AFP Photo/Hassan Ammar (think IN pictures @1WORLD Community)
SitiWanMahani – Arab Saudi telah menggantung sistem elektronik untuk memberitahu penjaga lelaki tentang berlepas atau ketibaan saudara-saudara perempuan mereka. Wanita tempatan mengadu sistem itu memalukan dan mencadangkan memperkenalkan satu yang sama untuk suami mereka.
“Sistem ini telah digantung kerana beberapa pemerhatian dan ia akan menjalani pin-daan,” kata jurucakap Jabatan Pasport, Lt Kol Ahmad Al-Laheedan, berkata, yang menun-jukkan bahawa kaedah-kaedah lama boleh dirombak, dan beberapa pilihan baru ditam-bah.
Di bawah sistem semasa, SMS dihantar kepada penjaga lelaki setiap kali keluarga perem-puan atau kanak-kanak melintasi sempadan kerajaan.
“Pada masa lalu, sistem itu termasuk semua nama-nama yang telah didaftarkan. Walau bagaimanapun, dalam fasa seterusnya, ia akan menjadi pilihan. Pindaan berusaha untuk meningkatkan sistem untuk menjadikannya lebih baik dan memenuhi semua objektif,”" kata Al- Laheedan .
Beberapa wanita Arab berhujah bahawa proses pemberitahuan tersebut tidak pernah diperkenalkan di tempat pertama, kerana ia adalah “memalukan untuk wanita” dan meno-lak mereka ke dalam kategori yang sama seperti kanak-kanak.
“Wanita seperti saya yang mungkin mempunyai kebenaran dibuka dari penjaga mereka melakukan perjalanan mencari isu kemiskinan tidak masuk akal kerana penjaga kami diberitahu setiap langkah kita seolah-olah kita adalah kanak-kanak yang perlu terikat untuk menjadi orang dewasa yang bertanggungjawab,” kolumnis Arab dan Penolong Profesor Linguistik Gunaan di King Saud bin Abdulaziz Universiti Sains Kesihatan, Sabria S. Jawhar, memberitahu Arab News.
“Saya berharap ini adalah satu langkah ke arah membatalkan keseluruhan sistem. Kita dilahirkan Islam dan kita tahu prinsip-prinsip agama kita. Tidak perlu untuk sesiapa sahaja, termasuk kerajaan, untuk memantau tingkah laku kita,” tegas beliau.
Editor urusan OIC Journal (Pertubuhan Kerjasama Islam) juga telah menyokong langkah untuk membatalkan sistem itu, berkata ia adalah tidak menghormati hak-hak wanita.
“Semua wanita Arab perjalanan ke luar negara dengan kebenaran ibu bapa atau suami mereka. Sistem ini memberi gambaran bahawa wanita memerlukan pemantauan berte-rusan. Ia juga menunjukkan bahawa wanita tidak boleh dipercayai,” kata Maha Akeel.
Saudi women celebrate: Monitoring system of cross-border movements suspended . . .
Saudi Arabia has suspended an electronic system to notify male guardians about the departure or arrival of their female relatives. Local women complained the system was humiliating and suggested introducing a similar one for their husbands.
"The system has been suspended due to some observations and it will undergo amendment," spokesperson of the Passports Department, Lt. Col. Ahmad Al-Laheedan, said, indicating that the old rules could be revamped, and some new options added.
Under the current system, an SMS is sent to the male guardian each time his female family member or a child crosses the Kingdom’s border.
"In the past, the system included all the names that were registered. However, in the next phase, it will be optional. The amendments seek to enhance the system to make it better and fulfill all its objectives," Al-Laheedan said.
A number of Saudi women argue that the notification process should have never been introduced in the first place, because it is "humiliating for women" and pushes them into the same category as children.
"Women like myself who may have open permission from their guardian to travel find the issue particularly ridiculous because our guardians are notified of our every move as if we are children that need to be tethered to become responsible adults," a Saudi columnist and Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics at King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Sabria S. Jawhar, told Arab News.
"I hope this is a step toward canceling the whole system. We are born Muslim and we know the principles of our religion. There is no need for anyone, including the government, to monitor our behavior," she stressed.
A managing editor of the OIC Journal (The Organization of Islamic Cooperation) has also supported the move to cancel the system, saying it was disrespectful of women's rights.
"All Saudi women travel abroad with the permission of their parents or husbands. The system gives the impression that women require constant monitoring. It also shows that women cannot be trusted," Maha Akeel said.
Reuters/Fahad Shadeed (think IN pictures @1WORLD Community)
Beberapa Saudi telah meluluskan sistem, bagaimanapun, berkata ia benar-benar mem-bantu keluarga dengan kesedaran pergerakan merentas sempadan tanggungan mereka.
“Tanpa sistem tersebut, seorang wanita atau kanak-kanak akan bebas untuk datang dan pergi dan perjalanan ke luar negara tanpa dia atau keluarganya mengetahui menge-nainya,” kata seorang penulis blog Arab, yang dipetik oleh arabnews.com. “Jika itu berlaku, kita akan mendapati banyak daripada wanita dan kanak-kanak pergi ke luar negara tanpa pengetahuan kita kita,” katanya.
Jika objektif utama sistem pemberitahuan itu adalah semestinya untuk menyediakan perkhidmatan yang berguna untuk semua ahli keluarga, lelaki perlu juga “menyertai kelab ini,” yang disyorkan wanita Arab.
“Saya yakin bahawa banyak masalah akan dapat diselesaikan jika wanita menyedari pergerakan suami mereka merentasi sempadan juga,” Gulfnews.com dipetik satu blogger, Salwa, sebagai berkata. “Malah, wanita akan mendapat manfaat daripada sistem yang lebih daripada lelaki. Oleh itu, sila termasuk mereka dan memberi amaran kepada isteri-isteri mereka tentang berlepas antarabangsa dan ketibaan mereka,” tambah beliau.
Setiap wanita dewasa di Arab Saudi perlu mempunyai saudara lelaki rapat sebagai ‘penjaga’ dia, yang diberi kuasa untuk membuat keputusan penting bagi pihak beliau, termasuk hak untuk perjalanan, untuk memulakan perniagaan, dan belajar di universiti. Wanita Arab adalah dilarang daripada memandu, dan dikehendaki untuk menutup diri mereka di khalayak ramai, di kalangan sekatan2 yang lain.
Sebagai peraturan, wanita di dalam kerajaan ultra-konservatif Arab Saudi mengekalkan tempat yang tradisional di dalam rumah tangga. Banyak isu-isu dalam kehidupan tenang mereka ketat yang dikawal selia oleh undang-undang Syariah, berasal dari Al-Quran.
Awal bulan ini firma undang-undang wanita pertama di negara ini telah membuka pintu untuk melindungi hak-hak wanita di Arab Saudi. Langkah itu datang 2 bulan selepas pengasas syarikat, bersama-sama dengan 3 peguam wanita yang lain, telah diberikan lesen untuk mengamalkan undang-undang di dalam kerajaan tradisional patriarki.
Peguam wanita pertama Arab, Bayan Mahmoud Al Zahran, yang ditubuhkan beliau semua-wanita firma undang-undang di Jeddah, berkata beliau akan berjuang untuk hak-hak wanita Arab dan berkaitan kes wanita kepada mahkamah, satu tugas yang rakan-rakan lelaki dia tidak boleh mengendalikan pada masanya.
A number of Saudis have approved the system, however, saying it really helped families with awareness of the cross-border movements of their dependents.
"Without such a system, a woman or a child would be free to come and go and travel abroad without her or his family knowing about it," one Saudi blogger said, quoted by arabnews.com. "If such is the case, we will find many of our women and children going abroad without our knowledge," he pointed out.
If the main objective of the notification system is indeed to provide a useful service for all members of the families, men should also "join the club," Saudi women suggested.
"I am sure that many problems will be solved if women were aware of their husbands’ cross-border movements as well," Gulfnews.com quoted one blogger, Salwa, as saying. "In fact, women would benefit from the system much more than men. So please include them and alert their wives about their international departures and arrivals," she added.
Every adult woman in Saudi Arabia is required to have a close male relative as her ‘guardian’, authorized to make key decisions on her behalf, including the right to travel, to start a business, and study at university. Saudi women are prohibited from driving, and are required to cover themselves in public, among other restrictions.
As a rule, women in the ultra-conservative Kingdom of Saudi Arabia maintain a traditional place inside the household. Many issues in their quiet lives are strictly regulated by Sharia law, derived from the Koran.
Earlier this month the country’s first female law firm has opened its doors to protect women’s rights in Saudi Arabia. The move came two months after the company's founder, along with three other female lawyers, were granted licenses to practice law in the traditionally patriarchal kingdom.
The first female Saudi lawyer, Bayan Mahmoud Al Zahran, who set up her all-woman law firm in Jeddah, said she would fight for the rights of Saudi women and relate women’s cases to the court, a task which her male counterparts cannot handle at times.
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