Saudi Women

In response to Tracy Wilkinson’s article “Saudi Women Still Paying for Taking a Spin” (Part A, March 31):

Among the oppressed peoples of the world, it is clear that Saudi women are near the top of the list. In fact, of all their abrogated rights, the right to drive is perhaps among the most trivial, though certainly the most sensational since the Nov. 6 “drive in” by Saudi women.

As a Muslim, however, I deeply resent Ms. Wilkinson’s implication that the Saudi women’s second-class citizenship is due to the religion of Islam. In Saudi Arabia, exploitation and oppression of women happens to be conducted in the name of God and the religion of Islam.

Why? Because those names are deeply respected in Saudi Arabia, making them effective tools for oppressing women, and when need be, men, foreigners, members of other faiths or whoever is perceived as a threat to the stagnant Saudi regime.

The religion of Islam, counter to the example of Saudi Arabia, seeks not only to emancipate women, but to restore to both women and men the dignity of freedom from exploitation, be it racial, economic or sexual. To this end, Islam and its inception 1,500 years ago, guaranteed for women their rights of ownership of property, inheritance, divorce and full participation in business and politics. Women did not begin enjoying such rights in the West until nearly 1,000 years later.

Therefore, to blame the status of Saudi women on Islam is in fact to perpetuate the oppression that occurs there, because we wrongly lend it the doctrinal support of the world’s second largest religion.

GASSER HATHOUT

Research Associate, Muslim Public Affairs Council,

Los Angeles