Gender Apartheid

Two weeks ago we had a small first in the local media…an article making comparisons with apartheid South Africa that had nothing to do with Israel. No, for what to me is the first time, we had an article detailing the real apartheid of Saudi Arabia.

The article by Mona Eltahawy, entitled 'Gender Apartheid' appeared in the 01/12/2007 issue of the Weekend Witness. I can’t find the link at the Witness but the full version of the same article can be found here at the Baltimore Sun.

Once upon a time, in a country called South Africa, the color of your skin determined where you lived, what jobs you were allowed to have and whether you could vote. Decent countries around the world fought the evil of racial apartheid by turning South Africa into a pariah state. They barred it from global events such as the Olympics. Businesses and universities boycotted South Africa, damaging its economy and adding to the isolation of the white-minority government, which finally repealed apartheid laws in 1991. Today, in a country called Saudi Arabia, it is gender rather than racial apartheid that is the evil. But the international community watches quietly and does nothing.

I would have added religious apartheid to the problem. In Saudi Arabia, it is forbidden to publicly practice any religion other than Islam. And even within Islam, Shia Muslims cannot even be represented in a Saudi court. They are basically treated as if they are Jews. (In fact, according to Irshad Manji, in Saudi Arabia Shia Islam is viewed as a Jewish conspiracy.)

Comments

[Hard Rain]

Furthermore, it is well known that a de facto racial apartheid/discrimination system exists in Saudi Arabia against all non-Arabs (yes, fellow Muslims too).