CDHR’s Commentary: In October 2005, just two months after he formally inherited the Saudi throne, King Abdullah was interviewed by Barbara Walters of the American Broad Casting Company (ABC). Asked a pointed question about the status of Saudi women, his response was more personal than official, “I believe strongly in the rights of women. My mother is a woman. My sister is a woman. My daughter is a woman. My wife is a woman.”

While the king may very well believe in the rights of women, he has failed to deliver. The overwhelming majority of Saudi women are unemployed, not allowed to drive, and need permission from their male guardians to even get life-saving medication or deliver a baby in a hospital.

Furthermore, King Abdullah continues to empower Saudi women’s number one nemesis, the religious establishment, by making it illegal to criticize or question their pervasive powers. Because of the king’s failure to translate his words into actions, Saudi women have refused to sit idle. They are organizing, appearing on global media, and chipping away at the pillar from which the system draws its legitimacy and power, religious extremism.

In May 2012, two Saudi women reminded the world on separate occasions of the denigrating conditions imposed on them by the autocratic and theocratic elites who compose the Saudi political structure in their country. Manal Al Sharif, a well-known women’s rights activist, delivered a powerful speech in Oslo, Norway, about her experiences as a woman who has no rights in Saudi Arabia. A few days later, a previously unknown woman stood up to the notorious Saudi religious police who chastised her for having makeup and showing portion of her hair while shopping.

Saudi Arabia will best be served if King Abdullah and his senior brothers instruct their obedient Mufti to issue a fatwa declaring that all forms of discrimination against women and segregation of genders are un-Islamic and harmful to the country’s stability, prosperity, and security. This is one step that will place Saudi Arabia in the amphitheater of modern nations.