Saudi women 'kept in childhood'

Click link above to view full article

Saudi women are being kept in perpetual childhood so male relatives can exercise "guardianship" over them, the Human Rights Watch group has said...

Their access to justice is also severely constrained, it says.

The group says the Saudi establishment sacrifices basic human rights to maintain male control over women.

Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world where women are not allowed to drive.

Saudi clerics see the guardianship of women's honour as a key to the country's social and moral order.

So "honor" is more important than their rights? I guess the West has it all backwards then[/sarcasm].

~ A, not muslim anymore ~

Muslim call to adopt Mecca time

Click title above to see link.

Just wow. The arrogance.

Muslim scientists and clerics have called for the adoption of Mecca time to replace GMT, arguing that the Saudi city is the true centre of the Earth...

A prominent cleric, Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawy, said modern science had at last provided evidence that Mecca was the true centre of the Earth; proof, he said, of the greatness of the Muslim "qibla" - the Arabic word for the direction Muslims turn to when they pray.

So where is this evidence from Modern Science? Or is it just the Muslim Scientists that have "proven" this?

~ A, not muslim anymore ~

Saudi Women Lobby King for Driving Right

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia - For the first time ever, a group of women in the only country that bans female drivers have formed a committee to lobby for the right to get behind the wheel, and they plan to petition King Abdullah in the next few days for the privilege...

Good for them! It's not likely to do anything, however.

The last time the issue was raised was two years ago, when Mohammed al-Zulfa, a member of the unelected Consultative Council, asked his colleagues to think about studying the possibility of allowing women over age 35 or 40 to drive -- unchaperoned on city streets but accompanied by a male guardian on highways.

The suggestion touched off a fierce controversy that included calls for al-Zulfa's removal from the council and stripping him of Saudi citizenship, as well as accusations he was encouraging women to commit the double sins of discarding their veils and mixing with men.

Wow, taking away his citizen for suggesting that women drive? DOYC forbid that women discard their veils and mix with men.

A, veil-less and mixing with men on a daily basis

Saudi woman Sues Moral Police

Wow, you go girl! It's about time! Some excerpts from the article:

A Saudi civil court is to hear the first ever case brought against the kingdom's religious police, commonly known as the Muttawa.

The unnamed woman is seeking compensation after she and her daughter were allegedly wrongfully arrested in a shopping centre car park in 2004 for "not wearing decent clothing", Abderrahman al-Lahm, her lawyer said...

The woman's family is bringing the case before a civil court in Riyadh on Sunday after an Islamic court rejected the complaint, ruling that "a member of the religious police cannot be judged".

Al-Lahm said he hoped his client's case would help consolidate the role of justice in defending individual freedoms and human rights...

The interior ministry issued a decree in May 2006 aimed at reining in the religious police by requiring them not to interrogate detained suspects, as they had previously done, but to hand them over to the regular police instead.

It probably won't go anywhere, but I am glad that someone is trying.

A.,