dalia Ibrahim ziada
03-25-2006, 02:15 AM
This is how Dr. Tareq percieves women. The following is extracted from a debate on women in the Arab and Islamic world attended by our dearest Dr. Tareq Al-Suwaidan; may Allah be pleased with him
http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/2491/june05033lt.gif
Dr. Tareq Al-Suwaidan said: " ..... First of all I would like to say that the situation of woman in the Middle East is miserable, and it is a true situation, it's in politics, in the law, it's in the families. We cannot hide from the truth. This is the truth and yes, not only woman have problems but also men have problems, but definitely the situation with woman is much, much worse than the situation with men. But this is not only in the Arab world. It's also in the whole world. You take the United States of America, you see for the same qualifications and experience, woman are paid 71% of the salary of men. In studying management we are taught about the glass ceiling where most woman have to stop at a certain position. They cannot climb the ladder. Why? Because they are women. Only 0.5, not even 1%, only 0.5% of leaders in United States, in the government, in the major companies, only 0.5% are woman, so it's a man's world, and in the Arab world, in the Middle East, it's even worse, much worse than that. Although some people try to blame Islam for it, I have studied Islam very deeply and Islam, Allah Almighty, has created us equal. This is stated very clearly by the saying of our Prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him, when he said (Arabic), 'Women are equal to men.' This is the basis of Sharia, this is the basis of Islamic law. Now, what happened is that in the past 400 or 500 years, we have been backward, we have been occupied, and tradition has mastered our society and some people are mixing up between Sharia and Islam and the tradition, and thus in the name of Islam, they are putting woman down. Recently in Kuwait we granted woman the rights, after a long fight. I was one of those advocating woman rights in Kuwait, and every time they got into a discussion, they blamed Sharia for it. I have studied Sharia very clearly and Islamic law does not prohibit woman from climbing into the ladder all the way to being a president of a country. So, what I would like to say is that we have to admit the problem, it is a traditional problem, and thus it is in politics and economics and because of tradition, it has nothing to do with Islam. Islam is very strong when it comes to the rights of woman. But I would like also to say that a lot of the problem also lies in the hands of woman themselves. They have to pull themselves up, they have to learn, they have to qualify themselves, they have to get skills and stop wasting their time, and again, if they are in the West, they need to break the glass ceiling. They have a double glass ceiling here in this region and they need to work harder to achieve that. Finally I would like to say that in the Muslim and Arab world, I would like to get some rights for men also. In many of our countries, dictatorships are in control and a lady like Toujan here was stopped from being a parliament member in the name of the law, etc. This is also the same with a lot of candidates who are men - they too cannot go into politics, so when you have a dictatorship plus tradition, then this is the situation that we are in, and we have to face it
Dr. Tareq! On behalf of all the Muslim women I would like to send you a very big:) THANKS
http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/2491/june05033lt.gif
Dr. Tareq Al-Suwaidan said: " ..... First of all I would like to say that the situation of woman in the Middle East is miserable, and it is a true situation, it's in politics, in the law, it's in the families. We cannot hide from the truth. This is the truth and yes, not only woman have problems but also men have problems, but definitely the situation with woman is much, much worse than the situation with men. But this is not only in the Arab world. It's also in the whole world. You take the United States of America, you see for the same qualifications and experience, woman are paid 71% of the salary of men. In studying management we are taught about the glass ceiling where most woman have to stop at a certain position. They cannot climb the ladder. Why? Because they are women. Only 0.5, not even 1%, only 0.5% of leaders in United States, in the government, in the major companies, only 0.5% are woman, so it's a man's world, and in the Arab world, in the Middle East, it's even worse, much worse than that. Although some people try to blame Islam for it, I have studied Islam very deeply and Islam, Allah Almighty, has created us equal. This is stated very clearly by the saying of our Prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him, when he said (Arabic), 'Women are equal to men.' This is the basis of Sharia, this is the basis of Islamic law. Now, what happened is that in the past 400 or 500 years, we have been backward, we have been occupied, and tradition has mastered our society and some people are mixing up between Sharia and Islam and the tradition, and thus in the name of Islam, they are putting woman down. Recently in Kuwait we granted woman the rights, after a long fight. I was one of those advocating woman rights in Kuwait, and every time they got into a discussion, they blamed Sharia for it. I have studied Sharia very clearly and Islamic law does not prohibit woman from climbing into the ladder all the way to being a president of a country. So, what I would like to say is that we have to admit the problem, it is a traditional problem, and thus it is in politics and economics and because of tradition, it has nothing to do with Islam. Islam is very strong when it comes to the rights of woman. But I would like also to say that a lot of the problem also lies in the hands of woman themselves. They have to pull themselves up, they have to learn, they have to qualify themselves, they have to get skills and stop wasting their time, and again, if they are in the West, they need to break the glass ceiling. They have a double glass ceiling here in this region and they need to work harder to achieve that. Finally I would like to say that in the Muslim and Arab world, I would like to get some rights for men also. In many of our countries, dictatorships are in control and a lady like Toujan here was stopped from being a parliament member in the name of the law, etc. This is also the same with a lot of candidates who are men - they too cannot go into politics, so when you have a dictatorship plus tradition, then this is the situation that we are in, and we have to face it
Dr. Tareq! On behalf of all the Muslim women I would like to send you a very big:) THANKS