KRISTIE MOSS / Scroll

Foreign women suffer under oppressive cultures

Jamie Moon MOO05002@BYUI.EDU Scroll Staff

In a religion that values and treats women as equal partners to their husbands, it is sometimes difficult to consider that not all women are valued or respected.

One example is the women in Saudi Arabia. Brittney Johnson, a sophomore from Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, has experienced the Saudi Arabian culture for eight years.

Johnson said in Saudi Arabian culture, some men can be cruel to their wives, maids and families.

“I had a friend whose dad once sat them all down on the couch and just kicked them,” Johnson said. “He put a knife sharpener in the oven and burned my friend’s arm with it. There are always stories of Saudi men who murder their wives or maids and bury them in the desert. Men have dominance in their families, so if they murder their wives or maids, it isn’t a big deal.”

Johnson said that in addition to violence, men are considered superior. Women have to walk behind the men at least two or three steps. Showing affection in public is forbidden.

“Our stake president’s wife had been gone for a while and when he went to the airport to pick her up, he was so happy to see her that he gave her a hug. The Matawah [religious police] arrested him and kicked him out of the country,” Johnson said.

According to the 2004 edition of Asia-Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the law, “Women in Saudi Arabia can be seen to be in a position subservient to men as restrictions are applied which curtail their way of life.”

In contrast to the Latter-day Saint way of life, where women’s responsibilities rest on rearing their children, women in other parts of the world are only expected to bear children. Johnson said maids are the primary caregivers for the children once they are born.

“They have a maid for cooking, one for cleaning and one for taking care of the kids. They also have drivers, because women are not allowed to drive. I always wonder what the women have to live for. It must be a really pathetic existence,” Johnson said.

“Women in Saudi Arabia live under constant legal and cultural prohibitions, whether in the family or outside their homes,” According to the Asia-Pacific Journal, “The restrictions imposed by the state in its laws and decrees are oppressive, but the support these laws obtain from the patriarchal structure in their society means that improving their status is not just a matter of legal and political reform but will also require considerable social change.”

Not all Saudi Arabian men are marked as cruel.

“Saudi men in general are more affectionate with their children than American men,” Johnson said.

According to an Oct. 13, 2005, CNN news report, women cannot vote and must have special permission to attend universities, travel or have surgery. King Abdullah, from Saudi Arabia, finally agreed to be interviewed by a woman.

“But it will require a little bit of time,” he said. “Our people are just now beginning to open up to the world, and I believe that with the passing of days in the future everything is possible.”

Not all countries have the violence found in Saudi Arabia. In China, women are treated more like American women, but men are still dominant. Lindsay Boulter, a junior from St. George, Utah, lived in China for four and a half months as a volunteer English teacher.

“Wives usually let the husband be the speaker and are more of a follower in public situations,” Boulter said. “I think this was probably more out of respect than anything else, but I never got to experience what it was like inside the homes.”

Boulter said women in American culture are more openly aggressive.

“I think American women ... take charge much more than the Chinese women,” Boulter said. “The biggest difference is American culture puts women in a position where they feel they need to prove themselves as equal to men. The Chinese culture holds on strongly to their roots and cultural background, which keep the women home.”

According to www.china.org, women are gradually gaining more rights. Wu Yi, State Councilor, is one example that women are being allowed to hold certain government positions.

“We may firmly affirm our achievements in protecting the rights and interests of women, but we also need to realize that problems still exist and some of them are quite serious,” said Wu.

Johnson said she is grateful to be an American Woman. “You don’t realize the rights you have as an American until you have lived in other countries.”