The medieval Islamic system enforced in Saudi Arabia is on display this week after Malak Al Shehri decided to do what most women around the world do without a second’s thought: she went out into public without covering herself up with a veil or hijab. Malak then posted herself on a public street. The result has been volcanic with some supporting her courage but many others calling for her to be beheaded or “thrown to the dogs.” It is a reminder of the plight of women in the Kingdom and other Islamic countries imposing Sharia law.
A student from Dammam using the name of Sara Ahmed shared the shot showing Malak wearing a black coat over a calf-length dress. Sara captained the picture in a way that captured the absurdity of the situation for modern women: “A Saudi woman went out yesterday without an Abaya or a hijab in Riyadh Saudi Arabia and many Saudis are now demanding her execution.”
Sara said Malak received so many death threats that she was forced to delete her account.
All women in Saudi Arabia – local and foreign – are legally required to wear an abaya or traditional full-body covering. Foreign women are exempted from the mandatory headscarf – or hijab.
These young women (and those fighting for the right to drive and leave their homes without male approval) are the Saudi “Seneca Falls” generation of courageous human rights advocates. We will continue to follow and highlight their struggle. They are a reminder that the rights that we take for granted remain only aspirations for many around the world.
surprised the comments are about American politics yet, what the blog described, was a Saudi experience. I have no comprehension of how this must feel, to be a woman in this setting and can only hope that step by step, human condition will allow for more freedom to be introduced for women, in their own pace and what feels right for them in that environment. I would love to hear their point of view on this subject. thanks for posting
Forget the Hijab….this girl needs a Burka! Check out her ankles! I cannot control my male urges….she must cover those ankle!
In many Islamic countries like Pakistan University students and professionals go without veil and it seems they want to enforce it only in the West especially USA.
Yes… a public beheading is justified. Let’s start this purge on the west coast, and when CA is emptied out, we should move the message to the northeast.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-38202669 Left wins in Austria. Far right trumpism is defeated.
Bunch of psychotic animals!!! Do the idiot pigs even have one ounce of intelligence to understand that everyone is born without a head covering other than their own hair?!!! They are just sick in the head! A bunch of pigs that try to dictate what women should wear or what they can do. Sickos!!
She received death threats. There are quite a mass of rude internet blowhards. The number who are actually going to kill you are a tiny fraction of the number metaphorically shaking their fist at you.
“You should be shot” was a common retort when I was in junior high school. I really wasn’t expecting the chap I knew who most favored it to actually come after me with one of his father’s old rifles.
Turn about is fair play. In America we need to shoot any Saudi who appears on the street with one of those tent head coverings. We need to kick the United Nations out of NYC and ask them to go to Saudi Arabia and set up shop there.
http://www.deathpenaltyworldwide.org/country-search-post.cfm?country=saudi+arabia
Capital sentences are not (per black letter law) issued for indecent exposure. They can be issued for sodomy and for adultery (on the part of those already married).
So, how do you identify Saudis on the street? Or do you just want to shoot anybody whose headgear you don’t like? And what about “due process” in this country?
So you advocate that we become as barbaric in our practices as those whom we criticize for their barbarity.
Except Saudi Arabia does not execute people for indecent exposure. It does not execute people randomly on the street. They execute a median of 82 people a year, and the major reason is indubitably murder. It wouldn’t surprise me if their legal procedures were so haphazard that they collar a great many innocents and it would not surprise me if they used some trumped-up charges to take out dissidents or take out people who’ve gotten into tiffs with notables. Those sorts of abuses are a different problem, and not incorporated into the Wahhabi school per se.
Saudi Arabia has been pretty effective in executing its neighbors in Yemen though.
Come again? They’re engaged in counter-insurgency in a neighbor in an anarchic state. What does that have to do with criminal justice?