After King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, reconstituted the Shoura Council recently, several people have begun to raise the question as to when women would be appointed as members of the consultative body. A number of Shoura and Human Rights Commission members told saudi Gazette that they are looking forward to the day when the King will allow women's participation in the Shoura Council. “Having female participation in the Shoura Council is an urgent requirement in that all the previous Shoura meetings have not agreed upon any program for the benefit of women,” said Dr. Suhila Zain Al-Abedin, member of the Executive Board and the Studies and Consulting Committee of the Human Rights Commission. “If we refer to the beginning of Islam, we will notice that Shoura rights were given to both males and females,” she added. According to Al-Abedin, in the Qur'an there are verses which ask Muslims to discuss their issues using the word (Shoura), and they are directed to Muslims in general, not only to men. “The first consultant in Islam was Khadija Bint Khwalid, the wife of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him),” she said. Dr. Sadaka Fadel, member of the political committee of the Shoura Council, confirmed the need to have female participation in the Shoura Council. “We support the participation of women in the Shoura Council, even if this participation at first is very modest and then later becomes stronger,” he added. “Women can participate in different committees and deal with a variety of issues and not just issues that relate to family and children,” he said. “We welcome female participation on the political committee. Like men, women are also affected by the political conditions that surround them. Politics is not exclusively for men,” said Fadel. Dr. Talal Al-Bakri, head of the Shoura's Social Affairs Committee, commented on the positive role played by the six Saudi consultants who are studying various issues. “We have six consultants in different fields, who are helping us by studying the issues that we submit to them,” he said. “We refer to these six consultants on all issues that relate to women,” he added. Al-Abedin called for equality between the sexes on the Shoura Council. “We need to vote for our rights. Men on the Shoura Council have not benefited us, especially when they voted to deny the Saudi nationality to non-Saudi husbands married to Saudi women and to the children of such marriages,” said Al-Abedin. Al-Abedin blames the Shoura because it discussed a system of punishment for Saudi women who try to flirt with men, but it never considered the need for punishment for men who flirt with women. “It was very shameful to discuss such a system in the Shoura Council as it projected a very bad image of Saudi women,” she said.
