Those who have lived in Saudi Arabia know that the majority of Men especially Bedouins are very rude towards women; they disrespect women and consider women inferior. This attitude towards women has been going on since the pre-Islamic period. Islam religion was supposed to improve the social status for women particularly in the Arabian Peninsula, because back then women were treated as objects and slaves. But it seems that Saudi men can’t get along with the Islamic rules, they can’t accept the fact that women are just like men. They always interpreted the religion as men are superior and women should follow them and obey them as they are guardians.
There is this sentence in the Arabic language when a man mention things that are considered culturally inferior such as shoes or dirty places AND women says ” waanta be karama” which means sorry for using an offensive term. The offensive terms include women or their names.
Most Bedouins prefer having a baby boy rather than a baby girl, they believe it’s honorable to have males in the family that carries out the family name and pass it to the other generation. The killing of baby girls was very common in the pre-Islamic period. However, Islam religion stopped the act of killing baby girls and it has a clear message in the Quran about that matter.
Some Bedouins use to name their daughters very offensive names such as towel and monster, until the government just few years ago took an action and forced parents to change the offensive name of their daughters. I remember one of my teachers called camel and one of my classmates were called a very offensive sexual term that I can’t even write it. Isn’t this so cruel and sick?!!! Its really bad that they they government action took so long.
Saudi women are not allowed to get an education, health insurance, job or travel without a guardian’s approval. There is consent that must be signed by the guardian before a woman can do anything. A guardian is the male in the family; he can be her son or 75 year old father, an uncle, brother or whoever male in the family that makes a decision for his daughter, mother or sister. That man can be ignorant and not aware of anything at all and the woman can be highly educated, intelligent and yet consider inferior compared to75 illiterate old man because she is a female. I know many girls who are at home because their guardians won’t let them get a higher education or a job. A lot of Saudi men don’t want women to compete with them and don’t believe that women should get an education or a job, they believe that the woman should marry and serve her husband and have alot of children instead.
Saudi Arabia is the only country that considers ” female driving” a felony. Women in Saudi Arabia are not allowed to drive cars. Instead, they have to beg their brothers or fathers to get them to wherever they want.
For Women like myself who are living alone with no male in their family around need to hire a male driver. It’s so not fair because it costs a fortune to get the visa for the driver and then I must pay him a monthly salary furthermore provide him with a room and food. In addition I have to buy a car, that I will never drive myself and pay for the gas as well considering that it will be doubled, for the reason that the driver is going drop me off in school then will turn back home and then get back later to pick me up, when I can just save all that energy and money if I was driving my own car. Imagine how much money Saudi women spends on getting drivers of their own.
Since I can’t afford this I stop a taxi car every time I have to go anywhere, If I was lucky, I’ll just wait for about 10 minutes before the taxi stops. However, sometimes I wait for a lot longer in very hot weather conditions like 45 degrees or so. A lot of times I deal with sexual harassment or spanking.. Etc. Sometimes its from Saudi guys who happened to pass by while I was standing waiting for a taxi cap or from the taxi driver himself. You can imagine what a single Saudi woman have to go through just to buy a bottle or water from the mini market.
What pisses me off the most is when I find a very young boys at the age of 10 -13 driving cars and don’t get tickets for it because its very ordinary and common here in Saudi.
What makes that Pilipino, Indian or Pakistani driver better than me??!
Why its okay when a 12 year old Saudi boy with no license to drive a car and it’s a felony when 40 year old Saudi woman with international license drives the car?
This video is showing Wajiha Al Huaider speaking about Saudi Women right.
Omaima Al Najjar 
That is sooo horrible! =(
i sincerely hope that things will improve for you ladies in saudi arabia. though i doubt it in all honesty.
you women are human beings and should be treated with all manners of respect and kindness. not in this inhumane way you tells off.. 😦
Kind regards
Jim
Good Post!
Soon, you will be driving your car. Insahallah!
Inshallah .. allah yesm3 mennak! I hope so.
I think that all that – women were treated badly in preislamic times – is just a religious propaganda. There used to be women gods in dzahilija and matrilinear tribes, and for instance Khadidja was a wealthy independent bussiness women – just the opposite of what islam teaches and what can muslimas do is SA now. I guess that the whole problem is that Mo was a womanizer and utterly disrespectful to women – he saw them primarily as sexual objects. He didnt have a problem with killing all relatives of Safyia including her husband and rape her the same day – poor Safyia hadnt any choice but to give a consent to marriage, because she would be raped by other Mo’s henchmen and enslaved. He said that majority of inhibitants of Hell are women, that you can beat your wife when you FEAR she wouldnt be obedient. Convertites in my country are beaten quite regularly and other muslimas just dont recognize domestic violence as a problem, because lots of them think that its their fault or they are just sabr. So islam – no preislamic customs – is the main factor here. There are scientific studies of domestic violence in islamic countries* and the incidence is huge – higher than in non-islamic countries.
* just type sth like “islam or muslims domestic violence” into google scholar, there are free scientific articles accessible or preislamic women to google (but independent sources, no biased islamic pages)
The fact that women are so curtailed in Saudia Arabia proves not that men are the keepers of women (in a positive sense) but rather that they are cowards, not men at all…you only seek to control if you are afraid but there is no need to fear if you treat a woman well. I am sure some Saudi men will say I am a revolutionary voicing these views.. and wow, if they know I drive I am sure they would toss me in jail……I am a Western women, celtic actually, educated to PhD level and spend most of my professional time in academic work, the rest taking care of family…..the men of the enlighted world are real men, not backward savages who trample on women and treat them no better than slaves. And I am familiar with the holy Koran, your God does NOT command you to treat women like this, Islam bestows many rights in women, you guys just choose to take them away. Men ? Or mice ?
Dear Mary,
the sadest part is that alot of saudi women don’t have problem being controlled by men, they actually believe its the right thing. This is why even though Wajiha Al Huadier, Manal Alsherif and many other activist were not able to make a change in regards with women right and independence in SA
You have been “spanked”? this is an unacceptable criminal assault .. go to the police and lay charges.
Even in the west where women drive and are free to catch public transport, both men and women often have to wait 15 minutes or more for an available taxi, that is just a simple fact of supply and demand. However, it is rare for a woman in the west to be harrassed while waiting for a taxi. When there is no limitation on gender mixing, harrassment rarely happens.
Islam sucks
islam isn’t bad, it’s the people who don’t know how to implement islam correctly are to blame
Yeah, I guess it depends on which side you stand.
I shall cast terror into the hearts of the infidels. Strike off their heads, strike off the very tips of their fingers.
Religion of fucktards.
Gemma: yep. For an author: I suggest educating yourself about preislamic period before repeating blatant lies about status women used to have in society.
ویسے دیگر مسلمان ممالک میں تو ایسی صورت حال نہیں ہے۔ مجھے سعودي عرب جیسے ملک کے بارے میں ایسی باتیں جان کر بہت دکھ ہوتا ہے۔ کتنے شرم کی بات ہے کہ ایک مسلمان لڑکی اپنے مسلمان ملک میں ہی اتنی اذیتوں کا شکار ہے۔ افسوس! آبروؤں کے رکھ والے خود ہی آبروؤں کے لٹیرے بن گئے ہیں۔۔۔