Nawal el-Moutawakel (right), the first Arab Muslim woman to win an Olympic gold medal, on Tuesday called on female athletes in the Gulf to fight for their right to compete, as Kuwaiti lawmakers attempt to ban their national women’s football team.

“There is resistance, it is not easy for women to get a red carpet ... So women have to fight for their right,” Moutawakel told reporters at a press conference to kickstart the Laureus World Sports Awards in Abu Dhabi.

Moutawakel, a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Laureus World Sports Academy, won the inaugural women's 400m hurdles event for Morocco at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

“It is very difficult (for women to compete) and I know when I speak about this. My event was the 400m hurdles with many barriers. There are ups and downs, it’s not always flat and smooth.”

Islamist lawmakers in Kuwait have called for an investigation into how their national women’s football team was allowed to take part in a tournament in Abu Dhabi last month.

MPs in the conservative Muslim country want the team banned and the government to punish officials responsible for allowing the team to compete in the West Asian Football Federation Championship.

The lawmakers are against the women taking part in any outdoor sporting activity.

“This is a minor problem that needs to be solved internally. There is always turbulence in the air, but the landing will be smooth,” Moutawakel said.

She said Arab women have made huge progress in the world of sport since she was competing, describing the difference as “like night and day”.

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By Dylan Bowman
Maktoob Sport

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The decision to leave my country came after I knocked on many doors of the Saudi bureaucracy, hoping in vain to obtain the God-given right to live with my Arab-Canadian husband in the country of my birth.

Instead of a residency permit, I was called names and degraded. Why? Because I, a Saudi, had chosen to marry a non-Saudi.

Not only was I humiliated, I was also approached for bribes of up to SR40,000 (about $10,600) by people claiming to know how to manipulate the system. My husband was kicked out of Saudi Arabia twice because his temporary status had lapsed. At one point in this ridiculous process, an immigration official lost my husband's Canadian passport.

It was at the end of this long, fruitless and humiliating journey that I realized giving up and moving to Canada was the best decision to make.

Living constantly in distress because my country refuses to grant my beloved husband legal status is infuriating.

I tied the knot in June 2008, but only after a year of frustration in order to obtain the Interior Ministry's permission.

At one point in that process my father-my legal guardian-escorted me to the ministry to obtain legal recognition of my marriage. At the marriage license office, I interrogated the woman behind the desk.

"I see many women applying to get married to non-Saudis. Is the number increasing?" I asked. "Why is it so difficult to get the permit?"

"There are at least six or seven women applying every day," she answered. "The country wants to protect you and grants you your rights."

I refrained from scoffing at her reply.

"I have an 11-year-old son from my Saudi ex-husband," I said sharply. "I can't see my son whenever I want to."

She paused for a minute and her look softened.

"You're a reporter. You've got to write about the situation of women," she said, almost pleading.

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By Hassna'a Mokhtar
Arab News

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Susan notes: Iranian women will prevail one day. In the meantime, their battle goes on. This excellent post by Elahe Amani, who was once incarcerated in Evin prison for more than three months, shows just how determined they are.

Today on a daily basis, personal memoirs of ongoing encounters of dictatorship and resistance in Iran are being written in print and in cyberspace by countless Iranian civil rights activists, scholars and women human rights defenders.

In the process of finding a new transitional global identity, Iran state authorities have steadily continued in the use of legislative delays, reversal of legal means and arrests of dissidents, activists and journalists.

Younger, as well as older, women human rights defenders, are now finding themselves victim to increasing intelligence policies of non-disclosure, intimidation and repression.

The IRI (Islamic Republic of Iran) state detention policies act as only a surrogate solution to many of the social problems now growing inside the country. Human rights groups and international rescue teams watch as the list of detainees grows longer, as women have become targets in a shifting Iranian system of legal sanctions.

“According to Iranian officials,” said Amnesty International in a February 10, 2010 release, “over 40 people have died in demonstrations since the election, which were violently repressed by the security forces. Amnesty International said it believes the number to be at least 80 and possibly many more. More than 5,000 people have been arrested, many of whom were tortured or otherwise ill-treated.”

A clear crisis in the prison system inside Iran is growing.

As sports stadiums closed the doors to women attending sports events; as family courtrooms denied the rights of women to custody in divorce; as “proper” women’s dress became part of a hidden discourse of Iranian social criticism calling dress code enforcement officers “Chastity Guards” and “Morality Police;” women working in the field of speaking publicly on the issues of gender equality have been placed in ever increasing danger.

“The women’s rights movement has borne the brunt of this repression, in particular since the launch of the ‘One Million Signatures’ Campaign, in August 2006. This campaign seeks to provide education on women’s rights at the grassroots level and to obtain a repeal of discriminatory laws against women. To this end, the Campaign collects signatures that it plans to submit to the Parliament,” said the International Federation for Human Rights in an August 2007 appeal to the IRI.

The IRI is “in full compliance with the relevant international commitments it has taken on in a genuine and long-term approach to safeguard human rights,” said Secretary General of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights, Mohammad Larijani, at a recent United Nations review of human rights violations at the February 2010 UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva.

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By Elahe Amani
Women News Network
Photo credit:
Women News Network

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