Saudi Arabia´s influence on women´s rights

The UN´s upcoming Status of Women Commission will be chaired by Saudi Arabia; will this threaten or benefit gender politics across the world?

This March, Saudi Arabia was elected to chair the UN‘s forum to promote women’s rights and reduce gender discrimination. None of the UN member states protested; Saudi Arabia UN´s ambassador, Abdulaziz Alswasil, was chosen by “acclamation”

The laws in Saudi Arabia require a woman to obtain a male guardian´s permission to marry, and to obey her husband in a “reasonable manner.” The World Economic Forum revealed that Saudi Arabia remains amongst the Global Gender Gap´s ten lowest-ranked countries.

Oxfam International´s head of gender rights and justice revealed: “Giving power to people who are trying to regress gender justice weakens the language [on] the key issues that we want to push the needle on,” 

Yet some authorities indicated that Saudi Arabia´s involvement may be a way of challenging the current laws of the nation, as the head of advocacy of ALQST commented: “We believe that international collaboration can lead to positive change and that Saudi Arabia’s willingness to engage could hold incentives.”