Congratulations Saudi Women

Dear Saudi sisters,

With all due respect,

From occupied Palestine, The Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development received with great relief King Abdullah’s decision to grant Saudi women their right to stand and vote in future local elections and join the advisory Shura council as full members. This significant progress is the fruit of the massive efforts put by Saudi human rights organizations and feminist activist in the Saudi civil society, who strived for gender equality and justice through the demand of full application of CEDAW in order to combat all types of violence against women.  The declaration reflects the implications of the Arab Spring, shaped by the will of the people, men and women, in pursuit of a strong political will that is based on democracy in the social, economic and political life, on the right of participation and the promotion of citizenship principles, consequently to secure people’s rights of expression, to pluralism and social protection in a civil state. 

King Abdullah’s latest political reform will point the way for a democratic change in regards of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia. The struggle of the human rights community, alongside with the human rights activists weighs against the neoliberal movements, which attempt to geopolitically reengineer the Middle East through sectarian and ethnic divisions. By spreading a state of creative chaos in the economic and social spheres, these movements hope to reinforce backwardness and dependency on the globalization-promoting countries and its political strategies in the region, especially Israel which continues to threat the Arab national security, as it pursues its juidization and oppressive policies against the Palestinian human, tree and stone.

In our opinion, Arab women’s empowerment is an essential means to assure the respect for women’s rights and for the reassessment of the developmental process that must place the human potential in the center of priorities by granting participation for all citizens in all levels of the development process. Therefore, a set of programs and strategies must be developed to lobby and advocate women, especially young women, to build their abilities in order to enable them to participate widely in the decision -making circles, whether in parliaments, justice courts or local councils or other institutions.

In this regard, we are glad to lay our experience at your disposal based on grounds of feminist solidarity, where our organization have conducted a comprehensive study-research on Palestinian women’s experience in the local authorities’ elections. The research contributed to the development of essential strategies in order to deepen women’s participation in the elections, as a critical step towards gender equality and the eradication of all types of violence in the Palestinian society.

In conclusion, we look forward to cooperating with you, in order to achieve greater accomplishments for the Arab feminist struggle.

Best regards,

 

Amal Khresihe

General Director