Saudi Arabia Pretends to End Male Dominance Over Women

Everyone knows that Saudi Arabia has problems in the field of protecting human rights and another proof of the fact is the accusation coming from human rights group that states that Saudi Arabia does not keep its promise to bring to an end the long-lasting tradition of male dominance over women.
Currently the country lives under a system that makes women in Saudi Arabia dependent on men when they want to do a lot of things, like travel, for example. According to Human Rights Watch women in the country are not allowed to travel or receive any medical assistance without permission from a male guardian. In response to the accusations, Saudi authorities mentioned that male guardianship does not represent a requirement of Islam and that they take specific actions towards ending it.

It is worth mentioning that Saudi Arabia is the core of the Muslim world. The nation prides itself on holding on to what it believes to be the real spirit of Islam and the main feature of this is the role of women in the country. Both the established code of the Bedouin and those who are considered to be the conservative religious elite of the nation require that women in Saudi Arabia should remain separate from men to whom these women are not related.

A woman's honor is the one of the key features of the Saudi society and if a woman is found guilty of breaking the rules established by the code, her entire family suffers shame. In public, all women are more or less veiled. The code does not allow women to drive and those under 45 should receive permission from male guardian to be able to go traveling. In addition, if a woman wants to receive education or get employed she should also receive permission from male. But some women in Saudi Arabia do not feel any pressure and are glad to have such protection; they do not consider that their rights are violated in any way.

As a matter of fact, a lot of Saudi families feel more relaxed about male guardianship, lowering the control of men on women's lives, doing it privately. Nevertheless Human Rights Watch states that there has been little made to prevent male guardianship. The organization called on the government of Saudi Arabia to actually bring to an end the practice instead of pretending to do so.

Human Rights Watch is one of the leading international non-governmental organizations in the world. It carries out research and encouragement on human rights. The group is based in New York City, but has offices throughout the world: in Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo, Toronto, and Washington D.C.