Saudi to chair UN women's right Commision

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FOREIGN COUNTRY


In Saudi Arabia, marital rape is not a crime - now they will be at the forefront of women's rights at the UN


The Saudis want to send a signal to the world and its own people, experts believe.







It is not enough for Saudi Arabia to show its dedication to women's rights by securing a leadership role in the UN Commission on Women, Amnesty International believes. National action must be taken. (Photo: © EVELYN HOCKSTEIN, Ritzau Scanpix)
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Tobias Leth Klinge

I Saudi-Arabien er voldtaegt i aegteskabet ikke en forbrydelse - nu skal de sta i spidsen for kvinders rettigheder i FN | Udland | DR


If you have to think of Saudi Arabia, what is the first thing that comes to mind?

Presumably oil, lots of money and the homeland of Islam. Probably not a country that is the great champion of women's rights.

But Saudi Arabia must now be precisely the latter.

They have a desire to attract tourists and investors. Here, the way Saudi Arabia is viewed by the outside world is hugely important. And, of course, they do not want to be associated with an oppressive regime.

FANNIE AGERSCHOU-MADSEN, PHD STUDENT AT DIIS AND ROSKILDE UNIVERSITY

Yesterday, the country was elected to chair the table by the United Nations Commission on Women, which aims to promote women's rights and gender equality worldwide. This is, for example, through the elimination of violence against women and the equal distribution of power and responsibility between the sexes.

Although the new country holding the presidency will have to fight for these things, its own laws state that a woman must have a guardian, even if she is 18 years old. Just as marital rape is not recognized as a crime.

That is why Sherine Tadros, head of Amnesty International's UN office, is not exactly happy with the appointment of Saudi Arabia as the country holding the presidency.

The UN Commission on the Rights of Women has a clear mandate to promote women's rights and gender equality, and it is essential that the President of the Commission upholds this.

"Saudi Arabia's sad record in protecting and promoting women's rights clearly shows the huge gap between the actual reality of women and girls in Saudi Arabia and the commission's objectives," she said in an email.

It's about sending a signal


According to Fannie Agerschou-Madsen, a PhD student at the Danish Institute for International Studies and Roskilde University with a focus on Saudi Arabia, there must be a lot of lobbying work prior to the appointment.

Because it is about sending a signal to the outside world and to the population from the Saudis.

"Gender equality is something that Saudi Arabia has been criticized for for many decades. And the lack of women's rights is one of the things they have been associated with internationally, she says.

Saudi Arabia cannot prove its dedication to women's rights simply by securing a leadership role in the Commission. It must demonstrate its dedication through concrete actions nationally.

SHERINE TADROS, HEAD OF AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL'S UN OFFICE

- They have a desire to attract tourists and investors. Here, the way Saudi Arabia is viewed by the outside world is hugely important. And, of course, they do not want to be associated with an oppressive regime.

She points out that in recent years there has been a major development in which women have gained more rights. For example, it became legal for women to take a driver's license in 2018.

READ ALSO:Women in Saudi Arabia can drive, play sports and have the right to vote

This development has taken place with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman at the head, who, according to Fannie Agerschou-Madsen, would like to appeal to women and present herself as a liberator.

"Many of the women I've spoken to also describe how they now feel that a lot of what they really want to rebel against – this conservative, patriarchal structure – is something they now have the support of the state to do away with.

- They can now work with whatever they want. They can drive around in their own cars, live in their own apartments, and they can travel out of the country if they want," she says.







Before 2018, this sight was not possible, a woman driving a car in Saudi Arabia. Up to its abolition, the country was the only one that had such a ban. (Photo: © AMER HILABI, Scanpix Denmark)

A presidential role is not enough


But there is still a huge challenge, which is basically due to the fact that women are not legally equal to men, says Fannie Agerschou-Madsen. For example, that a woman's father is her guardian even when she has turned 18. Then, when a woman gets married, it is the man who takes over the role of guardian.

"Many of the women who have been champions of women's rights and women's right to drive are still in prison. So in that sense, you could say that this is one of the things that shows that in reality it is still an enormous authoritarian and patriarchal regime.

READ ALSO:A 31-year-old woman fighting for women's right to drive in Saudi Arabia has been sentenced to nearly six years in prison

According to Sherine Tadros of Amnesty International, Saudi Arabia cannot hide behind the role of chairman. She points out that the country must immediately release all those wrongfully detained for expressing their views, including expressing support for women's rights.

"Saudi Arabia cannot prove its dedication to women's rights simply by securing a leadership role in the Commission. It must demonstrate its dedication through concrete actions nationally, including by abolishing the male guardianship system and repealing provisions from its laws that discriminate against women.

[DrWilly]

According to Sherine Tadros of Amnesty International, Saudi Arabia cannot hide behind the role of chairman

That’s ironic.

[katie23]

Saudi & women's rights? Ya got to be kidding...

Sure, they have made some positive steps the past few years but they're far from being champions for women's welfare.

[Takeovers]

I recall that only 30 years ago western womens rights organizations argued that Islam protects women from sexual exploitation. Unlike western society.

[Molle]

Sure, they have made some positive steps the past few years

and that's why they were now given a carrot and not a stick. You can see it as a friendly push further in the right direction.

[taxexile]

and that's why they were now given a carrot and not a stick. You can see it as a friendly push further in the right direction.

do you really think that after hundreds of years of beheading, whipping, raping, controlling and stoning women the men of saudi arabia are suddenly going to embrace equality and feminism? open your eyes. its in their genes and cannot be stopped.

this smokescreen is about one thing and one thing only. money.

in 20 years time nobody will be buying oil, saudis only source of income, the days of these throat slitting misogynists sitting in their gold plated mansions, driving around in their bentleys whist pakistani and bangladeshi slaves attend to their every need will soon be over.

their country is a desert and has nothing else to offer and now they look at how dubai, another cultureless desert, has embraced western ways and tourism and business have thrived.

the saudis want some of this investment and by appearing to recognise and modernise their appalling human rights record they hope to present a welcoming face to the world and promote their desert kingdom as some kind of tourist paradise and financial centre.

meanwhile their women, many of whom are clitoris free, still cant show their faces or even one square inch of flesh in public.

[Seekingasylum]

It’s an appointment doled out to all member states of the UN as a protocol within diplomacy. In the scheme of things, it means fuck all, they’re still heathen savages whose only significance is in the pricing of oil, a factor that in time will recede into inconsequence.

I remember back in the day when Ghaddafy was being rehabilitated by the international community Libya was appointed chair of the UN committee on Human Rights.

[taxexile]

and here's another case of repugnant religious extremist torturing murderers having their cocks sucked by the hypocritical weaklings of the UN.

The appointment of Ali Bahreini, Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Permanent Representative to the United Nations, to chair the 2023 United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Social Forum (2 and 3 November 2023), is nothing more than a slap in the face given the human rights situation of most Iranians, particularly women, and the repeated executions in the wake of the ongoing protests in the country and, more generally, the Islamic Republic's gross human rights violations and its catastrophic and politicised handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, when its refusal to import Western vaccines cost hundreds of thousands of lives.

[britanicus123]

Like putting Gary Glitter in charge of a girls only nursery Quran condones wife beating, polygamy and the rape of captives

[bsnub]

I recall that only 30 years ago western womens rights organizations argued that Islam protects women from sexual exploitation.

Saudi to chair UN women's right Commision

Anyone that thinks the UN is a body that should be taken serious is just pushing a (most likely false) narrative. The entire institution should be dissolved.

[cyrille]

I recall that only 30 years ago western womens rights organizations argued that Islam protects women from sexual exploitation.

30 years ago?

Damn!

Probably no internet sources from back then.

What unfortunate timing.

[Troy]

do you really think that after hundreds of years of beheading, whipping, raping, controlling and stoning women the men of saudi arabia are suddenly going to embrace equality and feminism? open your eyes. its in their genes and cannot be stopped.

It's not that long ago that other nations did the same, although burning women rather than stoning them was the UK tradition. Was it also in their genes and cannot be stopped?

Stick to your day job you silly old bugger.

[taxexile]

troy

It's not that long ago

that makes no sense at all. what happened then in the west ended long ago but mistreatment of women still happens in islamic societies on a huge scale and the laws offer them no protection, in fact the laws demand it!
even then were never disadvantaged to such an extent in western societies as they still are in islam.

This, from another sharia state ...

guardian.org

Taliban edict to resume stoning women to death met with horror
Afghan regime’s return to public stoning and flogging is because there is ‘no one to hold them accountable’ for abuses, say activists



Ruchi Kumar and Rukhshana reporters
Thu 28 Mar 2024 18.02 GMT



The Taliban’s announcement that it is resuming publicly stoning women to death has been enabled by the international community’s silence, human rights groups have said.

Safia Arefi, a lawyer and head of the Afghan human rights organisation Women’s Window of Hope, said the announcement had condemned Afghan women to return to the darkest days of Taliban rule in the 1990s.

“With this announcement by the Taliban leader, a new chapter of private punishments has begun and Afghan women are experiencing the depths of loneliness,” Arefi said.

“Now, no one is standing beside them to save them from Taliban punishments. The international community has chosen to remain silent in the face of these violations of women’s rights.”

The Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, announced at the weekend that the group would begin enforcing its interpretation of sharia law in Afghanistan, including reintroducing the public flogging and stoning of women for adultery.

In an audio broadcast on the Taliban-controlled Radio Television Afghanistan last Saturday, Akhundzada said: “We will flog the women … we will stone them to death in public [for adultery].


Hibatullah Akhundzada said: ‘The Taliban’s work did not end with the takeover of Kabul, it has only just begun.’


“You may call it a violation of women’s rights when we publicly stone or flog them for committing adultery because they conflict with your democratic principles,” he said, adding: “[But] I represent Allah, and you represent Satan.”

He justified the move as a continuation of the Taliban’s struggle against western influences. “The Taliban’s work did not end with the takeover of Kabul, it has only just begun,” he said.

The news was met by horror but not surprise by Afghan women’s right groups, who say the dismantling of any remaining rights and protection for the country’s 14 million women and girls is now almost complete.

Sahar Fetrat, an Afghan researcher at Human Rights Watch, said: “Two years ago, they didn’t have the courage they have today to vow stoning women to death in public; now they do.

“They tested their draconian policies one by one, and have reached this point because there is no one to hold them accountable for the abuses. Through the bodies of Afghan women, the Taliban demand and command moral and societal orders. We should all be warned that if not stopped, more and more will come.”

Since taking power, in August 2021, the Taliban has dissolved the western-backed constitution of Afghanistan and suspended existing criminal and penal codes, replacing them with their rigid and fundamentalist interpretation of sharia law. They also banned female lawyers and judges, targeting many of them for their work under the previous government.


Samira Hamidi, an Afghan activist and campaigner at Amnesty International, said: “In the past two and half years, the Taliban has dismantled institutions that were providing services to Afghan women.

“However, their leader’s latest endorsement of women’s public stoning to death is a flagrant violation of international human rights laws, including Cedaw [the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women].”

Hamidi said Afghan women were now in effect powerless to defend themselves from persecution and injustice.

In the past year alone, Taliban-appointed judges ordered 417 public floggings and executions, according to Afghan Witness, a research group monitoring human rights in Afghanistan. Of these, 57 were women.

Most recently, in February, the Taliban executed people in public at stadiums in Jawzjan and Ghazni provinces. The militant group has urged people to attend executions and punishments as a “lesson” but banned filming or photography.

and you have the nerve to reference the long abandoned 16th century religious persecution in the west as a valid reason to belittle my argument.