Publication Date : Friday 27 May 2011 10:49
Samar Badawi fights for women rights
The Saudi Arabia is based on the custodian system which means if a woman wants to travel, work or get married, they needs her custodian permission.
Single women and widows are in the custody of their fathers and the custodians of married women are their husbands, reported Siyasatrooz online.
There stand some women who are satisfied by this condition but the bottom line is that the population of women right movement in Saudi Arabia is getting more conspicuous and no one can say this movement in the country constitute as a small minority.
Samar Badawi, a 32-year-old woman is the first one made a complaint against the rule.
She experienced many injustices in her life, and for this reason she is so determined to change the current condition of her country.
Women in Saudi Arabia do not have right to participate in elections, let alone to be selected as a candidate and the point is that there is no written low about this case.
Samar told that she took legal action against the Ministry for Municipal and Rural Affairs because municipal election centers had refused to register her name when she had wanted to participate in a local election in September. She made a complaint about the women rights in the country and her appeal was accepted by the court.
Last Thursday Saudi Arabia announced that the low would give women franchise for the next four years. This decision is the result of some tenacious women such as Samar Badawi. But to her this process goes so slowly and she does not want to wait. She will start dealing with the case legally and her husband who is a human right lawyer will defend her in this way.
Samar Badawi served 7 months sentence just because she wanted to be autodidactic and have an independent life. After being divorced from her ex husband, she turned to her father’s house with his son. But his father beat her and because of that he escaped the house in March 2008 and went to Women Shelter in Jeddah. Her father brought her into justice under the pretext of “filial ingratitude”. The complaint which could be continued and put her again into prison but it didn’t.
In 2009 her father took legal action against her. She ignored them and did not appear in court, where upon the Judge ordered her to be arrested for disobedience towards her father.
Samar fell in love with her lawyer, Waleed Abu Alkhair and wanted to get married with him but her father refused. Samar petitioned to have her father removed as her guardian, given this reason that he was unfit. He had been jailed for fighting, including participation in a gun fight.
However, the suits and countersuits were not yet finished. Samar's father appealed to Judge Abdullah Al-Othaim filing another grievance of filial disobedience against Samar. At the initial hearing the Judge ordered Samar to return to her father's home which she refused to do. However the Judge threatened her with imprisonment and flogging.
During this time, Samar had received further marriage proposals, all of which her father refused, meaning he remained her guardian. She filed a complaint of preventing marriage against him. Knowing she risked arrest according to Judge’s order, she appeared in court to testify against her father, and was arrested on leaving the courthouse, and has been imprisoned since April 2010.
And at last she released without any trial. She released because of human right activists in Saudi Arabia and other countries got public attention and submitted her freedom appeal to King Abdullah. At this time she fights for women’s franchise.
Now getting women’s franchise is the bottom line. Saudi Arabia national human right committee announced that depriving women of this right is against the law. This announcement was out of question in the county where prison was the response for those who defended women’s right for driving. But she filed an appeal regarding this case. It is worth mentioning that her father exploited that demand against her in the court judged their case.
From 2009 till now a movement has been formed in Saudi Arabia called "My Guardian Knows What's Best for Me". This movement consists of women who have home pages in Face book and were able to gathered thousands of fans and followers.
The pioneer of this movement was “Rozeh Yousef “from Jeddah. She is one the ladies who fight for “the freedom of women”. She is so sorry since not so many women fight for their rights. To her Saudi Arabia rules are against Islamic instructions and the country’s traditional values. “There stand no rule which hinders women to enter a specific realm.” said Rozeh Yousef stating that neither in Islam nor in Islamic such rules can be found.
Single women and widows are in the custody of their fathers and the custodians of married women are their husbands, reported Siyasatrooz online.
There stand some women who are satisfied by this condition but the bottom line is that the population of women right movement in Saudi Arabia is getting more conspicuous and no one can say this movement in the country constitute as a small minority.
Samar Badawi, a 32-year-old woman is the first one made a complaint against the rule.
She experienced many injustices in her life, and for this reason she is so determined to change the current condition of her country.
Women in Saudi Arabia do not have right to participate in elections, let alone to be selected as a candidate and the point is that there is no written low about this case.
Samar told that she took legal action against the Ministry for Municipal and Rural Affairs because municipal election centers had refused to register her name when she had wanted to participate in a local election in September. She made a complaint about the women rights in the country and her appeal was accepted by the court.
Last Thursday Saudi Arabia announced that the low would give women franchise for the next four years. This decision is the result of some tenacious women such as Samar Badawi. But to her this process goes so slowly and she does not want to wait. She will start dealing with the case legally and her husband who is a human right lawyer will defend her in this way.
Samar Badawi served 7 months sentence just because she wanted to be autodidactic and have an independent life. After being divorced from her ex husband, she turned to her father’s house with his son. But his father beat her and because of that he escaped the house in March 2008 and went to Women Shelter in Jeddah. Her father brought her into justice under the pretext of “filial ingratitude”. The complaint which could be continued and put her again into prison but it didn’t.
In 2009 her father took legal action against her. She ignored them and did not appear in court, where upon the Judge ordered her to be arrested for disobedience towards her father.
Samar fell in love with her lawyer, Waleed Abu Alkhair and wanted to get married with him but her father refused. Samar petitioned to have her father removed as her guardian, given this reason that he was unfit. He had been jailed for fighting, including participation in a gun fight.
However, the suits and countersuits were not yet finished. Samar's father appealed to Judge Abdullah Al-Othaim filing another grievance of filial disobedience against Samar. At the initial hearing the Judge ordered Samar to return to her father's home which she refused to do. However the Judge threatened her with imprisonment and flogging.
During this time, Samar had received further marriage proposals, all of which her father refused, meaning he remained her guardian. She filed a complaint of preventing marriage against him. Knowing she risked arrest according to Judge’s order, she appeared in court to testify against her father, and was arrested on leaving the courthouse, and has been imprisoned since April 2010.
And at last she released without any trial. She released because of human right activists in Saudi Arabia and other countries got public attention and submitted her freedom appeal to King Abdullah. At this time she fights for women’s franchise.
Now getting women’s franchise is the bottom line. Saudi Arabia national human right committee announced that depriving women of this right is against the law. This announcement was out of question in the county where prison was the response for those who defended women’s right for driving. But she filed an appeal regarding this case. It is worth mentioning that her father exploited that demand against her in the court judged their case.
From 2009 till now a movement has been formed in Saudi Arabia called "My Guardian Knows What's Best for Me". This movement consists of women who have home pages in Face book and were able to gathered thousands of fans and followers.
The pioneer of this movement was “Rozeh Yousef “from Jeddah. She is one the ladies who fight for “the freedom of women”. She is so sorry since not so many women fight for their rights. To her Saudi Arabia rules are against Islamic instructions and the country’s traditional values. “There stand no rule which hinders women to enter a specific realm.” said Rozeh Yousef stating that neither in Islam nor in Islamic such rules can be found.
Story Code: 65327
