{"id":1610,"date":"2013-02-08T20:34:52","date_gmt":"2013-02-09T01:34:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/hlpr\/?p=1610"},"modified":"2015-10-02T15:22:06","modified_gmt":"2015-10-02T15:22:06","slug":"womens-rights-in-saudi-arabia-under-scrutiny-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/2013\/02\/08\/womens-rights-in-saudi-arabia-under-scrutiny-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s Rights in Saudi Arabia Under Scrutiny\u2014Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unconfirmed reports that a Saudi Arabian man who brutally murdered his five-year old daughter would be released after paying \u201cblood money\u201d to the girl\u2019s mother have sparked intense debate and condemnation.\u00a0 \u00a0The victim suffered horrific injuries, including a crushed skull, broken back, broken ribs, a broken left arm and extensive bruising and burns. \u00a0The father, a self-styled \u201ccleric,\u201d has claimed that he was motivated by the child\u2019s \u201cinappropriate\u201d behavior and his suspicions about whether her virginity was still intact. \u00a0 Reports of the case coincided with a\u00a0heavily lampooned call<\/a>\u00a0by a Saudi cleric for babies to be dressed in burkas as a prophylactic measure to protect them from sexual crimes.
\n
\nWhile it appears that a\u00a0final ruling\u00a0<\/a>is yet to be issued in the murder case, the debate does highlight\u2014rather graphically\u2014some of the most glaring obstacles faced by women in accessing justice in an embedded patriarchy.\u00a0 To wit, the girl\u2019s mother flatly denies that the child was raped, labeling the very charge of rape as an \u201cassault\u201d on her daughter\u2019s honor. \u00a0However, the\u00a0medical examiner<\/a>\u00a0in the case has confirmed that the \u201coffender committed all sorts of physical abuse on the victim\u201d and that she exhibited clear evidence of sexual abuse and rape, including \u201cswelling in the region of the genitals and laceration in her anal area.\u201d<\/p>\n

The\u00a0legal guardianship of women by a male\u00a0(Mahram)<\/em>,<\/a>\u00a0is practised in various forms and degrees in Saudi Arabia, and permeates major aspects of women\u2019s lives. \u00a0The system is predicated on social conventions\u2014including the importance of protecting women\u2014and seeks legitimation from narrow religious precepts on travel and marriage, which are arguably applicable only in particular situations.\u00a0 The guardianship system has provoked a polarizing debate among Saudi Arabian women, with some\u00a0rationalizing and even prais<\/a>ing the system<\/a>\u00a0for the care and protection it affords them.\u00a0 Others are critical its strict curtailment of women\u2019s autonomy, freedom of movement, the exercise of legal capacity in relation to marriage, divorce, child custody, inheritance, and property ownership\/control, as well as decision-making.\u00a0 Moreover, at a symbolic level, they claim that the existence of the system infantilizes women and demeans their existence as human persons complete in and of themselves.\u00a0In November 2012, the Saudi Arabian government was castigated for sending\u00a0text alerts to male guardians<\/a>\u00a0whenever a woman under their guardianship left the country, even if the guardian in question was accompanying her.<\/p>\n

One of the most pernicious fallouts of the guardianship system is on display in the case at hand. \u00a0In general, it appears that a man cannot be executed for the murder of his wife or children in Saudi Arabia.\u00a0 Consequently, courts often\u00a0\u201clet fathers and husbands literally get away with murder,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and monetary penalties are deemed sufficient in most cases.\u00a0 However, the amount to be paid for killing a woman or girl is only\u00a0half\u00a0the amount paid for killing a man or boy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unconfirmed reports that a Saudi Arabian man who brutally murdered his five-year old daughter would be released after paying \u201cblood […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peZQka-pY","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1610\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}