Nazia Quazi, the 24-year old Canadian-Indian citizen imprisoned in her father’s home in Saudi Arabia for three years, has been freed.
Quazi went to Saudi Arabia to visit her father (and some reports say for a religious pilgrimage), where her father altered her identity and travel documents, appointing himself Quazi’s legal guardian. As Saudi Arabia’s archaic and misogynistic laws prohibit women from doing much, including leaving the country, without the permission of their legal guardians — men, usually husbands, fathers, or even sons — Quazi could not leave without her father’s signature. The father said he would only give his approval for Quazi to leave if she would marry a man in Dubai, a boyfriend of whom the family formerly disapproved.
Quazi has agreed to marry the man, and Sunday left Saudi Arabia — but is she really free?
Canada’s The National Post states pressure of citizens (and ex-soldiers formerly commended by Saudi Arabia) raising voices across the globe helped free Quazi, and also acknowledges Quazi may not really be free: To agree to marriage in order to leave the country seems very much like exchanging one male guardian for another, and keeps Quazi under male dominion, literally so in countries with male guardianship laws. The Vancouver Sun, [UPDATED: in an article no longer on their website] reported Quazi’s text-message confirmation of her escape from Saudi Arabia, states Bjorn Singhal, Quazi’s husband-to-be, plans to arrange all the legal paperwork for the relationship after the marriage on Wednesday, and that the couple will “spend some time planning a proper reception and celebration of their marriage for family and friends.” No mention of where the couple will live — and what country’s laws will govern Quazi’s self-determination — is made.
I’d like to think the story turns out for the best, and the couple will reside in Canada — but details are lacking. I’d also like to think this story won’t repeat itself — but a repeat is far from certain.
The Christian Science Monitor explores Quazi’s story and the issue, examining the need for change in attitudes and treatment of women not only in Saudi Arabia and fundamentalist Muslim countries, but in Western countries, where most Muslims are afraid to speak about civil, political, or human rights abuses in their communities and home countries. In an interview with The Monitor, Shahla Khan Salter, who spearheaded efforts to publicize Quazi’s situation and thus free her, calls upon the “silent moderate majority of Muslims – in North America, in Western Europe – who are not necessarily speaking out, [but] who don’t agree that women should be treated in this way” to use Quazi’s story as springboard to expand dialog and change perceptions and laws about women’s rights in Saudi Arabia.
Yes, Muslim community members must speak out, as must we all, to secure the rights of not just one woman in one country, but of all women in all countries.
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