A Muslim woman's reaction to King Abdullah's interview with Barbra Walters.

A Muslim woman’s reaction to King Abdullah’s interview with Barbra Walters.

A Muslim woman challenges King Abdullah: Where, in the Koran or Islamic law, is there justification for Saudi Arab men’s barbaric behavior; treating women as slaves and as a household item and property?

During King Abdullah’s interview with Barbra Walters, she questioned him about freedom for women in Saudi Arabia. She mentioned that women can’t drive or vote; calling such prohibitions astonishing for the 21st century. The King’s response, although touching, was clearly no more than a rehearsed safe answer.

Stating the obvious, he said his mother, wife and daughter are women and that he is working on changes. He said the main reason he agreed to interview with a woman was to show the West that he is trying. As a Muslim woman, I am no more impressed by his answer than was the astonished Barbra Walters. King Abdullah also said that he has to follow the will of his people. My observation is that the will of his people is another way of saying the traditions of their fathers, not Prophet Mohammad’s way of life as the Saudis keep bragging. As a Muslim woman, I look up to Prophet Mohammad’s family. (Peace upon him)

The Saudis, wealthy or poor, all pray at any time on hearing the invitation for daily prayers from the holy mosque but when it comes to basic women’s rights, all the Muslim ethics go down the drain. They walk over women, treating them with little or no respect and then claim that is what Prophet Mohammad wanted. Women are not doing any favors for one another by not speaking up publicly. As I have often said, no one will place your rights on a golden plate and present them to you. If you know something is rightfully yours, you need to demand it. By keeping their silence in following men and accepting the idiotic, outdated traditions of pre-Islamic period as Islamic law, by not demanding their rights in the streets of Saudi, they abet Saudi men in taking advantage of women, just as their fathers did.

There was a time when women were buried alive. I suppose one could argue that not being able to drive and vote is a step up but what these unenlightened men, including King Abdullah profess has no Islamic basis. He doesn’t say women can’t drive because somewhere in the Islamic rules it is declared taboo. On the other hand, he tells Barbra he must obey the law and will of the people. If the will of the people was to kill an innocent, should the King protest and order a stop or should he go along with the majority?

Not being able to vote cannot be equated to loss of life but it is a loss of dignity. It is equal to being treated as slaves and second-class citizens. King Abdullah and the other Princes better have some very good explanation for Prophet Mohamad because he hated people who treated others as second hand citizen or slaves.

As a woman, I am disgusted and angered by the lies of governments such as the Saudi’s about Islam. In the course of my constant research of Islam, I learned that the women of the Prophet’s family were outgoing, outstanding citizens as strong as their men. In a way, they were the Amazon warriors of their time. Women of the Muslim world should look up to the Prophet’s daughter, Fatimeh and her daughter, Zainab. Fatimeh lived 1400 years ago, yet she wasn’t an average woman. She wasn’t bought or sold or forced into marriage. She did not take orders or ask permission from anyone, including her holy father. That is something women of Saudi don’t know or don’t want to know. When Fatimeh was mature enough to marry, her holy father asked her if she wanted to marry and she chose her own husband. She was married as a free woman, equal to her husband and not as his slave as many women in Saudi Arabia are today. When she became a mother, she didn’t have to ask her little boys, Imam Hassan or Imam Hussein, or her holy husband, at the time the bravest man of the Arab world, for permission to teach men. She had more than 4000 students attending her seminars and classes and most of them were men.

She went into battle alongside her father and later her husband, taking care of them when they were injured and on many occasions saved lives, including her own father’s.

Fatimeh’s father asked her opinion in important matters. Her holy husband, the first Imam of Shiah, and, according to Sunni belief the fourth Khalifeh, asked her permission when he wanted to sell her land to help the poor. Although he had given the land to her, he didn’t think he should sell it without asking her. He was the governor. She was treated as his equal and Queen, even thought her life was extremely simple.

It has never been said that Her Holiness wasn’t allowed to ride a camel or a horse; as this was the only means of transportation at the time. Saudi women still don’t have the right to drive their own cars and King Abdullah says he is working on it. Working on what? The recent confrontation of Karen Hughes by a few elite Saudi women who are privileged to be driven when and where they please and defended the status quo, are not representative of the masses. Recall that twenty years ago, African Muslim women, in resentment and embarrassment, walked out of a conference that addressed the subject of female circumcision. Ten years later they were leading the charge against the barbaric practice. One hopes Saudi women experience the same enlightment.

Equality for women is a given because every Muslim man that prays to Allah, or God, must obey the will of God. True Islam is based on equality for everyone; men and women of all colors, nations and religions. No one, not even a king, is better than any other person. When the king says his mother, wife, sister or any other woman, although respected in his eyes, are not equal to a man to be permitted to drive a car, he is not following Prophet Mohamad. He is simply pretending to be a Muslim.

Although Imam Ali, according to the laws and customs of the time, could have multiple wives, he didn’t marry another woman until after his enemies killed Fatimeh in a night raid. He buried her himself and sobbed for days. She wasn’t just a number as many women in Saudi Arabia are today. The King says he will try. That is not a good enough answer for Muslim women.

King Abdullah also said he can’t allow public worship by other faiths in the birthplace of Islam because it is an insult to Islam, comparing it to building a mosque in the Vatican. As a Muslim I do not agree. When his holiness, Prophet Mohamad, came into his prophecy, he did not say other religions must leave Mecca because he came along. In fact, when he won the war against the Arabs, there were places of worship that didn’t believe in God. He didn’t force them to remove their idols from the Holy Kaba. Kaba is the heart of Islam and when God doesn’t force people to worship him in public or private in a certain way, why does a kingdom interpret Islam to fit its own agenda? What works for them is for women to be slaves and baby makers. And, other faiths must not pray publicly because it is an insult. Insult to whom? To the king? To the kingdom or to God? Isn’t it true that God created all of us equally? Isn’t it true that he brought great leaders, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Mohammad to guide us? If he wanted all of us to have one religion, wouldn’t he be able to force us? He gave us a choice. Saudi Arabia proclaims that it is the birthplace of Islam. If Prophet Mohamad were in Saudi today, I guarantee he would not like what he would see.


What Barbra Walters didn’t ask or wasn’t supposed to ask was: If the kingdom is so worried about its “Muslim” image, why do 5000 princes each receive almost 5 million dollars per year while ordinary people make no more than 10,000 per year. Why are there dirt-poor people in a country that broadcasts Islam? Why do the princes get away with crimes so horrific to Islam that they should be beheaded? They party on their private jets and yachts, consort with European prostitutes and traffic in drugs while a poor person looses a hand or his life for stealing money for food. While they tour around the world, drinking and partying, a commoner caught with a beer in his hand will pay by loosing his hand. Is this what King Abdullah boasts of as the “Islamic State”? Is a prince’s life worth more than that of a regular person? Five thousand wealthy princes live in happiness and luxury off the nation’s money while the rest of the Saudi people live a marginal existence. Is this what the King calls his religious duties? Which religion is this? In the Islam I know, the Allah, or God, we worship doesn’t accept one over another. There is no preference, certainly no VIP treatment. Is this what these people think Prophet Mohamad taught us? The truth is, what we see in Saudi Arabia dates back to barbaric times, prior to Prophet Mohamad. The Prophet himself was sick of this injustice. Unfortunately, the evil he fought is taking place in the holy land to which he brought his pure religion. And, unfortunately, many extremists dress modestly to trick people into believing that their behavior is based on the Holy Koran.

A good Muslim is not just someone who has a big beard, dresses modestly and constantly counts beads in his hands. Closing one’s eyes and ears to injustice, sticking one’s head in the sand, pretending not to hear or see anything does not a good Muslim make. If we see an injustice, it is our Muslim duty to stand up. This is what Prophet Mohamad taught us. He didn’t teach that we could be indifferent to the suffering of the poor and naïve and that if we just fast for 30 days and pray we can assume we will be on the next flight to heaven. A good Muslim doesn’t dream of heaven or how many virgins he will receive. He will stand up to ignorance practiced in the name of God because this is a godly thing to do. A safe Muslim might as well not be a Muslim at all. King Abdullah, chose your side; being safe is not going to save you.

Prophet Mohamad had a very frank saying, “I was born as an Arab but the Arab is not from my family tree” What he meant was: He was born in the Arab nation and spoke Arabic but not he is not linked to their idiotic traditions being practiced as his religion. These words describe what is going on in the Arab world today. I guarantee he would have hated the Bin Ladens.

King Abdullah is either very naive about true Islam or is just filling a job. Whichever, he should know that he will answer to
A frustrated Muslim woman.
God, just as any other person. Regardless of his excuses and his respect for tra
ditions, God could not care less about kings, their man made rules and political answers.
Ghazal Omid www.livinginhell.com