Wajeha al-Huwaider: Saudi Woman Bucks the System and Pays the Price

If you were a woman living today in Saudi Arabia, what would you do? Would you quietly accept the status quo - or would you dare to challenge a legal system that restricts basic women's rights and in fact makes them the property of their male relatives?

Wajeha al-Huwaider is a Saudi writer and activist who refuses to take the blue pill. She is back in the news recently as the Saudi authorities have barred her from traveling abroad for human rights conferences in Europe and the US. Here's a profile:

"Control this and we won’t have a problem" declared the Intelligence Officer, pointing to his mouth; such was the warning administered to Wajeha al-Huwaider when she was summoned to Intelligence Headquarters in Saudi Arabia last week. Her ‘crime’? To have attempted to plan an event calling for greater rights for women in Saudi Arabia. The fact that the event itself never materialised is considered irrelevant. In the Saudi Kingdom, to have considered holding it is crime enough. In true Orwellian style, the thought of the ‘crime’ is as punishable as any actual transgression.

And as a result, Wajeha al-Huwaider, the Saudi journalist and women’s rights’ activist, has been warned to keep quiet and had her passport taken away from her. When will she get it back? Weeks? Months? Years? No-one knows. What must she do to get it back? Again, she can only guess. The only certainty is that until it is returned is, she is a de facto prisoner in her own country; an inmate in the vast open prison that Saudi Arabia can be for those who would deign to criticise its government and society.

Wajeha’s freedom of movement was removed only days before she was due to fly to Europe and then the US to address a series of conferences. The purpose of these gatherings? Broadly speaking, to analyse prospects for reform and the advance of human rights in the Saudi Kingdom! Her recent personal experience would appear to offer the starkest evidence, as to the state of play in this regard.

Wajeha, though, is no stranger to the realities of life in Saudi Arabia. In particular, she is all-too-familiar with the invisible red lines that demarcate what one can and cannot say in the land of the House of Saud. In 2003, she was banned from writing for Saudi newspapers, because of her strident criticism of the way women are treated in the Kingdom. Despite this, she subsequently continued to write, if only for liberal Arabic websites, such as Elaph and Middle East Transparent. However, it would seem that even this reduced outlet has been deemed too much for the Saudi authorities; now they wish to silence her altogether.

In so doing, the authorities are responding to the fact that Wajeha has dramatically shown the courage of her convictions. Last month she staged an extraordinary solo demonstration, as she walked the Fahd Causeway that links Bahrain with Saudi Arabia, carrying a placard that read, ‘Give Women their Rights!’ Unsurprisingly, she managed to get only a few hundred yards before being arrested by Saudi security forces, whereupon she was detained for several hours. 

Thereafter, she was released, but only when a male relative had arrived to vouch for her. As Wajeha notes, this procedure merely confirms the discrimination, against which she has set herself: ‘Saudi law does not allow the woman to be responsible for her behaviour. Only when my brother arrived, who is younger than me by many years, did they agree to release me.’

Comments

[jewaira]

Wow, what an amazing woman.

[Rebekah]

After growing up in Saudi, spending 15 years there while both parents worked for Aramco, I can only state how very courageous she is. Livestock is valued more than women are there and in most of the muslim world. Unfortunate as it is, she will more than likely be executed for her actions. My prayers go out to her. I hope her important work isn't in vain.

[L. Wahhabi]

I echo the concerns of the poster above. I really hope it doesn't go in vain, as I know firsthand how courageous this woman really is to have done that.

Interestingly enough, she and this havn't gone mainstream here in saudiland.... yet.

[Princess Yasmine B.S. Al-]

Dear Wajeha al-Huwaider,

I am seeking to attain my documents from Saudi Arabia, from Europe Mainland Continent. When I was young I lived there.

When I was four I was transferred to America, by the desire of a rellation -Princess Sultan. Princess Sultana originaly planned for me to be her daughters sister: But Princess Sultana's daughter Sarah feared having me as a in house relative, due to Prince Abdullah Fahd's desire to be King, in accordance with his mothers Tea Leaf reading, if I were rid from the land and immediate family.

When I left the land I was placed on tournement throughout Europe, and America without documents.

Recently, I have been dealing with the European Community Post-Exterior Consulate offices. The saudi Arabian Post-Exterior staff has refused assisting me. The staff is a mult cultural group of people, seeking to serve those holders of a document. they refuse me entrance due to my not having a document in hand. Prince Alwhaleed and His mother Princess Marie Saad nIbn Al-Faisal Al-Saud of Kingdom Holding could intervene but do not? The royal family, sennior brothers, could affidavit me, but stagger in the effort. I am documentless until the Royal family taöke the time to assist me.

You may read more aboutmy life, bintallah@care2.com/ Princess Yasmin's Sharebook/ humanitarian evolution. I am a Pro White advocate: Equal rights for White People - the fadeing land and culture.

[clarabelle]

dear wajeha,
bless you for trying. keep up the good work.i read about your efforts in the wall street journal yesterday. if more and more women were as brave as you are, you could overcome. i wish i could help you.my 97 yr. old mother gave up driving 2 years ago!! and she was angry!
carry on.

[Bronwen]

Keep up the good work. Nothing worth fighting for is easy, and this is definitely a cause worth fighting for. Australian women support your cause!

[Diane]

I am a Canadian woman, living in a wonderful country, with freedom as a basic element of life. I realize I take many things for granted, When I read about women in the Middle East realizing how they are denied the most basic elements of freedom from a humanistic point of view and I read of their struggle, I feel a strong urge to help. How can we help these women? It is our duty to reach out. Leaders like Wajeha need our moral support and we need to push our politicians to acknowledge their struggle. There was a time when women in Canada did not have the right to vote, but women joined hands and together won this right.
Middle Eastern women must not give up the struggle for freedom. The domination of the males in their society, must be dismantled, it will take time, and we free women must stand by and create venues and ideas to help. At the very least there should be a way to communicate. I will pray for the success and safety of Wajeha and all of the other women who fight for basic human rights.

[Raashid]

It is amazing that while this woman has a viewpoint that is being opposed by the authorities, that viewpoint is necessarily and unquestionably something worthy of being praised! In my opinion, she doesn't know anything about women's rights if she thinks she is raising women by walking around with a sign. Women in Saudi Arabia live according to Islam, and enjoy the support and position that Islam gives them which isn't equaled by anything else in the world. Nakedness, and unrestricted independence is not the goal of humanity, except in the eyes of fools. Praising someone just for "bucking" the system and challenging the "status quo" includes praising a lot of insanity which occurs everyday - these things are not praiseworthy in their own right. Let this woman have some dialogue with another of her gender who does not share her beliefs in Saudi Arabia and much more light would be shed on what she is really calling to and trying to do. Women in Saudi Arabia are not the property of their relatives, they have guardians from their relatives who bear responsibility for their wives and sisters. Distorting the truth only shows where it actually lies. Unqualified comments such as this add up to sheer bigotry and self-bloated prejudice. Do some genuine research on Islam and Muslims, from authentic sources, or speak to some practicing Muslims who are knowledgeable if you want to talk about Islam and not just be tooting your own ignorant horn. And have some general respect for other cultures even if you can't appreciate them.

[Rebecca]

Hi,

I'm a magazine publisher based in Bahrain and would like to speak to Wajeha Al Huawaider. Could she please contact me on info@arabianmagazines.com

Regards

Rebecca