Saudi Arabian women threaten to flee country en masse if they are not given basic rights

[userschmoozer]

''...Saudi Arabian women are threatening to flee the country if the government doesn’t pursue measures to end a male guardianship system that bars women from doing basic activities, including traveling or going to the doctor, without the permission of men.''

womenintheworld.com/2019/01/11/saudi-arabian-women-threaten-to-flee-country-en-masse-if-they-are-not-given-basic-rights/

Very brave.

fair play to them. Brave thing to do.

I wonder what the wider context is in KSA. Isn't there purges and a succession dispute ongoing? I think the new guy recently graciously allowed women driving

Good, awful how they are treated.

good. they are very brave

Wow that’s amazing and inspirational. I hadn’t heard about this. What an amazing young woman Rahaf is

I’m very pleased they got the right to drive. I just hope that the poor women who drove before the ban was lifted will be free soon.

It's a very young country, demographically speaking, and a well educated one. How long do those old men think they can keep a lid on women's anger? Change is coming whether they like it or not.

They are very brave.

Inspiring.

It's a very young country, demographically speaking, and a well educated one. How long do those old men think they can keep a lid on women's anger? Change is coming whether they like it or not.

I agree. Ultimately I think you're right. I just think the old men won't give up their rigid control easily.

I’m not convinced that young men are particularly enthusiastic about giving up control either.

No.

Their guardianship system makes me think of the women in the handmaids tale. I was so excited to hear that she was accepted for asylum . The young Saudis ( males) I meet with through work ( education ) always go on about how it’s the best country ever and if anyone asks about the women they trot out the line that their women have such a great life ,protected ‘ like a jewel’ I get the impression that they all say this when another Saudi is around as you never know who someone is connected to.

The RevealRahaf tag is a window into just how twisted men's thinking can get when they're brought up in an environment in which total control over women is the norm.

Sometimes a woman's own son is her guardian and gets to tell her what to do. Let that sink in for a moment.

I’m not convinced that young men are particularly enthusiastic about giving up control either.

Yep. I’ve some experience in the Gulf and while not all have that horrid guardianship system, they all are deeply patriarchal and the women are either controlled by their birth family or the family they marry into. Its just codified into law in Saudi Arabia. It’s so sad.

Also, they jailed the activists who fought for women to drive.

I hope they succeed, I think only a full-on rebellion will change things, it must be so hard to do something like this against your own family though, when your oppressors are literally your own father/brother/husband/son.

If she'd been forcibly repatriated I don't like to think about what would have happened to her. At best her family would never have let her escape again.

The move to allow women to drive was bread and circus designed to distract from something else, imo.

The other brave young woman, Dina, who was repatriated despite international support has never been heard from again. Rahaf is brave but also lucky.

If it goes like the driving ban protest, the law will be changed and the ringleaders rounded up and disappeared.

they all are deeply patriarchal and the women are either controlled by their birth family or the family they marry into.

Always sobering to remember that the things that protect us from that - benefits, legislation that we have power to enforce, free easy access to contraception, equality law - are very recent and can be taken away.

At last the female revolution I had so long hoped for. They will not stand for this for much longer.

The move to allow women to drive was bread and circus designed to distract from something else, imo.

A bit of window dressing for the west.

Always sobering to remember that the things that protect us from that - benefits, legislation that we have power to enforce, free easy access to contraception, equality law - are very recent and can be taken away.

Indeed.

The woman who is a doctor said how embarrassing it was where she is making life and death decisions, but being treated like a minor.

I'm not sure embarrassing is the word I would use. But the whole situation genuinely makes my heart lurch. To imagine being under that kind of control is the stuff of nightmares.

This is amazing. I hope things change soon.

Angry do you know from what age a son be "responsible" for his own mother? I didn't know they could. It's frightening.

Lots of Saudi families don’t live like that. I just wanted to point that out.

There are kind, decent men in every country. Legal systems should be designed to protect women and children from the men who're not kind or decent.