News / Saudi Arabia

Improving Saudi women’s rights takes time: FM Jubeir

Saturday, 13 February 2016 9:28 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 13 February 2016 9:27 AM ]

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir ©AFP

Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir has defended Saudi Arabia's dismal women rights record, saying the kingdom needs more time to improve the situation.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Friday, Jubeir claimed that the kingdom has made progress on female education but the case of permitting women to drive needs more work.

“When it comes to issues like women’s driving, this is not a religious issue, it’s a societal issue,” Jubeir said.

He compared the issue of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia to the one in the US, saying women were allowed to vote 100 years after America’s independence while the first female parliamentary speaker was elected a century later.

“I’m not saying ‘Give us 200 years’. I’m saying ‘be patient’,” Jubeir said

“We hope that in the modern world … this process is accelerated, but things take time. We can’t expect to rush things.”

Jubeir said Saudi women now make up 55 percent of college students compared to 1960 when the kingdom had no schools for female citizens.

Riyadh has come under intense pressure by the activist groups for mistreating women. International rights groups say the Saudi regime deliberately deny women basic rights.

Saudi women arrive to attend Jenadriyah Culture Festival on the outskirts of Riyadh, Feb. 8, 2016. ©Reuters

The kingdom is the only country in the world that prohibits women from driving. The ban stems from a religious fatwa imposed by Wahhabi clerics. If women get behind the wheel in the kingdom, they may be arrested, sent to court and even flogged.

In 2012, the then Saudi King, Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, announced that women would be given the right to vote and run in municipal elections for the first time in the country. He also appointed 30 women to the country’s top advisory Shura Council before his death in January 2015.

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