<\/strong><\/p>\n When a woman says, \u201cMy guardian knows what\u2019s best for me,\u201d what should we do?<\/p>\n Earlier this month, blogger Eman Al Nafjan<\/a> posted her feelings<\/a> about a new campaign in Saudi Arabia. The campaign, which began last month, is called \u201cMy guardian knows what\u2019s best for me\u201d and aims to gather one million signatures in support of the kingdom\u2019s status quo in regard to women\u2019s guardianship laws. According to Al Nafjan, two Saudi princesses who support this campaign have started their own websites devoted to the issue.You can find both websites here<\/a> and here<\/a> (both are in Arabic).<\/p>\n A quick look to both sites shows that they are similar to each other. For example, in one of the sites, a link called \u201cOur Strategic Goal<\/a>\u201d reveals that the campaign\u2019s aim is \u201cTo promote for the culture of stewardship from an Islamic perspective.\u201d The aim mentioned on the other site<\/a> is to \u201cClarify the concept of the legitimate right of the mandate \u2018of public and private\u2019 to all members of society \u2018men and women.\u2019\u201d [sic<\/em>]<\/p>\n Al Nafjan quoted and translated from Dr. Elham Manea\u2019s piece <\/a>that replied to such act:<\/p>\n Some Saudi women have decided to express themselves.<\/p>\n They wanted to take a stand against\u00a0human rights\u00a0activists calling for Saudi Arabia to give women some (not all) of the rights that are enjoyed by their Arab counterparts in neighboring countries. So they came out with a new campaign titled \u201cMy Guardian Knows What\u2019s Best for Me\u201d.<\/p>\n Do we blame them? All they wanted was to fix a problem they know nothing of, and thus made it worse.\u00a0\u00a0It would be strange to expect anything else from them. You cannot miss what you\u2019ve never had.<\/p>\n Most of them belong to the Saudi aristocrats. Their leader is a princess. Their hands are velvet. They live in palaces and villas. How could we blame them for not knowing the reality of average Saudi women?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n While Dr. Manea explained that a princess\u2019 life (on which she based this whole campaign) is different from a normal Saudi woman\u2019s life, I don\u2019t see someone\u2019s life as a reason, explanation, or even an excuse for her to judge or decide how other people should live.<\/p>\n If a woman wants someone to be her guardian and wants him to take care of her, her life and her choices, that\u2019s fine by me, as long it\u2019s her own choice and as long as she\u2019s not asking me or any other woman to do the same!<\/p>\n They believe in something and they are expressing it. Believing in freedom of opinion, I wouldn\u2019t have had reservations against the campaign if it weren\u2019t for how they refused and rejected those who disagree with them.<\/p>\n On the first site, under the title goal, you can read:<\/p>\n \u201cWe reject all the cultural patterns which are inconsistent with our own culture.\u201d [sic<\/em>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And on the other site:<\/p>\n \u201cWe reject all the ignorant or malicious demands, launched by the advocates of liberation and the westernization of the tenets of Islam and Arab identity, such as calling for the abolition of the role of guardians and patrons from our lives as Muslims, fueling feelings of getting out on religion and community values, sometimes in the pretext of doctrinal innovation, and for social and economic development at other times, while trying to instill unacceptable and flawed misconceptions and calling it anti-discrimination against women, such as: mixing, adornments, absolute equality, and many other demands that cannot be accepted by the mind of any Muslim prudent to this religion and those who follow it.\u201d [sic<\/em>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n She even goes as far as demanding punishment for those who think differently:<\/p>\n \u201cWe hope that the punishment of all who dare to provoke discord between the people, or promoting the quality of ignorance and corruption: \u201cprocedural or intellectual.\u201d [sic<\/em>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Why do we only perceive our life style as the only right way of living? Who on this earth has the right to force his way, his choices and his morals on other people as rules?<\/p>\n Women empowerment will not be achieved neither by Saudi princesses quoting some verses from Qur\u2019an on their online campaigns, nor by human rights activists who sometimes also slip into the same mistake of prejudice when they meet any woman whose life style is different from theirs.<\/p>\n Empowerment is the freedom to choose. Bring up your daughter to believe in herself and her potentials, educate her, and then let her lead her own life and make her own choices. If you bring up your daughter as a fragile creature that\u2019s liable to fracture and who is unable to protect herself, she\u2019ll grow up into a woman who\u2019s just that: a fragile creature unable to protect herself.<\/p>\n Give her the liberty to choose her life, and stop judging her if that choice doesn\u2019t resemble yours.<\/p>\n For other viewpoints on the guardianship campaign, read the opinions of Sabria Jawhar <\/a>and Nesrine Malik<\/a>. <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When a woman says, \u201cMy guardian knows what\u2019s best for me,\u201d what should we do? Earlier this month, blogger Eman Al Nafjan posted her feelings about a new campaign in Saudi Arabia. The campaign, which began last month, is called \u201cMy guardian knows what\u2019s best for me\u201d and aims to gather one million signatures in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":170,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,14],"tags":[531,799,1190,1498,1503],"class_list":["post-4601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advertisements","category-culturesociety","category-politics","tag-guardianship-campaign","tag-male-guardianship","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-womens-empowerment","tag-womens-liberation"],"yoast_head":"\n