Strong women = strong societies

There was a historic decision taken in the Arab world yesterday. For the first time in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, women were free to stand up and vote in elections! The fine print is that this comes into effect only in 2015, still 4 years away. According to the King.....

“Because we refuse to marginalise women in society in all roles that comply with sharia, we have decided, after deliberation with our senior ulama (clerics) and others... to involve women in the Shura Council as members, starting from the next term,” he said in a speech delivered to the advisory body.

Uh, yes, because the Arab society and the Saudi's in particular have been at the forefront of women's rights and freedom, they've taken this great epochial step towards granting them 'more' freedom. I'm wondering here what will the Saudi women do with all this freedom at their beck and call!

Of course, before I weer off into my rant against the Arab society, I thank the global media for providing me more details of this 'historic' decision by the King, taken in consultation with the topmost group of supreme Islamic scholars, and making sure that the tenets of Sharia are not at all harmed in allowing women political freedom. According to many, with the winds of change sweeping the Arab world, it was only a matter of time before the big daddy of the Arab world did something to fend off the criticism against its own society.

So before I start fretting at this unmitigated freedom that Saudi women have been given, I should remember that...

Women will also be able to join the Majlis ash-Shura, Saudi Arabia’s appointed consultative assembly, the king announced yesterday. However, they are still forbidden from driving; need written permission from a male guardian to travel, work or attend school; and will be excluded from elections due this week.

Though I often come down heavily on societies all over the world, and some societies in particular, but its true that change is the most difficult thing to come by, and I think by nature, most people resist change. Change means having to get out of one's comfort zone, change means having to do something new, or change is having to stop doing something, and I think as humans, most of us like being in a comfort zone where one is familiar with where everything is and how most things are done or which rules are to be followed.

When it comes to the Arab society, I think before the spring revolutions all across the Arab world, most of the change that was demanded in that society was not from within, but from the rest of the world, particularly the stalwarts of equality and human freedom and expression residing in North America and western Europe. Even then, the spring revolutions weren't really about social freedom, but more about economic conditions and political freedoms. This is evident from the fact that the first response in all the states was to raise salaries and announce hosts of public spending schemes to quell the discontent over unemployment, inflation and economic inequities, including in Saudi Arabia.

It should not be surprising that this latest announcement from this 'reformist' king will be taken with a barrel of salt by many Saudi watchers and particularly Saudi women. This is not the first time that the Saudi King has promised gender reforms, and they have always failed to pass through the super fundamentalist and by the book religious clerics that make all the rules in the kingdom. For example, Saudi Arabia goes for local municipal polls (only grassroots polls are allowed in monarchies for some reason, I suppose its too much work for the King to choose each and every civil servant) this week, and the common refrain is that the system is not prepared currently to allow for women and participate and stand. According to Nesrine Malik writing in the British paper Guardian,

In the last elections, in 2005, practical considerations and the difficulty of preparing for women to take part at short notice were the official reasons given for the postponement of the decision. Elections scheduled for 2009 did not go ahead.

Officials have had six years to get ready but when the advisory Shura council recommended to the king this month that the ban be lifted it was too late to do so this year. It would seem that separate polling stations for men and women remained a problem.

This is something often seen in the Kingdom with regards to women's rights: a promise and an expression of goodwill scuppered due to bureaucracy. There is no law prohibiting women from driving, for example, but an administrative vacuum makes it impossible to get a driving licence or register to drive. "We are not ready" is the refrain often heard from those in authority.

So its still 4 years away, to come back to the point at hand, and while the rest of the world seems to be obsessed with only the fact that Saudi women are not allowed to drive, its the least of worries for women in the Arab world. Its another discussion that is Islam really opposed to all the things that modern society prides itself on - equality of gender, freedom of speech and freedom of the individual? I don't know and I know that that is not true. Religion's always been convoluted to fit one's own ends, just like the evangelists in the United States and the Orthodox clergy in the Muslim world.

I am a strong proponent of the women's reservation bill in India as well, because as I have said before, it will only improve the system because I simply am not a fan at all of the crappy Indian society, and with money taking front seat everywhere, philosophical terms such as respect for the individual, respect for laws and respect for the land in general are all secondary. Its time our brute society had a mother's/daughter's/sister's/wife's touch, and I believe because of the inherent nature of women to care, I think our society would do well to get rid of some of its animalism that is prevalent in everything today.

I really wanted to pay a tribute to a great woman of Africa who died recently after battling cancer. Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai of Kenya passed away in Nairobi at the age of 71. The first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, the lady promoted everything that I believe in - sustainable development, environment, womens rights and raising her voice against a bad government, which I believe should be a staple in any democracy. Here is an interview of her published by the National Geographic magazine in 2008.

Africa has few things to celebrate today, and she was one of them. May the world continue to be inspired by her work and the third world rise on the pillars of environmental conservation, justice and equality, sustainable development and a defiance towards all the predatory forces that roam the world today preying on third world money and resources. Consumption is not the answer.

“You cannot protect the environment unless you empower people, you inform them, and you help them understand that these resources are their own, that they must protect them.”