'Brainwashing feminists' spark backlash in Saudi Arabia

Published December 13th, 2016 - 08:08 GMT
The women's rights situation in Saudi Arabia is one of the worst in the world (Flickr)
The women's rights situation in Saudi Arabia is one of the worst in the world (Flickr)

Accusations have been flying on Saudi Twitter over the apparent deception of girls by liberal Saudi women who have encouraged them to flee their families and go abroad.

The intense debate comes after a tweet was shared last night containing screenshots of a conversation in which someone apparently tries to convince a young woman to run away from her family and travel outside of the Middle East.

Important warning to guardians. Keep an eye on your daughters, the rabble rousers of the "[guardianship must] fall" movement are trying to seduce them to flee abroad.

In the communications, the girl is encouraged to “surprise [her] family” and wait to tell them anything until she is settled in the new country, possibly Albania or Korea.

The messages add that: “you have said you are a lesbian. Here, if the religious police find out, the punishment is execution. Whereas over there you can marry a woman you love and adopt children.”

The unnamed organizer offers to get in touch with someone who has connections overseas to meet the girl when she arrives.

When the young woman suggests that it is a hard decision and she needs to involve her parents, the reply is “no no noooo! Don’t tell anyone.”

Others supported the claims of this tweeter with separate examples of the apparent deception of young women by Saudi women’s rights activists who supposedly encouraged them to escape their families. The following tweet contains screenshots of the account of a Saudi girl who fled to Georgia, and did not receive sufficient support there, after having been encouraged by other women from the kingdom:

The liberal women have incited #Shahad_alMahaymeed to run away. After she fled to the outside of the Kingdom they ignored her messages. Therefore we demand accountability from [these] agitators.

Shahd al Mahaymeed was a teenager whose story gained Saudi social media attention at the end of November after she claimed that “women’s rights activists” had encouraged her run away from her family. According to her story, when she had regretted her decision, they had refused to help her.

Many have taken the reported incidents as an opportunity to ruthlessly attack the women’s rights movement in Saudi Arabia:

On the other side of liberalism is atheism. We do not see them demanding the rights of widows and divorcees. Even the poor [they don't help], they are just making noise to distract society.

(The image has a “liberal” pulling the strings to close the box around a woman who has been enticed in by the label “women’s rights”)

I wish a special prison would be built for the liberal women, and the negligent women's rights activists, and the agitators, and those who wish to abolish the abaya and defy the laws of the State

The definition of emigrating in:

1. Syria. (Fear of bombardment) 2. Africa. (Fear of poverty) 3. Saudi Arabia. (Why can't we drive a car?!)

Those who demand the fall of male guardianship. Misleading young girls. Promoting atheism. Promoting homosexuality. Right now.

Nonetheless, there were those who responded to the allegations by stressing the need for more information of these unconfirmed stories and rumors:

May God forbid this happen to anyone, oh Lord. But who are these people who run away? What are their names and ages? Is it against or according to their wishes? Where are their parents?

The campaign for the fall of male guardianship, referenced in many of these tweets, is a Twitter movement that began in July to call for an end to the tight restrictions placed on women in the Gulf country. Currently, women need permission from a male guardian in order to undertake mundane everyday activities, including studying, travelling, working and seeking medical attention.

The hashtag “Saudi women demand the fall of male guardianship” has been on the trending list nearly 200 times since the launch of the effort. However, in a society in which social conservatism prevails, the battle for women’s rights continues to face many barriers, even among the Twitter community.

RA

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