Saudi King wants women in Shura Council
Riyadh (AsiaNews/ Agencies) - Saudi Arabia is slowly extending rights to women. Under existing laws, they are completely excluded from social and political life. The kingdom's 150 all-male Shura (Consultative) Council will now allow female members. Its membership will also be renewed.
With the new year comes the possibility for Saudi women to work in shops selling female accessories (clothing and cosmetics), said Abdel-Latif Sheikh, head of the Saudi government committee to 'Promote Virtue and Prevent Vice' (PVPV), more commonly known as the morality police.
Speaking to Saudi newspaper Al-Madina, Sheikh said that the PVPV would still be able to bar women from this type of work if they violated Sharia.
In December 2011, Saudi Arabia's grand mufti issued a fatwa prohibiting women from working in accessories and lingerie shops describing the job as "criminal and disrespectful."
More recently, the hard-line position taken by religious authorities has had to bow to King Abdullah's more liberal attitudes. Under proposed changes, 20 per cent or 30 members in the next Shura Council will be women.
In the kingdom, women are banned from most jobs and professions. The few who are employed, even those who work in high finance, are under the control of their male guardian.
A total of 1.7 million saudi women are jobless despite the fact that almost half of these women hold university degrees. To fight female unemployment (around 30 per cent), the government has eased rules on women working in jobs that entail contact with the public.
After a year vetting the draft bill from every point of view to see if it conformed to Sharia, clerical authorities endorsed the law. Pilot projects in some businesses were also set up before the law could be applied across the country.
Until last year, women had to buy lingerie in stores staffed with only men.
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