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Women Oppressed in the Name of Culture and Religion Saudi Arabia and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women

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Women Oppressed in the Name of Culture and Religion Saudi Arabia and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women MALMÖ UNIVERSITY HR 61‐90 GLOBAL AND POLITICAL STUDIES AUTUMN 2010 HUMAN RIGHTS SUPERVISOR: ANNA BRUCE Women oppressed in the name of culture and religion Saudi Arabia and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women Elin Andersson & Linn Togelius Abstract In Saudi Arabia women are legal minors who need permission from a male guardian in, among others, matters concerning education, employment and health care. Despite the obvious subordination of women in the country, Saudi Arabia has ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, with a reservation saying that in cases of contradiction between the Convention and Islamic law they do not obligate themselves to follow the rules of the Convention. Respecting the culture, tradition and religion of non-western societies is important in the work with implementing international human rights. However, in the case of Saudi Arabia, it seems like the cultural and religious claims merely function as justification of an institutional oppression of women. This institutional practice of oppression is unique and taken to the extreme, but oppression of women in itself is a global phenomenon, which is not connected to a specific culture. Key words: Saudi Arabia, CEDAW, women’s rights, Feminism, Cultural Relativism, Islamic law 1 Contents 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 4 1.2 Aim and research questions .............................................................................................. 4 1.3 Method and Material ........................................................................................................ 5 1.4 Delimitations .................................................................................................................... 5 1.5 Chapter outline ................................................................................................................. 6 2. Theoretical frameworks .......................................................................................................... 6 2.1 Cultural relativism and women’s human rights ............................................................... 7 2.2 Cosmopolitan feminism ................................................................................................... 8 3 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) .................................................................................................................................................. 10 3.1 Introductory remark ........................................................................................................ 10 3.2 The aim and the substance ............................................................................................. 11 3.3 The Committee of CEDAW ........................................................................................... 12 3.4 CEDAW on reservations ................................................................................................ 12 4 Legal and political system in Saudi Arabia ........................................................................... 13 4.1 Governmental system ..................................................................................................... 13 4.2 Legal system ................................................................................................................... 14 4.2.1 Islam, Sharî´ah and fiqh ........................................................................................................ 14 4.2.2 Hanbalî school and Wahhabism ........................................................................................... 14 4.2.3 The Basic Law ....................................................................................................................... 15 4.3 Attitude towards international human rights .................................................................. 15 5 The situation of Women ........................................................................................................ 16 5.1 Gender Apartheid ........................................................................................................... 16 5.2 The male guardianship ................................................................................................... 17 5.2.1 Islamic law and the male guardianship ................................................................................ 18 5.3 Women and employment ............................................................................................... 18 5.4 Women and education .................................................................................................... 19 5.5 Women under the law .................................................................................................... 20 5.6 Women and health .......................................................................................................... 20 6 The dialogue between Saudi Arabia and the Committee of CEDAW .................................. 20 6.1 The Saudi reservations on CEDAW ............................................................................... 20 6.2 Arguments for reservations ............................................................................................ 21 2 6.3 Concluding comments of the Committee ....................................................................... 27 7 Analysis ................................................................................................................................. 28 7.1 The religious/cultural claims .......................................................................................... 28 7.2 The response from the CEDAW committee .................................................................. 30 7.3 The actual relevance of religion/culture ......................................................................... 31 8 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................... 32 9 Future work ........................................................................................................................... 35 Biblography .............................................................................................................................. 35 3 1 Introduction Human rights have been declared universal but despite this member States formulate dubious and sometimes contrarious reservations to the human rights treaties. The Convention on the Eliminations of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (hereinafter referred to as CEDAW) is highly affected by reservations, which indicates that there is an existing friction concerning the human rights as universal. In many of these reservations, cultural and religious arguments are presented as reasons for non-committance to certain articles. Saudi Arabia ratified CEDAW in 2000 with a general reservation saying that in cases any terms of CEDAW contradict with Islamic law they are under no obligation to commit to those terms. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is unique in their extreme practice of an institutional separation of the sexes in where women are the most underprivileged. Women are legal minors depending on male guardians in decisions concerning employment, education and access to health care. They are not permitted to travel inside the state or outside without permission or the company of a male relative and women are not allowed to drive cars. These are just a few examples of restrictions, claimed to be based on religious and cultural beliefs that deprive the Saudi women of their human rights and freedoms. Having in mind the situation of the Saudi women and the fact that CEDAW states that all discrimination of women shall be eliminated, complications occur when reservations are justified with religious and cultural arguments. Within the international human rights system cultural and religious diversity must be taken into consideration. However, due to the fact that oppression of women is not something unique for particular societies but rather a global and historical phenomenon, it might be important to sometimes look at certain religious and cultural practices with hesitant eyes and even question the actual connection between particular practices and religion. Since the Saudi women are prevented from a meaningful participation in public life, one might also question the representation and the interests behind these claims. The Committee of CEDAW meets Saudi Arabia’s reservation to CEDAW with skepticism but there seem to be an absence of stronger condemnations. 1.2 Aim and research questions In this thesis we aim to look closer at how oppression of women is legitimized by cultural and religious arguments. We have chosen to analyse how the religious and cultural claims are used by the Saudi Arabian Government in defending the upholding of an institutional 4 oppression against women. In addition, we shall investigate how these claims are received by the international community witch in this case is represented by the CEDAW Committee. Saudi Arabia will stand as example for our study due to the fact that they are unique in their practice of gender separation and their treatment of women as legal minors. A systematic oppression of women permeates the entire Saudi Arabian society and the purpose of this paper is to analyze the connection
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