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DE RUEHRH #1027/01 2210745
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R 090745Z AUG 09
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INFO RUCNISL/ISLAMIC COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 RIYADH 001027 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV KISL SA
SUBJECT:  SAUDI RELIGIOUS SCHOLAR'S "REMINDER" ON WOMEN'S RIGHTS 
 
REFS: 
 
¶A. RIYADH 887 
¶B. RIYADH 888 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
¶1. (U) In late July a senior religious scholar who advises the King 
wrote a column in the Saudi Arabic daily Al-Watan recalling the 
Quranic stipulation that women have rights in equal measure to their 
obligations.  The column illustrates a new approach to improving the 
status of women among religious moderates.  Comments on the 
newspaper's website in response reveal skepticism and frustration 
but also demands for change.  End summary. 
 
A PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE 
STRATEGY TO EXPAND WOMEN'S RIGHTS? 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) As a group of scholars from Imam Muhammad University told 
the Charge recently (ref A), there is a growing movement toward more 
moderate, open and progressive interpretations of Islam, though it 
may not be immediately recognizable to outsiders as such. In fact, 
one of their key messages was that they wanted to accommodate change 
without naming it as such. They also said that they sought to 
develop a new narrative to package change and accommodate a new 
approach to the status of women but that their approach had to be 
based on authentically Saudi concepts and tradition to avoid the 
taint of Western ideas and toxic Saudi "liberals." A three-part 
column by a leading Saudi scholar published in late July in the 
progressive newspaper Al-Watan provided a glimpse of how this 
strategy is developing. 
 
RHETORIC: EQUAL RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES? 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶3. (U) The title of the column was a 4-word phrase from a Quranic 
verse (2:228) that is often cited as a reference for the concept of 
equal rights for women. One Embassy contact explained that the 
phrase had come to be viewed by some as an empty slogan, since "they 
always say it to show women have equality in Islam, but then they 
don't do anything." The Arabic is extremely terse, and translations 
vary, but the meaning most often given is roughly, "women have such 
honorable rights as obligations." It comes from the Quran's second 
(and longest) chapter, in a verse that deals with divorce and the 
balance of rights and responsibilities between husbands and wives. 
[Note: The full line is "Wa lihunna mithl alathi alayhunna 
bilmaarouf" Literally, "To them (feminine) the equivalent of what is 
from them (feminine), equitably." End note] 
 
REALITY, TAKE 1: THE SHEIKH REPORTS DARK STORIES 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶4. (U) With the Quranic stipulation for equity as context, senior 
scholar Sheikh Abdullah bin Sulaiman al-Munai' wrote about injustice 
towards Saudi women. He described complaints from women who had 
called him to protest a previous column in which he had urged Muslim 
women to strive to meet their Islamic duties and obligations. The 
women had shared stories of their 
mistreatment, including being forced to hand over salaries, being 
married off to settle family debts, and suffering from absentee 
husbands and multiple wives. One asked how Muslim women could be 
expected to fulfill their obligations if they were denied their 
rights. Al-Munai', who is an adviser to the King, wrote that "there 
was no doubt that there were many of these dark stories which 
suggested corrupted homes and disturbed social life and the 
emergence of a new generation living in chaotic family life." He 
called on Saudi men to prove their true manhood by treating women 
justly, confirming that women had the same rights as men, including 
for dignity and financial independence and control of their own 
lives. Guardianship, he suggested, was not about control but equity, 
with obligations and rights for both men and women. 
 
REALITY, TAKE 2: WHAT RIGHTS? 
----------------------------- 
 
¶5. (U) His readership was apparently not impressed. Extensive 
reaction to the article on the al-Watan website (in Arabic), mostly 
from women, echoed the skepticism of our Embassy contact cited 
above. For example: 
 
--But Sheikh, wrote one, it is not enough to only say to men "fear 
God in treating women," because then people will turn their backs on 
the dramas of Saudi girls. Girls should be able 
to call an official department that can verify the injustice done to 
women and get them their rights back through just trials and clear 
written laws. 
 
--Another reader commented: Islamic Shari'a granted us everything, 
but unfortunately it is not applied... in Saudi Arabia a woman 
cannot even bring herself a maid with her own money or her own ID. . 
 
RIYADH 00001027  002 OF 002 
 
 
. everything we want to do is in the hands of a guardian. You say 
she has the right to choose her own husband - ha - she cannot even 
manage her own money. 
 
A SHEIKH OF THE SULTAN 
---------------------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) The Sheikh, born in Nejd in 1928, is a member of the Senior 
Council of Religious Scholars, and was appointed as an adviser to 
the King last year. Educated at Imam Muhammad University, he was a 
judge in Mecca. In addition to his Al-Watan column, Al-Munai' hosts 
a call-in show on Saudi television, where he dispenses Islamic 
advice on the gamut of social issues. Considered by observers as one 
of the "Sheikhs of the Sultan" (i.e., he hews to government 
policies) he is known as a moderate traditionalist who steers clear 
of political issues. 
 
COMMENT: THIS IS PROGRESS? 
-------------------------- 
 
¶7. (SBU) In many countries, debates on social issues are often 
difficult to penetrate because the warring parties speak in code and 
use slogans often unfathomable to outsiders. This is particularly 
the case in the increasingly public and passionate arguments on the 
role of women in Saudi Arabia, where all sides must take care to 
couch their arguments in Islamically-correct language.  Foreign 
observers in the Kingdom are apt to mistake arguments laden with 
Qur'anic references as signaling opposition to progress, especially 
with respect to women's rights. However, as the Embassy is learning 
from its broadening contacts among Saudi Arabia's religious 
establishment (ref b), this can be a mistake. Sheikh Munai's column 
is a noteworthy example of how a supposedly apolitical senior 
conservative religious figure is helping to shape the debate on 
women's rights and provide a platform that allows some women to 
articulate their problems and demand solutions. 
 
ERDMAN