Source: Reuters
// Reuters
LONDON, June 29
(Reuters) - A Saudi Arabian princess said no Arab country is immune from change
and that countries should grant freedoms before being forced to.
"No one is
immune from the seasonal geographical winds of change that are sweeping our
Arab homeland. Those who say we are immune are wrong," Princess Basma bint
Saud, a niece of King Abdullah and a social activist and prominent supporter of
women's issues in Saudi Arabia, told BBC Arabic late on Tuesday. Her comments
were later translated into English.
Princess Basma
also said the work of the country's moral police had changed from its original
remit of preventing corruption to inflicting social pressure, particularly
against women, creating a society that lived in fear.
"Everyone
is prone and everyone should heed and must be aware that we must open national
dialogue on the table and not wait for the challenges to grow. Let us grant
freedom before it turns into challenge."
Democratic
movements have resulted in regime change in Tunisia and Egypt, and uprisings in
Libya, Yemen and Syria, popularly known as the Arab spring.
Saudi Arabia is
ruled by an absolute monarchy which applies an austere version of Sunni Islam.
Religious police patrol the streets to ensure public segregation between men
and women.
The princess
suggested the initial intention for the Authority for the Promotion of Virtue
and Prevention of Vice had become distorted and she has denounced it for
hounding women.
"When my
late father, may God bless his soul, founded it, it was for this goal; to
monitor civil society in as much as to enable citizens to live an honourable
existence, in dignity and without corruption or bribes," she said.
"This has
changed somewhat to a social pressure with the Saudi woman as its primary
target.
"They
became distracted by her face, her gloves and mixing with other race.
"They were
absorbed in issues that led to dire consequences we witness today in our
society, to the extent that we have now become society which lives in fear."
There have been
some signs of rebellion in Saudi Arabia. Some women appeared to have protested
against a ban on driving earlier this month, posting accounts and pictures of
themselves behind the wheel.
Besides a ban
on driving, women in Saudi Arabia must have written approval from a male
guardian -- a father, husband, brother or son -- to leave the country, work or
even undergo certain medical
operations.
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