Many people had said that Islam respects women and values them. But, from my own experience, I have found this to be is just a fat lie. As a native of Saudi Arabia, I have personally witnessed how despicably women are treated in our Islamic society. In this short article I shall narrate my experience of such oppressive and horrific treatment of our women a-la Islamic style. Every word that I am going to write is absolutely true-nothing has been fabricated or exaggerated. No one coerced me to write this story, because, I am born a Saudi and I live here, right in Saudi Arabia. 

I have three sisters. They were highly motivated to be educated, and on their own effort, pursued modern education. But because of many absurd, outdated and unfair impediments imposed on women's education in our society, they could not finish their chosen field of learning. Despite my sincere intention, I could simply do nothing to help them get proper education. My hands were tied; our society frowns upon women who are highly educated in modern way. 

One of my sisters finished Secondary School, and then she stopped studying, because she was keen on beauty training. But in a pure Islamic society like ours, it is not that easy for her to pursue her ambition to be a beauty therapist. My other two sisters wanted to be school teachers. So they continued with their studies and finished their Higher Secondary Level. 

I clearly remember when they were in the college, their ID cards were in their own names, but the photographs on the cards were that of my father! This meant my sisters had no physical existence-they existed in names only-in a piece of paper.  Readers please do not be shocked at such an appalling treatment of our women-they are just like domestic animals--always owned by some one. They could not subsist on their own as human beings. The law in Saudi Arabia, vis--vis women, stipulates that no girl/woman in a college could insert her own photograph in her identity card; instead, only the photograph of her father, brother, husband or her mahram (guardian) must be attached.

Anyway, after finishing their Teachers Training, these two sisters of mine had to wait for jobs which must be in the vicinity of their dwelling. They cannot go away from my father's control. If they dared to do so, they will never get jobs.

As a conscientious brother, I firmly believe that my sisters are wise and responsible-more than many men in my area, even more than me. I am certain that given the chance to live and manage their lives by themselves, they will succeed without any problems. In fact, they are capable of accomplishing far more difficult tasks than many of us could.

 But alas! This three educated, wise, responsible and ambitious girls are held prisoners at home by their illiterate father. He does not know anything about the world outside of home. He sees no need at all for any progress or development of civilization. And he has forced my sisters to live his periphery of life.

This illiterate father banned them (my sisters) from getting married. It was because of his strict demand for non-smoking, strictly Islamic bridegrooms from the same tribe which he belongs to. It looks like such dim-witted demands might keep my sisters remain spinsters for the foreseeable future.

In our society of strict Islamic adherence, all men who are smokers and/or who do not pray regularly in mosques are considered unfit for marriage. As a binding rule, man who is considering to get married must produce at least two witnesses who would vouch that the prospective bridegroom regularly prays in a mosque. This condition is so important in Saudi society that failure to produce such witnesses might result in the break up of the proposed marriage. More importantly, a Saudi woman from one tribe must not marry a man from another tribe or from another nationality, even though the man is a Muslim. Forget about a Saudi woman marrying a non-Muslim-((this is haram)).

In our tribe the girls outnumber the boys by two or three times. This means that many of our girls will never get married, as marrying outside our tribe is absolutely unthinkable. In our society men prefer to marry girls less than twenty years old. They have a special penchant for girls who are around sixteen years or less. The conclusion from this absurd desire for very young girls is that the marriage prospect of our girls more than twenty years old is almost zero. Or may be they will get married but from old men.

Thus, because of these ridiculous Islamic rules, the lives of these grown-up girls mean nothing in our puritanical society.

Let us now return to my father's mentality and find the real reason why he does not want his daughters to be married to strangers (I mean, men from another tribe or another nationality).

Majority of Saudi men strongly believe that women have no hopes, desires and aspiration of their own. Thus, when it comes to marriage, a Saudi woman's opinion is irrelevant. She is totally dependent on her owner about her fate. Saudi men also consider it shameful to give someone's daughter to be married to a stranger-outside one's own tribal boundary. It is difficult for a Saudi man to accept that outsiders could look at the sacred 'honour' of their daughters. It is inconceivable for a Saudi father to envisage that a stranger could have sex with her daughter-even in marriage, and even when the bridegroom is a Muslim. So, this is the real reason why my father would not allow my sisters to marry 'foreigners'. He is simply paranoid that 'foreigners' would have sexual intercourse with her daughters, that these 'foreigners' will have looks at his daughters' pudenda.

For the reasons stated above, many Saudi fathers ask for double marriages-that is: give me your daughter and I will give you my daughter or sister-and so on. In this way, they feel comfortable, that is: we will protect his honour if he protects ours. This is how people in our society use women for their own benefit-when they need money, or when they need new wives. There are some Saudi women who earn wages, but the money they get goes to the pocket of their fathers or husbands. For the fear that their daughters' salary might be appropriated by their husbands, many Saudi fathers do not want their daughters married. To me, this might be another reason why my father has literally put a ban on the marriage of my sisters.

 
So, how my sisters live in this society?

As Saudi women, my sisters go through extraordinary suffering. They have no right whatsoever to manage their lives by themselves. They are totally dependent on my father, on me and their other brothers. They cannot go anywhere alone, by themselves. Whenever anyone of them ventures outside, some men (brother or father) must accompany her as her protector and minder. They cannot even go out for such events like accident, hospital emergency, etc. Believe me, when they need to go to a hospital, they have to call my brother to take them there. He has to come from anther city, 300km afar. Because they cannot drive (women in Saudi Arabia are banned from driving cars) and my father cannot drive, (not allowed for them to go with non mahram), my sisters have no choice but to undergo such unspeakable ordeal of agony. No matter how mush urgent and emergency, they must wait for their mahram (in this case, their brother) to take them to hospital. There is no way out for them. Since my father does not know how to use an ATM, when any of my sisters wants to withdraw money from ATM, she must handover her card to a stranger (a man) to withdraw money for her. When my sisters want to do regular marketing, they must hand over the money to a stranger and he will charge whatever price he wishes. These are just a few examples of the plights Saudi women go through in their daily lives.

Some times I'm thinking to leave my job, just to stay with them.

So, you might say: why not take them out of Saudi Arabia? This is utterly impossible. In Saudi Arabia, to secure a passport, a woman must have the written permission from her mahram (father, brother or husband). Obtaining a passport is not enough for a Saudi woman to travel alone. Her father (in case she is unmarried) must sign special papers to permit her to go on a voyage on her own. Being illiterate my father will never allow his daughters to leave Saudi Arabia, I am absolutely certain of this.

Sometime, I really wonder why such an unbearable torment has been imposed on our women. My sisters cannot do anything without the permission and assistance of my father or brother. They are at home, all the time, watching television. There is no sport for them to play, no work to attend to, no hope and nothing to live for. The reality is that they are incarcerated in the biggest prison in the world-Saudi Arabia, the land of the pure, unadulterated Islam.

One might legitimately ask: why all these happen to Saudi women? Who is to be blamed for this loathsome ordeal perpetrated on our women? It is quite easy to blame the silly, inane Saudi laws, the wide-spread illiteracy prevalent among the Saudi people and the archaic traditions for the hopeless condition of our women. But think again. All these factors are firmly rooted in Islam. It is Islam which is clearly the culprit. It is the Islamic laws in Saudi Arabia which have rendered our women chattels of men, forced them into their servitude and have completely robbed of their dignity, honour and respect they should deserve as women. To say the least, Islam has shaken and shamed the very basic foundation of womanhood.

Islam provides complete authority to a father to control his daughter/s. He has full control to give her in marriage, to ban her from social life or even to kill her. You might be shocked to learn that a Saudi father can kill his daughter with complete impunity. Please know that even when he kills his daughter, government will not kill the father because she is his probity. According to Sharia, the government is not allowed to kill a father if he kills his daughter or son for any reason.

In Islam, a daughter cannot marry without her father's permission-it is haram. In nutshell, in Islam, a father is a holy man, a commander and a petulant dictator. Even when he is illiterate, obdurate, unjust and insensible, their children-especially the daughters, can do nothing against him.

 
So, in my case what could I do?

The straightforward answer to this question would be: nothing, I could do virtually next to nothing to change the situation. If I file a case against my father, the religious judge will ask him, 'Why don't you let your daughters get married?' My father's vague answer will be, "These girls are my responsibility (that is, under my safe custody), and Allah will punish me if I don't choose good husbands for them." As a proof of his sincere effort he might even produce evidence that all the men he had sought were smokers and also will bring witnesses that they were also non-praying (in mosque) Muslims. This will completely silence the Islamic judge. He will find no ground to chastise my father; instead, he might impose punishment on me for not respecting my father and his decisions. 

With such anguish and frustration in my heart, I am patiently waiting for the death of my father. Once he dies, the control of my sisters will automatically transfer to me. Their ownership will officially be in my name. I shall be their new possessor-just like cars, houses, goats, camels etc. Then I shall be completely free to do with them whatever I wish-Islam gives me all the authority. I could take them to Hell or to Heaven-wherever I desire.

Readers please do not feel sorry or pity for my sisters. Compared to many other Saudi women, they are quite lucky-they can visit shopping centres, once or twice a year. They can use make ups and they can even listen to music. The best freedom they have is that they can choose Television channels they like to watch. For many Saudi women, this is a great privilege, if you did not know.