Essay on The Fight for Women's Rights in Saudi Arabia

Women’s rights in Iran or the Middle East has always been an arguable issue. Although there rights have been changed throughout the centuries they were never really compared equal to men or noone really accepted them. Specially for women in Iran, they barely had any rights in culture, marriage or other aspects of their lives. In the following essay you will read about the everday lives of Middle Eastern women.

Saudi Arabia is commonly known for its strict moral values and customs regarding religion and women. Gender discrimination is a global conflict but it is prevalently seen in Saudi Arabia. Gender discrimination is so poignant in Saudi Arabia because there are strict sets of moral guidelines and ideologies that Saudi Arabian culture implements on its people. Although Saudi Arabian men impose restrictions on women for the sake of upholding their cultural beliefs and family’s honor, there is no doubt that Saudi Arabian culture is male dominated and holds misogynistic views on women, but progress is being made.

In the United States in 2016, women were paid 80 percent of what men were paid (Kevin Miller, The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap). Women are still treated as second hand to men to this day, but we have come a far way since the sixteenth century European women. Women can go to school, work, and have lives in the United States. In other countries and cultures, however, women still have a long fight ahead of them. In Saudi Arabia, women were just recently granted the ability to drive (Nicole Gaouette and Elise Labott, CNN). This is a huge stepping stone for women in Saudi Arabia and many more countries. The guardianship rule in Saudi Arabia is still ongoing, stating that women cannot make any decision without a man or young boy telling her yes or no. Women have no freedom for making their own choices, but their chains will soon be loosened through newly imprinted laws. Just like in the home, European women and Native American women vary greatly in societal structure and cultures.

The men in Saudi Arabia have more rights and power than the women. Men are the ones who have the most influence and the women are the ones who must listen to what the man says. Of course, this is different from man to man but mostly they are all like that.

Accustomed to stereotypical depictions, Westerners are told that Middle Eastern women are passive, weak, and always veiled. It is often assumed that the severe conditions in Saudi Arabia—where women are not even allowed to drive cars—represent the norm for women throughout the Middle East and in the larger Muslim world. In reality, Saudi Arabia’s versions of both Islam and sexism are rather unique in their severities, although the rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan is now emulating the sexist Saudi model. Women enjoy political and social rights in many Muslim countries, and Egypt has recently granted women the right to divorce their husbands. In Tunisia, abortion is legal, and polygamy is prohibited. Women have served as ministers in the Syrian, Jordanian, Egyptian, Iraqi, and Tunisian governments, and as Vice President in Iran.

Being born and raised in America, I and many other Americans have been taught that we live in a country of freedom. Women and men are treated equally; every human being has rights, and you have the freedom to move at will and without restrictions. Women have come a long way in our country, gaining rights ever since the dawn of patriarchy and proving that they are just as good as men with the ability to think, speak, and act for themselves. However, discrimination of women still exists in America and many other countries, but women are taking a stand and trying to eliminate the inequality between genders, such as the difference in salaries, and the bad representation of and portrayal of women in the media.

King believes we have “equal but separate rights” but he doesn’t seen them being shown within the laws.

In Muslim societies such as Kuwait, women face issues with their right to vote and their right to run for political office. Under the reading of Islam it is interpreted by Kuwait’s that women are forbidden to hold a position of authority, but this interpretation makes no senses as under Islam it really states people are all equal (Korman 94). Other Kuwait’s believe that women are voting through their father or husband who cast a vote for the entire family not leaving a women’s voice unheard (95). Two great issues for women as we can see have been the right to vote and the right to run for political office. This was acted on in the year 1999 by Sheik Jaber III, past ruler of Kuwait, who issued a royal decree granting women the right to vote. Unfortunately, on November of 1999, the National Assembly voted down the measure, due to time, claiming it was not right to grant those rights for Kuwaiti women yet (Korman 94).

In “News Coverage of a Woman’s Rights Campaign,” Saudi women are driving even though it is against the law and they could be thrown in jail. The women consider driving as a right that they should have. Mrs. Qahtani said, “I woke up believing with every part of me that this is my right, I woke up believing this is my duty, and I was no longer afraid,” (Collections 123 lines 19-20). Since men in Saudi Arabia can drive, they don’t understand what the women are going though. “Women in Saudi Arabia see other women in the Middle East making revolutions, women in Yemen and Egypt at the forefront of revolutions, being so bold, toppling over entire governments… The women of Saudi Arabia looked at themselves and they realized, ‘Wow! We can’t even drive,” (Collections 124 lines 43-49). The Saudi women want to make a revolution, they want to be able to do what the men can

A common misconception is that Muslim women are oppressed all around the world, but this is a fallacy created through the use of propaganda and misinformation. The so-called "oppression of women" is not a characteristic of Islam at all and to say otherwise would be out of ignorance. Reza Aslan (2015), a scholar of all religions, makes it clear that oppression of women is not related to Islam but to particular countries. A common propaganda technique is to use Saudi Arabia as the standard of Islam. This could not be further from the truth, as many Muslim countries view women equally if not beyond that. There are dozens of Muslim countries who have had more female heads of state than the US; Algeria, Turkey, Sudan, Senegal. There are a handful of Muslim countries around the world, who mention women's equal rights in their constitution, whereas the U.S is one of 32 countries who does not include an explicit gender equality guarantee (Ravitz, 2015). Using an uneducated generalization, that holds no merit, causes inconsistencies and mistaken impressions of a particular

It goes without saying that throughout society there exists varying degrees of gender stratification. Although many have attempted to understand why this difference between the distribution of property, power and prestige exists amongst genders, the answer is still somewhat ambiguous. Although the United States isn’t a perfect example of equality amongst genders, compared to a majority of nations across the globe, its conditions for both genders are relatively similar. One country notorious for its massive discrepancy in terms of access to property, power and prestige between genders is Saudi Arabia. In Saudi Arabia and a number of Middle Eastern countries, there exists a great deal of gender stratification. According to the 2008 Human Rights

In recent years, America’s attention has been gripped by stories of women who have escaped from the Middle East. Each has a unique story, but they all have the same themes of oppression, abuse, and domination. Americans rushed onto the scene ready to “save” Middle Eastern women and many of the activists are now been highly praised for the influence they made in the region. Others, however, have come to question whether the Muslim women in the Middle East really needed the U.S. to rescue them from Islam. *Insert Thesis*

In the past, Islamic women were not granted the right to vote or join in politics, but over the years the legal status of women in Islam has relaxed and changed. Muslim women in the Middle East have the right to vote, and may join in politics. Along with this, they are permitted to have vital government jobs. (Braswell, p.155) A woman 's status , however, is not as high as a man 's is in society. They still must follow many traditional customs. An example of one custom is that women are encouraged to do is dress modestly, by wearing veils in public. (Lippman, p.38) Although Muslim men and women are not looked upon as equals in every sense, there has been a lot of improvement and many changes have been made in the women 's favor.

The women of Saudi Arabia have been oppressed by the men of the country for generations due to the ignorance of the people, their Islamic faith, and the government. They have no rights and they must receive permission from their husbands or fathers to work, travel, and receive medical attention. The memoir Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia by Jean Sasson, is an excellent example of the oppression of women in Saudi Arabia and the literary devices of characterization and setting help to bring the oppression to life.

In the book, Women in the Middle East, a Saudi Arabian proverb states, "A girl possesses nothing but a veil and a tomb" (Harik and Marston 83). The key words, "veil" and "tomb" lend evidence to the fact that many Middle Eastern women lack identity symbolized by the “veil” and lack the right of ownership except for their veil and the tomb. This statement further enforces the notion that many women in the Middle East are expected to serve and tolerate the oppression of the men in their lives throughout their lives on this earth. Moreover, it confirms that many of these women do not get the opportunity to obtain education, join the work force, and even participate in the political affairs of the country. This arrangement further helps the