Writing about Saudi women's affairs is not tricky, but could constitute a complicated surgical operation that requires years of research to reach a remedy dubbed “the political will.” Women's issues are not perceived as being a difficult and thorny road which would be hard to pave, but some are still standing in their way and trying to prevent their tackling, due to reasons that have long expired. All those who discussed women's affairs, causes and rights throughout decades, continued to face “packaged” accusations, even after times and the human mind have changed. The latter believe that writing about female affairs is a luxury that does not stem from humanitarian or rights-related motives, and are rather mobilized by “Western” and “secular” agendas under the classification of reform and civilizational openness. Consequently, throughout decades, the women's file in Saudi Arabia remained a heated one that is strongly present in the local and foreign media outlets, but without achieving any progress. The majority of Saudi women's issues kept being thrown back and forth by men during the past years. These men thus ignored them at times, tackled them at others, recognized that women were stripped of their rights at times and feared – at others - for the lack of men's rights in light of the rising calls for women's rights solely. This persisted until King Abdullah Bin Abdul-Aziz heard women's “soft voice” during the last few years and listened to the talk issued by many women in regard to their problems, causes, the nonexistence of their rights and their non-recognition by the official sides in the absence of a legal guardian (al-wali). The Saudi women's file is not a steep mountain that is difficult to climb up or down or hard to resolve. It is an important file in which women should be involved to eliminate the obstacles, solve the predicaments and find the solutions, without fearing to be told what a man told his wife when he came home, saw her climbing up a ladder and had already reached the middle of it. She looked at him smiling, but he met her with harsh words, saying: “If you climb up one step, I will divorce you. If you go down one step, I will divorce you. And if you stay put, I will divorce you.” So she jumped off and smashed against the floor. The solutions to women's issues are not difficult and do not require them to jump off the ladder. However, some have been complicating all that is related to them to the point of making their issues similar to a “leap year.” Maybe they want to keep this file open to throw it back and forth with others, and want women to listen to them without demanding their rights, looking into their conditions and recognizing the necessity of finding solutions to their problems. The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah Bin Abdul-Aziz, recently announced in his yearly address at the Shura Council two historical decisions favoring women, thus allowing them to enter the Council as members and granting them the right to run and vote in the upcoming municipal elections. By doing so, he ended a stage of dialectic and Byzantine arguing between the opponents, especially since he consulted a number of experts and some members in the Senior Scholars Association to allow women to start a new phase and new missions. I believe that the Saudi women's file remained circulated and pending throughout many years due to the non-existence of civil society institutions tending to these rights, defending them and presenting courageous solutions to the decision-makers, and this is what the country needs to establish in order to spread that culture. The years were passing by in the absence of solutions. And each year, women would look in the mirror while awaiting official decisions and governmental solutions that are obstructed by “bureaucracy,” before being asked to show “patience” until death catches up with them. What is certain is that last week, and especially on September 25, women etched a new course and achieved new gains on which they must capitalize and which they must push forward to resolve their own problems. They must insist on the discussion of their causes at the Shura Council, and vote in favor of their interests to widen the margin of their participation and earn their full rights. They must reject the disappearance, concealment or surpassing of the solutions based on King Abdullah's address that stressed the rejection of women's marginalization.
