Fawaz Al-Sihani
ABDULLAH AL-SUBAI’EE, a well-known Saudi professor of psychiatry, once said, “The more women I see at the clinic, the more I realize that Saudi women are being cruelly abused and are victims of social injustices. I cannot believe that they are maltreated in a society that considers itself Islamic.”
Unfortunately, there are some members of society who still think that those who call for Saudi women’s rights are devils and conspirers who want to destroy our social fabric and unity and even our religion. If you try to argue with them, they will say that you are an ignorant and stupid person who is unaware of the hidden agenda of those who call for liberating women.
Despite the fact that Saudi women have been marginalized for a long time in our male-dominated society, the majority of Saudis believe that there is some kind of Zionist plan against Saudi women. If a Saudi writer talks about women’s rights in the media, he will be considered to be someone who has been deceived by the West and who does not realize the real agenda behind the call for women’s rights. Most members of the public believe that the West wants our society to become decadent and sexually promiscuous. Such people believe that Satan lives inside all women and wants to lead them astray. Personally speaking, I believe that these people are exaggerating and are obsessed with women’s bodies.
Let us forget about the above accusations and exaggerations and think more logically to find a better answer. The best way to deal with this issue is to mention the fatwa issued by a so-called scholar who seems to be obsessed with the dangers of Pokemon Go and other games. A woman asked this scholar if she could travel abroad alone without a male guardian (mahram) because she did not have one. The woman suffers from a serious medical condition and is in dire need of medical treatment. In blatant disregard of her grave medical condition, the scholar told her not to travel alone even if it meant losing her life. He told her it would be better for her to die protecting her honor than to travel without a mahram and commit a sin.
I do not know how her traveling alone is against the Shariah? The scholar based his fatwa on the saying of the Prophet (peace be upon him): “A woman must not travel alone without a mahram.” I believe that this scholar intentionally ignored the views of other renowned scholars who permit women to travel alone. Ibn Taymiyyah and many others permitted women to travel alone if they were faced with similar situations.
The fatwa given by the scholar proves one thing—some people are intentionally making life difficult for women. The scholar is one of those people who does not care if a wife, for example, is being abused or beaten by her husband. They will never tell the wife to desert her abusive husband and file for a divorce. Instead, they will ask her to put up with him because she will be rewarded in the Hereafter.
Scholars like him view the movement to liberate women as a Zionist agenda that aims to create social disintegration and decadence.
