Minority Rights
The Issue
Under the current political and social system in Saudi Arabia, expatriate foreign workers and the religious or ethnic minorities of Saudi Arabia subsist without legal rights or protections. The Saudi government’s harshly discriminatory policies touch almost every aspect of the daily lives of millions of people inside Saudi Arabia.
Religious minorities in Saudi Arabia (mainly Shi’a Muslims, Hindus, Jews, and Christians), all face severe discrimination in employment and education and are forbidden from openly practicing their religion. Even non-Wahhabi Sunni Muslims are discriminated against. Read More…
From CDHRCollective Punishment of Religious Minorities The Saudi-Wahhabi harsh religious-based policies are designed to create fear, divisiveness and unending conflicts among their severely controlled citizens. Women and religious minorities in all parts of Saudi Arabia are perpetual victims of vindictive and erratic government behavior and revenge against those who refuse to convert to their domestically, regionally and globally loathed brand of Islam, Wahhabism. While the state created and imposed the Wahhabi brand of Islam on all citizens and residents of the desolate Kingdom, no group is more victimized by its severe application than the estimated 500 thousand member Ismaeli religious minority in the agriculturally rich region of Najran, on the Saudi – Yemeni borders. Read More… Less than Human Because they are Dark or Abeed Saudis and their apologists in Western universities and public relations suites are quick to point fingers against others who discriminate against people because of color, religion, social status or ethnicity. Yet there are few places on earth where black people are condemned and have less rights and respect than in Saudi Arabia. Read More… Saudis Supporting Religious Tolerance? The Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia, located in Washington DC, calls on all nations to protect the rights of all peoples and to implement and respect all International Declarations on religious and political freedoms. It is ironic that “Saudi Arabia’s Human Rights Commission (HRC, a Saudi government agency) will urge its counterparts in the European Union to ask their governments not to link terrorism to Islam and also to issue regulations to protect Muslims from prejudice and discrimination because of their faith.” Given its dismal human rights record and religious intolerance, the Saudi government and its agencies are hardly in a position to call on democratic Europe to respect Muslims’ religious rights. Read More… Sending the Wrong Message Saudi Arabia plays a significant role in the lives of 1.2 billion Muslims throughout the world. The country is the birth place of Islam, the home to its two holiest shrines in Mecca and Medina and the source of incredible wealth due to its oil reserves. Consequently, most Muslims look to Saudi Arabia for religious guidance, political weight and financial aid. These realities put the Saudi government in an exceedingly powerful position which it could use constructively to mitigate tension, friction and misunderstanding between Muslims and non-Muslims. Read More… The Plight of Expatriate Maids Continues Despite protests by groups like The Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and, more importantly, by courageous Saudi journalists, barbaric treatment of poverty stricken and defenseless Asian women maids continues unabated in Saudi homes and royal palaces. This is due to a range of demeaning, primitive and ungodly factors. The victims are mostly women and since women in Saudi Arabia are discriminated against by the Saudi political, judicial, religious, social, economic and educational institutions, torturing, killing and raping women are not considered crimes of the highest order. Read More… Trafficking of Women in the Oil-Rich Gulf States They call them housemaids, but in reality they are coerced into playing many roles, including that of concubines at the whims of their “masters,” sick or starving and at anytime of day or night. Hundreds of thousands of helpless and defenseless women are imported, mostly from poverty-stricken Arab, Asian and African countries, and are placed in homes throughout Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf countries, ostensibly as housemaids. Read More… |
In the News85 “Distressed” Filipino Workers Arrive From Riyadh A TOTAL of 85 overseas Filipino workers, most of whom were maltreated by their employers, arrived on Thursday afternoon in Manila from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Filipino Rescued After Working without Pay for 18 Years She left her home in the northern Philippines with a dream: To give her 6-year-old daughter Marivic a brighter future. After 18 years, Leonora Somera, now 64, has yet to realize any of that dream, a dream that has turned into her worst nightmare. After working diligently for her employer for two years, he died and his son moved to Al-Baha, about 275 kilometers south of Jeddah. He brought Leonora along and that is where her sufferings began.
Nour Miyati: Indonesian Maid’s Tragedy Continues A Riyadh judge sentenced an Indonesian maid, who accused her sponsor and his wife of torturing her, to 79 lashes yesterday.
Female Ansar Members Returning Home from Saudi Arabia with Tales of Horror Five Ansar-Village Defence Party (VDP) women members, who went to Saudi Arabia late July this year to work as housemaids, returned home within a few days of joining the workplaces where they allegedly became victims of sexual harassment by employers.( The Daily Star )
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