Letter from Saudi Citizens Calling on King to Free Manal al-Sharif

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Letter from Saudi Citizens Calling on King to Free Manal al-Sharif

By : Jadaliyya Reports

[The following letter was issued by a variety of Saudi citizens calling on King Abudllah to free Manal al-Sharif who revlead that she had been driving in the Kingdom (see video here) as part of a larger call for Saudi women to drive themselves on June 17, 2011. As of early morning on Wednesday May 25, 2011, the letter has received over  1100 signatures. The original Arabic version of the letter is reproduced below can be found here. The below English translation is an edited version of the translation found here.]

In the name of god, most gracious, most merciful.

To the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques.

Peace and god`s blessings be upon you.

We the children of this country have been very hurt by the news of the arrest of the citizen Manal Masoud al-Sharif on Saturday 22//5/2011 on the grounds of her driving her car in the streets of al-Khobar in the company of her brother. And while we were releived at her and her brother`s release that same evening [Satruday], we were shocked by their detention once again at dawn on Sunday in a manner that was insulting to both the country and its people. She was [brought in on the pretense of being] only asked to sign a pledge [to not engage in the same action again] but in truth was tricked into an arrest that has lasted until this very moment, as Manal was sent to the Dammam Prison and remains there.

The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, you stated in 2007 that the issue of women`s driving is a social one and that the state`s role is to facilitate the suitable environment for any decision that the society deems appropriate.

The minister of interior also stated that the issue of a woman driving her car is a social one and not a religious one, which theoretically means that if society wishes to lift the ban then there should be no obstacles.
 

The same thing was repeated by the minister of foreign affairs that: the decision regarding a woman driving a car is one that lies in the family.

Shaykh Abdullah Bin Muni`, a member of the Higher Council of Ulema, has said that there is no objection from a religious perspective to women driving a car.

In addition, Article 38 of the Basic Law states: there should be no personal or criminal punishment that is not based on a religious or official decree; and since women’s driving is not prohibited by any official law or religious law, then a woman should not be arrested for driving her car given that no person`s actions can be restricted, nor can he be stopped or imprisoned, except through legal decreases as is stipulated in Article 38.
Therefore, oh Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, we call on you to immediately release the daughter of the country Manal al-Sharif and lift the injustice that has befallen her as she drove her car with her brother’s company and consent, and she has a recognized driving license in accordance with the traffic laws as outlined by Article 2, Section 34 of the law.

We also believe that the time has come to clearly resolve the issue of women’s driving. To say that its a social issue and is not prohibited by religion, and then for women to be arrested, is completely unjust and it leaves us trapped in a vicious circle. We are in desperate need for a clear law that either prohibits or allows [women to drive].

The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, you have said your famous saying that the woman is "my wife, my mother, and my daughter." Your daughter Manal al-Sharif is currently in prison without committing a crime. Will you remove this injustice? We all urgently hope for freedom for Manal.

May god bless you and look after you.

 

 


بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

خادم الحرمين الشريفين حفظه الله ورعاه

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته وبعد

فإننا نحن أبناء هذا الوطن الغالي آلمنا جداً خبر اعتقال المواطنة منال مسعود الشريف يوم السبت الموافق 22/5/2011 على خلفية قيادتها لسيارتها في شوارع الخبر برفقة أخيها، وما إن تنفسنا الصعداء بعد الإفراج عنها وأخيها مساء اليوم ذاته؛ إلا وفجعنا باحتجازهما مرة أخرى فجر يوم الأحد بطريقة مهينة للوطن وأهله، حيث أوهمت بأن عليها توقيع تعهد فقط، بينما الحقيقة كانت أنه تمهيد إلى اعتقال امتد حتى الآن، حيث أودعت منال سجن الدمام ولم تزل فيه

خادم الحرمين الشريفين لقد صرّحتم في عام 2007 بأن موضوع قيادة المرأة للسيارة يعد موضوعاً اجتماعياً ودور الدولة فيه توفير المناخ الملائم لأي قرار يراه المجتمع

كما صرّح سمو وزير الداخلية النائب الثاني بـ أن قيادة المرأة للسيارة مسألة اجتماعية وليست دينية مما يعني من الناحية النظرية أنه إذا أراد المجتمع رفع الحظر فلن تكون هناك عقبة

والأمر نفسه قاله سمو وزير الخارجية بـ: أن قرار قيادة المرأة للسيارة راجع لأسرتها

وقد ذكر عضو هيئة كبار العلماء الشيخ عبدالله بن منيع أنه لا يوجد من الناحية الدينية ما يمنع المرأة من قيادة السيارة

عطفاً على أن النظام الأساسي للحكم قد نص في مادته الثامنة والثلاثين على أن:العقوبة شخصية ولا جريمة ولا عقوبة إلا بناءً على نص شرعي أو نص نظامي، ولا عقاب إلا على الأعمال اللاحقة للعمل بالنص النظامي

وحيث أن قيادة المرأة للسيارة ليس فيها نص شرعي أو نظامي يمنعها وبالتالي لا تعتقل المرأة إذا قادت سيارتها بناء على أنه لا يجوز تقييد تصرفات أحد أو توقيفه أو حبسه إلا بموجب أحكام النظام كما نصت على ذلك المادة السادسة والثلاثون

فإننا يا خادم الحرمين الشريفين نهيب بكم الإفراج فوراً عن ابنة الوطن منال الشريف ورفع ما لحق بها من ظلم، حيث أنها قادت سيارتها برفقة أخيها وموافقته ومعها رخصتها لقيادة السيارة المعترف بها بما يتوافق مع نظام المرور وما ورد في مادته الثانية الفقرة 34

كما أننا نعتقد أن الوقت قد حان لحسم مسألة قيادة المرأة للسيارة بوضوح، أما أن يقال إنها مسألة اجتماعية وليس فيها ما يعتورها من الناحية الدينية ثم بعد ذلك تعتقل المرأة إذا ساقت سيارتها فهذا عين الظلم، ويبقينا في دائرة الراد والمردود عليه دون حسم، نحن في أمس الحاجة لنظام واضح حال المنع أو حال السماح

يا خادم الحرمين الشريفين لقد قلت قولتك المشهورة بأن المرأة هي زوجتي وأمي وابنتي.. وابنتكم منال الشريف في السجن الآن دونما جرم ارتكبته فهلا رفعت الظلم عنها.. كلنا يرجوا عاجلاً الحرية لمنال

حفظكم الله ورعاكم
 

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Past is Present: Settler Colonialism Matters!

On 5-6 March 2011, the Palestine Society at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London will hold its seventh annual conference, "Past is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine." This year`s conference aims to understand Zionism as a settler colonial project which has, for more than a century, subjected Palestine and Palestinians to a structural and violent form of destruction, dispossession, land appropriation and erasure in the pursuit of a new Jewish Israeli society. By organizing this conference, we hope to reclaim and revive the settler colonial paradigm and to outline its potential to inform and guide political strategy and mobilization.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is often described as unique and exceptional with little resemblance to other historical or ongoing colonial conflicts. Yet, for Zionism, like other settler colonial projects such as the British colonization of Ireland or European settlement of North America, South Africa or Australia, the imperative is to control the land and its resources -- and to displace the original inhabitants. Indeed, as conference keynote speaker Patrick Wolfe, one of the foremost scholars on settler colonialism and professor at La Trobe University in Victoria, Australia, argues, "the logic of this project, a sustained institutional tendency to eliminate the Indigenous population, informs a range of historical practices that might otherwise appear distinct--invasion is a structure not an event."[i]

Therefore, the classification of the Zionist movement as a settler colonial project, and the Israeli state as its manifestation, is not merely intended as a statement on the historical origins of Israel, nor as a rhetorical or polemical device. Rather, the aim is to highlight Zionism`s structural continuities and the ideology which informs Israeli policies and practices in Palestine and toward Palestinians everywhere. Thus, the Nakba -- whether viewed as a spontaneous, violent episode in war, or the implementation of a preconceived master plan -- should be understood as both the precondition for the creation of Israel and the logical outcome of Zionist settlement in Palestine.

Moreover, it is this same logic that sustains the continuation of the Nakba today. As remarked by Benny Morris, “had he [David Ben Gurion] carried out full expulsion--rather than partial--he would have stabilised the State of Israel for generations.”[ii] Yet, plagued by an “instability”--defined by the very existence of the Palestinian nation--Israel continues its daily state practices in its quest to fulfill Zionism’s logic to maximize the amount of land under its control with the minimum number of Palestinians on it. These practices take a painful array of manifestations: aerial and maritime bombardment, massacre and invasion, house demolitions, land theft, identity card confiscation, racist laws and loyalty tests, the wall, the siege on Gaza, cultural appropriation, and the dependence on willing (or unwilling) native collaboration and security arrangements, all with the continued support and backing of imperial power. 

Despite these enduring practices however, the settler colonial paradigm has largely fallen into disuse. As a paradigm, it once served as a primary ideological and political framework for all Palestinian political factions and trends, and informed the intellectual work of committed academics and revolutionary scholars, both Palestinians and Jews.

The conference thus asks where and why the settler colonial paradigm was lost, both in scholarship on Palestine and in politics; how do current analyses and theoretical trends that have arisen in its place address present and historical realities? While acknowledging the creativity of these new interpretations, we must nonetheless ask: when exactly did Palestinian natives find themselves in a "post-colonial" condition? When did the ongoing struggle over land become a "post-conflict" situation? When did Israel become a "post-Zionist" society? And when did the fortification of Palestinian ghettos and reservations become "state-building"?

In outlining settler colonialism as a central paradigm from which to understand Palestine, this conference re-invigorates it as a tool by which to analyze the present situation. In doing so, it contests solutions which accommodate Zionism, and more significantly, builds settler colonialism as a political analysis that can embolden and inform a strategy of active, mutual, and principled Palestinian alignment with the Arab struggle for self-determination, and indigenous struggles in the US, Latin America, Oceania, and elsewhere.

Such an alignment would expand the tools available to Palestinians and their solidarity movement, and reconnect the struggle to its own history of anti-colonial internationalism. At its core, this internationalism asserts that the Palestinian struggle against Zionist settler colonialism can only be won when it is embedded within, and empowered by, the broader Arab movement for emancipation and the indigenous, anti-racist and anti-colonial movement--from Arizona to Auckland.

SOAS Palestine Society invites everyone to join us at what promises to be a significant intervention in Palestine activism and scholarship.

For over 30 years, SOAS Palestine Society has heightened awareness and understanding of the Palestinian people, their rights, culture, and struggle for self-determination, amongst students, faculty, staff, and the broader public. SOAS Palestine society aims to continuously push the frontiers of discourse in an effort to make provocative arguments and to stimulate debate and organizing for justice in Palestine through relevant conferences, and events ranging from the intellectual and political impact of Edward Said`s life and work (2004), international law and the Palestine question (2005), the economy of Palestine and its occupation (2006), the one state (2007), 60 Years of Nakba, 60 Years of Resistance (2009), and most recently, the Left in Palestine (2010).

For more information on the SOAS Palestine Society 7th annual conference, Past is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine: www.soaspalsoc.org

SOAS Palestine Society Organizing Collective is a group of committed students that has undertaken to organize annual academic conferences on Palestine since 2003.

 


[i] Patrick Wolfe, Settler Colonialism and the Transformation of Anthropology: The Politics and Poetics of an Ethnographic Event, Cassell, London, p. 163

[ii] Interview with Benny Morris, Survival of the Fittest, Haaretz, 9. January 2004, http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/php/art.php?aid=5412