 Women cannot make even simple decisions on children, the report says |
Saudi women are being kept in perpetual childhood so male relatives can exercise "guardianship" over them, the Human Rights Watch group has said.
The New York-based group says Saudi women have to obtain permission from male relatives to work, travel, study, marry or even receive health care.
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.
'No progress'
The report, Perpetual Minors: Human Rights Abuses Stemming from Male Guardianship and Sex Segregation in Saudi Arabia, draws on more than 100 interviews with Saudi women.
Farida Deif, women's rights researcher for the Middle East at Human Rights Watch, said: "Saudi women won't make any progress until the government ends the abuses that stem from these misguided policies."
 |  It's astonishing that the Saudi government denies adult women the right to make decisions for themselves but holds them criminally responsible for their actions at puberty  Farida Deif, Human Rights Watch  |
The report says that Saudi women are denied the legal right to make even trivial decisions for their children - women cannot open bank accounts for children, enrol them in school, obtain school files or travel with their children without written permission from the child's father.
Human Rights Watch says that Saudi women are prevented from accessing government agencies that have no established female sections unless they have a male representative.
The need to establish separate office spaces for women is a disincentive to hiring female employees, and female students are often relegated to unequal facilities with unequal academic opportunities, the report says.
Male guardianship over adult women also contributes to their risk of exposure to violence within the family as victims of violence find it difficult to seek protection or redress from the courts.
Social workers, physicians and lawyers say that it is nearly impossible to remove guardianship from male guardians who are abusive, the group says.
"It's astonishing that the Saudi government denies adult women the right to make decisions for themselves but holds them criminally responsible for their actions at puberty," said Ms Deif.
"For Saudi women, reaching adulthood brings no rights, only responsibilities."
Well kids, I have been mulling for a while what direction I should take in my education -- what will be attainable and what won't be, and navigating the waters of the unknown.
Vocal music would be unattainable. I would have to quit my full time job and that's not an option.
I don't like business degrees.
So I found this two year Liberal Arts transfer degree at our local community college, which is an awesome school. And I signed up for my first class, which is English Comp II. They snapped my picture for the student ID, I look pretty good. :)
So I'm now a college student. :o)
You would not believe how many special people there are here at ABC Nuts and Bolts. First off, there are VPs around every frickin corner. Considering how many there are, if I were a VP, I would be fearing for my job. Or plotting the demise of the others. Take your pick.
And, apparently, every VP needs to have a parking space in the heated garage. Sales has about 13 of those. I support three of those ten folks. Yay for me!
And yet, even though I support three of those folks, I hardly ever get to park in the garage. I have to make sure I get here EARLY in order to make my claim lest someone else snag my spot!
And the 'special' epidemic isn't just at the corporate headquarters building. It's also at the crappy buildings. I was just over at the crappiest of them all yesterday. And I'm trying to find a place to park and sure enough, there was one visitor spot, 2 handicapped spots, and all the other good spots were RESERVED! IE -- Vice President parking!!! God, how many can there be? Enough to populate a small town? People, a recession is coming, may have already hit -- and these folks will start finding out how 'special' they are when the Company starts deciding how they can prop up profits.
Just TRY arriving late and finding a decent parking spot in the morning here at the Corporate Headquarters. Try it more than once! You will soon find that if you judged this company's goodwill toward its employees by the number of available desireable parking spots, you would judge that goodwill to be non-existent. And now they're even leasing out their non-heated garage spaces to surrounding companies! Boy that sure was irritating one day when I was late and looking for parking. The non-heated garage was just about full!! FULL!!!
