Samira Al Ghamdi
During the last year, there has been news of reforms to
improve women’s rights in Saudi Arabia. These reforms have been spearheaded by
the crown prince Mohammed bin Salman and so far, we have seen a couple of
changes to improve women’s rights concerning working and participating in
events outside of their homes, as well as the right to drive a car. These are
small steps in the right direction, but the fundamental issues of personal status law,
such as those governing the custody of women, are still a long way from
fulfilling the basic human rights. There has been critique about the nature of the
reforms, of how they are mostly economic and don’t really make a difference to
the fundamental issues of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia. Women still have male
custodians, either their fathers, brother, husbands or sons, whose permission
is needed for women to travel, have a job or get a divorce.
I found this week’s inspiring woman from the news about another
law change to improve women’s rights in Saudi Arabia. She is Samira Al Ghamdi, a
media specialist and a clinical psychologist, who works in the field of
domestic abuse in Saudi Arabia. She is also a founding member of the first
Saudi Assembly against domestic violence and the Chairman of the Assembly
Board. Samira Al Ghamdi has had a long career in fighting for the rights of
women in Saudi Arabia and this week’s news about the change in law, giving divorced
women the right to have a custody of their children, is something she has been
aiming for for a long time. Before, women were required to file a lawsuit to get a
custody of their children after a divorce, and the petitions often took years.
Now, the custody of children still defaults to the father, but women can directly apply for the custody rather than petition the courts. How this will change
the actual end results of custody disagreements, is yet to be seen, but it is a
significant improvement to women’s rights in Saudi Arabia.
Samira Al Ghamdi is a domestic-abuse activist, and by
her owns words, she has been working for better rights for divorced women for
the last 17 years. She has been courageously outspoken about abuse against women in a
country, that has long been accused of legal discrimination against women. She
has been raising awareness to the issues of marital as well as children’s abuse
through a number of TV programs as well as other media outlets. Public
discussion of abuse not only brings the issue to a wider audience, it also
helps women, who might be completely tied to their homes and controlled by
their male custodians, to get knowledge on how to seek help and to educate them
about their rights.
“I think one
of the ways to combat abuse is not only to report it, but also for women of the Gulf to know their rights – and they do have rights.“
Even in
countries that are farther along the path towards gender equality, reporting discrimination
doesn’t always lead to anything. We have more rights than our sisters in most of
the Arabic countries, but those rights mean nothing if they are not actualized
and the laws supporting them enforced. Sometimes the only way to make a change
is to speak aloud and today, at the time of social media, speaking aloud can
lead to a revolution, as we have seen after the #MeToo and #TIMESUP campaigns. Anyone
with an access to internet can start one.
I can’t even
imagine what kind of opposition Samira Al Ghamdi has faced during her career
and fight for women’s rights in her country. Yet, she has prevailed and made a huge
difference in improving the lives of women in Saudi Arabia. Hopefully, with the more open-minded current ruling power, her work, as well as that of others like
her, trying to improve human rights in Saudi Arabia, will become easier and
bigger steps, such as giving women custody of their selves, will be taken in
the future.
To read more about Samira Al Ghamdi and the current reforms in Saudi Arabia, here are my sources:
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