Repost: Women In Oman

A while back, Kay had posted this interested article of which she had read on the online webpage of an Arabic newspaper by the name of Al Quds Al Arabi that questioned the rights of Omani women in general in the last few years under the current ruling of His Majesty and the government of the Sultanate of Oman.

The writer has obviously forgotten the true situation of Arabian women especially in the GCC countries. Which is far off better than the other respective Arabian nations of where a woman is not give her least basic rights in voicing their opinions nor undergo any rights movement in the country to which she resides. For, Oman, has given Omani women the rights to vote in Majlis A' Shura and to also lead in certain governmental positions of which were unheard of in the past. There has also been a rise in women taking presidential positions in the private sector as business women.

The writer obviously has a very biased opinion about how the Omani women in the Sultanate of Oman are being treated in terms of ownership of lands that are given by the government, and housing loans by claiming that is all proven by a UN report back in 2003 and the claims that she so says that this also exists on the official website of Oman's Ministry of Information webpage (which it doesn't).

Perhaps the only relevant truth in 'Basma's' is the part where she says that since the female population doesn't get a fair chance at entering SQU University because of the high grades that they achieve and that they would need far higher percentages in their overall highschool graduation certificate to gain entry but the same is not done for their male counterparts. Which is cause for rather a big debate.

She goes on further beyond that to say that there have been 'suggestions' by some that the university should not allow their female students to have their mobiles on after 11pm at night. Claiming that 'female university students are then just lab rats that should be contained and monitered' (!!!)

The fact of the matter is that most of the students that enter the university are from outside of the Muscat region and that the parent-hood over there are those who ask for these restrictions over their daughters over fear from having any public dispute go wildly wrong. And it is by no means the university that holds such a grudge but merely an answer to public social demand.

There are certain parts I cannot claim to have knowledge of, of which the writer claims that 'are no rights given to a woman should a man handle his wife violently in a case of domestic distrubance'. But to the part of having to say that the laws of the Sultanate do not admit to cases of whereby a husband rapes his wife is plainly redundant. Not because there is such a law. But fact of the matter that this 'movement' has only been introduced lately whereby a woman can claim that she had been raped by her own husband, submitting her to his sexual desires against her own will. Which for two reasons is redundant. Firstly, because there is no such thing. And secondly, because the reality of the situation begs feverishly to differ, since it is the other way around, that most of the married men undergo mounting stress over their strong sexual desires towards their families and since their wives are unwilling to submit they look elsewhere for cheep sex like the many 'working women' they may find at dance clubs, hotels, and other drinking places in Oman.

And I am sorry to sound biased here, but of which Bin Laden school does she speak of when she says that 'those who don't wear a hijab deserve to be raped'?

She - the writer - goes on to mock the Omani Woman's Association through which she sees with one blind eye on how it only marks several fashionable events, and courses on how to arrange plastic flowers (all of which are considered to be educational as well as entertainment for the Omani women) whilst mocking that 3/4 of the Omani female population is illetrate. I would like to know where she gets her numbers from, since the UNICEF site says that the adult female literacy level reached 65% through-out the period of 2000-2004, and that gross female primary enrollment reached 80%, in the same period. (UNICEF - At a glance: Oman - Statistics)

Omani women, unlike their Arab counterparts, are free to travel as they please, without a need for consent from their parents, family nor the government which is what the writer also claims. Nor is she pushed towards a certain job or major because of family pressure. In fact, most of the women in Oman (except, perhaps, the Muscat region residents) dream of staying back in their homes after they had obtained their highschool graduation certificate because they would like to help their families with their homes and other local liabilies which are held up in debt of their every day-to-day life.

There is some truth to the section of whereby the writer claims that some fathers ask for high Mahr in exchange for their daughter's hand in marriage, of which the reason to me is unknown, but nevertheless is somewhat a dying tradition since the government is addressing the issue and it's citizens to look into making marriages much easier to complete.

However, there is no truth to what is said in the article on the part of how husbands ask their wives not to have an operation that would cease pregnancy for good. After all, the husband has a right to this decision as much as his wife. And the writer brings in no evidence whatsoever over this false claim.

Kay had tried googling Basma Al-Kyumi on the 'net, yet found no information of this writer. Which pushes me to ask, who is this person, really?

For all I know, it could an alias that someone is using to stir up the community herein and has done a bad job at it by not looking up the right information.

Better luck next time, I suppose..