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Riyadh: Saudis rejected the gloomy picture of status of women in the country as drawn by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discriminations against Women.
The Geneva-based committee, in a report released on Friday, said women in Saudi Arabia are the victims of systematic and pervasive discrimination across all aspects of social life. It urged the Saudi government to take concrete steps to enforce gender equality and end violence against women.
Dr Misfer Al Qah'tani, deputy chairman of the Saudi National Human Rights Society (NHRS), an independent Saudi human rights body, said the status of women in Saudi Arabia is progressing remarkably.
"The situation of woman in Saudi Arabia is advancing remarkably and the ... Sharia applied by the kingdom preserves the rights of woman," he told reporters yesterday.
Al Qah'tani admitted, however, that there are some obstacles in the implementation of some laws.
He said when the kingdom signed the Convention of the Elimination of all Discriminations Against Woman (Cedaw) in 2000, it voiced reservations on the articles that are contrary to the principles of Sharia.
Shaikh Abdul Mohsen Al Obaikan, member of the Islamic Affairs Committee at the Shura Council, said the "equality" that the report referred to is an ambiguous term. "What we see as equality others may see as a reverse to it. But all rational people have a consensus that equality is to establish justice between people and to grant everyone his rights," he said.
Complaints
"Based on this, the woman in our society and religion has a different status than that of a man," he said. He added that Saudi women are not complaining of unfair social or religious treatment.
"They complain of injustices from their husbands and some guardians and this situation prevails in all countries and if a questionnaire was conducted, 99 per cent of [Saudi women] will underline their satisfaction of the respect and appreciation and rights they get in their homeland," Al Obaikan said.
Dr Zuhair Al Harethi, spokesman of the official Saudi Human Rights Association, said his country welcomes constructive criticism but at the same time rejects any false charges.
"We are a member of the UN Human Rights Council and we have sent a delegation to New York coinciding with the release of the report and we are going to assess the report and decide the appropriate position to be taken," he said.
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