Pigs Fly: UN Grills Saudi Arabia on Women's Rights

Which international bureaucrat slipped up and allowed this faux pas?

Saudi Arabia, appearing for the first time before a U.N. women's rights panel on Thursday, faced tough questions over restrictions on "virtually every aspect of a woman's life" in the kingdom.

The U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women monitors adherence to a 1979 international bill of rights for women. The world's biggest oil exporter ratified that pact in 2000, with the proviso that Islamic Sharia law would prevail if there were any contradiction with its provisions.

The Saudi delegation came under repeated fire during the debate for the system of male guardianship which requires women to seek permission to travel, work, or see a doctor. "Only when women are free to make their own decisions on all aspects of their life are they full citizens," committee member Maria Regina Tavares da Silva told the one-day Geneva session.

Heisoo Shin, another of the 23 independent experts on the panel, said that patriarchal rules "governed virtually every aspect of a woman's life" in Saudi Arabia. "Without a man's consent, a woman cannot study or get health service, work, marry, conduct business or even get an ambulance service in an emergency," she said.

Riyadh says there is "no discrimination against women in the laws of the Kingdom." And Zeid Bin Abdul Mushin Al Hussein, vice president of the Saudi Human Rights Commission, told the experts: "Human rights in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are based on Sharia law." "Islamic principles reinforce human rights," he said...

But U.N. experts questioned women's access to the police and judiciary to lodge complaints, and their rights to own land and get bank loans, especially in rural areas. They also raised concerns over the ability to choose or divorce one's husband, and rules prohibiting women from driving.

Isn't it rich that Saudi Arabia's Human Rights Commission is blatantly and unashamedly a government front group? And it takes real verve to be able to keep a straight face when claiming there is "no discrimination against women in the laws of the Kingdom." Too bad they didn't invite the Religious Policeman to come testify.

Comments

[Arthur Borges]

"Isn't it rich that Saudi Arabia's Human Rights Commission is blatantly and unashamedly a government front group?"

Isn't it poor and miserly that a country takes a step towards joining a broader community and the first thing that happens is that its arrival triggers articles like this one?

[Wholesale Christmas Gifts]

Everyear,when the Christmas coming ,the gifts is neccesery.LOL!!

[pickegg wholesale electronics]

There may ba another way to do it.

[dr dre beats headphones]

Or maybe they'll request Everyday is Like Sunday: "Come, come, nuclear bomb..."