the latter…
Dark-Star on July 13, 2009 at 4:48 PM
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