The government of Saudi Arabia has rejected the United Nations (UN) document on the Convention on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) Agreement, a veiled reference to women emancipation.
CEDAW is an international treaty that was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly.
The Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Adel Al-Jubeir, in a statement today, August 15, described CEDAW as against the provisions of Islamic Sharia.
Though some Arab countries have begun to agree to the CEDAW agreement, but the Saudi government insisted that some provisions in the document are dangerously contradictory to the provisions of the Holy Qur’an.
Minister Adel Al-Jubeir listed such provisions as follows:
1- CEDAW says that a woman is like a man but the Qur’an says: “And the male is not like the female.”
2- CEDAW says a man is not allowed to have polygamy but the Qur’an says: “Then marry as many women as you like, two, three and four.”
3- CEDAW says that children are named after their mothers but the Qur’an says: “Call them to their fathers.”
4- CEDAW says: There is no waiting period for a woman (after divorce) but the Qur’an says: “And divorced women await three readings by themselves.”
5- CEDAW says the man does not have guardianship over the woman and the father does not have guardianship over his daughters but the Qur’an says: “Men are the guardians of women.”
6 – CEDAW says male and female in inheritance are one but the Qur’an says: “The male shall have the share of two females.”
7- CEDAW says a man can marry a man like him and a woman can marry a woman like her but the Qur’an says: “Do you come to the remembrances of the worlds.”
8- CEDAW gives women the right to have an abortion but the Qur’an says: “And do not kill your children.”
9- CEDAW does not criminalize sexual relations outside of marriage for both spouses but the Qur’an says: “Do not approach adultery, for it was an indecency and an evil way.”
10- CEDAW says: A woman is bound to whomever she wants, separates whenever she wants, and reconnects whenever she wants but the Qur’an says: “Magnorous women who do not intermarry, nor take wives’ wives.”
11 – CEDAW says: The age of marriage is after eighteen but the Qur’an says:
“And afflict the orphans until they reach the age of marriage.”
Saudi government stressed that whoever wants to stand by CEDAW and defend it must know that he is disobedient to God, and denies His Book and the Sunnah of His Prophet..
“Work diligently to dissolve the conservative society, and work to push it to follow lust and perversion.”