It is nothing short of bizarre to see another tale of a Saudi girl who loved a Yemeni man and, fleeing Saudi Arabia, set her sights on Yemen. So often, Saudi men — exploiting the poverty, destitution and desperation of Yemeni women — have robbed them of their innocence through so-called “tourist marriages,” leaving them to raise the resultant children alone.
Today’s story runs in the opposite direction. Indeed, it is almost a mark of shame upon the kingdom’s inhabitants to see one of their young women fall in love with a Yemeni, rebel against her family and flee to Yemen — a country where even I, a local citizen, cannot find my rights as a woman. How much harder then, for a [foreign] woman, unable to return to her home because she forfeited her people’s [protection] by falling in love with a simple Yemeni. For, as is well known, there is no lower degree of citizenship among the other Gulf states than one who holds Yemeni nationality.
The strange thing is that the Yemeni security forces let loose all manner of terrorist criminals and don’t bring about security or justice. Yet when it comes to the weak — those without connections or a tribe to protect them — the law suddenly comes into full force upon a woman who has been torn from her people, and tossed into a Yemeni prison.
This is not to speak ill against the law, to engage in incitement against it or anything of that nature. Rather, it is only befitting that we strive to embody just values and lofty morals, and not to simply hurl this girl into prison, to avenge ourselves upon her just because she’s a Saudi Arabian. First and foremost, she is a woman and a member of God’s umma, or community. Huda ought to be considered courageous, for she stood up in court, holding fast to her love and her decision. From here, imagine strong, empowered Saudi women standing up to and challenging the traditions, conventions and legal procedures of Saudi Arabia — all of which Huda has done to marry a Yemeni, something that is completely repudiated within the kingdom.
The systematic deportation of thousands of [Yemeni] expatriates from Saudi Arabia doesn’t mean that we should put this girl’s head on the chopping block, and send her back so that she can be readied for the slaughter, when her only “crime” is to have fallen in love with a Yemeni man. However, this position may be difficult to support — this illegitimate and unnatural idea propounded by men of religion. But reproof will come from people, whether in Yemen or Saudi Arabia, due to the violence and authoritarianism practiced against their women [driving them] to rebel. This is a large and complex issue, but I sincerely hope that we will show the fullest extent of our Yemeni morals by protecting this woman, allowing her to feel as safe as though she were in her own country (even though I reject this idea, because Yemeni women cannot live in safety in their own country).
I hope that we will go back to a time when women were free to make their own decisions and bear the burden of their mistakes without the law and the courts stepping in to declare her a criminal. I hope that women will live in normal social circumstances — integrated with men in education and professionally. I hope that it will be balanced, as opposed to women bearing the burdens of male mistakes because she was created as a woman, and thus surrounded by shame for being a female. It seems that such tales are repeated inside the country and abroad for the simple reason that the people and their social circumstances are closed off, and women’s rights are violated. Huda chose her path and will continue in that path whether she wants to or not. She will learn from the past, the present how to be present or absent, for she stood up to her country — a country that did not allow her the freedom to choose her own destiny.
Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/culture/2013/11/yemen-saudi-marriage-women.html#ixzz2lX39i400
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