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Amnesty International condemns treatment of women in Saudi Arabia |
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September 30, 2000
CAIRO, (AP) - Women in Saudi Arabia are accused of morality crimes more often than men and face additional obstacles in defending their virtue, according to a recent Amnesty International report on discrimination against women in the conservative kingdom. Limitations on women's movement and interaction with men puts them at a disadvantage during interrogations, making them vulnerable to be intimidated into confessions, according to the London-based human rights group's report released Wednesday and posted on its web site, www.amnestyusa.org. The report was monitored in Cairo late Thursday night, when Saudi officials could not be contacted. In the past, Saudi Arabia consistently has dismissed accusations it violates people's rights and has described its critics - of which Amnesty is one of the most prominent and persistent - as enemies of Islam. Amnesty said that although an "encouraging" debate is emerging in Saudi Arabia on women's rights, Saudi and female foreign nationals in the kingdom remain discriminated against in employment, education, decision-making and the judicial system. Saudi Arabia agreed Monday to join the U.N.-sponsored Convention of Eradication of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, which promotes equal opportunities for women. However, the government warned it wouldn't comply with articles it considers contradictory to Islamic law. Amnesty said it welcomed the decision to join the 20-year-old treaty, but said it hoped the "sweeping reservations" wouldn't be used to undermine the value and intent of the Convention. Though men also face trials that Amnesty long has maintained don't meet the basic standards for fairness, the group said women enter the criminal justice system already disadvantaged by systematic discrimination in society. Unrelated women and men rarely mix in Saudi Arabia. "Women are invariably interrogated by men," Amnesty said. "Having no previous contact with unrelated men, they are consequently vulnerable to being intimated into giving confessions, which are used as a sole evidence for conviction and punishment." Amnesty said "many cases show that `crimes' of immoral conduct, although appearing gender-neutral, are invoked against women in more circumstances than against men." Such crimes often are punished by floggings, which Amnesty considers torture. Punishment in Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Islamic law that calls for death sentences for murder, rape, drug trafficking and armed robbery. Twenty-eight women are known to have been executed in Saudi Arabia since 1990, including 17 foreign nationals, Amnesty said. This year, at least three women have been among at least 105 people executed in the kingdom, one convicted of heroin smuggling and two convicted of murder. Amesty also criticized the kingdom for requiring women to be represented by a man in business decisions, and said gender segregation often limits women's opportunities. Female domestic workers, often foreign nationals, are particularly vulnerable to abuse by their employers, Amnesty said, citing the case of an Indonesian woman it said was abused and threatened by police when she sought help. |