Of Mice, Arabian Women, and Madame Mousavi
“In a country like Saudi Arabia, prisoners have two chances for getting released early. The first one is for the prisoner to memorize the Quran, after which he will be set free. The second one is if he is included in a royal pardon on the occasion of a holiday (Eid) or the accession of a new king. Then the prisoner will be set free to enjoy life with his family and loved ones.
"Such choices are not available to Saudi women prisoners behind bars. They are not available to Saudi women who are not even behind bars. In either case Saudi wmen cannot be released except with the approval of a ‘mahram’, a male guardian of her family.
"A Saudi woman when she commits a crime, is jailed, and her term expires, she cannot get out, she cannot be released from prison unless a male relative arrives to receive her. This male mahram has to be a father, husband, brother, or uncle. That is why there are many Saudi women still in prison even though their terms have long expired. That is because their male guardians refuse to come and receive them. And they will not be released without the male's approval. The state pardons them, or they serve their term, but their male guardians insist on punishing them…..” Saudi female activist Wajiha al-Huwaider.
“Zahra, Mousavi’s life partner: she came out and campaigned with her husband: Ahmadinejad accused her during the debates of faking her PhD in Political Science…” As an economist, I did not know you could, or needed to, fake a PhD in Political Science. (Just kidding: that’s the kind of trash talk we used to do in the Economics Department, in both undergrad and grad school).
Cheers
mhg
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