FEMALE SHI'A ACTIVIST: PRESSURE FOR REFORM MUST

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 RIYADH 001380 SIPDIS SIPDIS DHAHRAN SENDS PARIS FOR ZEYA, LONDON FOR TSOU E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/05/2016 TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL PINR KIRF KWMN SA SUBJECT: FEMALE SHI'A ACTIVIST: PRESSURE FOR REFORM MUST COME FROM WITHIN AND WITHOUT REF: RIYADH 710 (NOTAL) Classified By: Acting Consul General W. David Speidel for reasons 1.4 ( b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Summary: Aliya Al-Fareed (protect),longtime Shi'a political activist, discussed the state of reform in Saudi Arabia with PAO and PolOff in her home in Al-Safwa near Qatif. Al-Fareed was recently appointed to the National Society for Human Rights; she is the only woman among the five members from the Eastern Province. An author of several books about the status of the Shi'a and of women in Saudi Arabia, Al-Fareed said that change is slow, and that prospects for reform would improve with more international pressure. End summary. -------------- "YOU'RE IN RIYADH NOW" -------------- ¶2. (C) Aliya Al-Fareed was appointed four months ago to the National Society for Human Rights, a non-government organization established by the late King Fahd (reftel). "The five members from the Eastern Province (EP) are very active," she told PAO and PolOff on March 1, 2006. The members include Jafer al Shayyab, an elected member of the municipal council in Qatif, and Mohammed Al-Jubran from Al-Ahsa. The group is about to officially open a branch office in Dammam, to handle human rights issues in the Eastern Province. ¶3. (C) Al-Fareed is the only woman appointed from the EP, and was among eight women who attended the latest national meeting in Riyadh. "When I walked through the front door the man told me to go over to the women's room. He said 'you're in Riyadh now, you can't sit with the men'. But really, how can we work on human rights together if we can't even sit together?" Al-Fareed complained about the situation, and a few minutes later the women were invited to join the men. ¶4. (C) While supportive of the principles of the National Society for Human Rights, Al-Fareed said that the organization is very reluctant to push for change in certain areas. Addressing the problems of family violence and child abuse is acceptable, she said, but anything related to the Shi'a is not. "We work with the possible," she said. (Note: A recent court case will test the Society's willingness and ability to advocate for Shi'a rights. In an Al-Khobar court, a Sunni judge refused to allow a Shi'a, Ala' Ameen Al Sadah, to be a witness to a marriage contract. Al-Sadah has asked Al-Fareed to have the National Society for Human Rights raise the issue with the government. She passed the complaint on to the sub-committee in Riyadh, which will make the decision whether to address the issue or not. Post will check with Al-Fareed for developments in this case in the coming months. End note.) -------------- LIMITED OPTIONS FOR WOMEN IN THE WORKFORCE -------------- ¶5. (C) Al-Fareed is a published author, investigative reporter, and writes regularly for her internet site: www.alyafarid.com. She runs a charity organization to help handicapped children, funded by her husband and wealthy donors. Nonetheless, she says that she cannot find a job. "So many of the women in Qatif suffer from the same thing. We are educated, but we can't find jobs. We just feel stuck." While agreeing that King Abdullah sounds progressive, she is reserving judgment as to whether change will happen. "The law now says that women don't need an agent (wakeel) to do business. But many people working at the government offices simply refuse to talk to women. They tell us to go away and come back with a man." Al-Fareed said that the jobs that have opened up for women are limited to teaching, nursing, banks and a few government offices. "But even those jobs," she said, "are bad; it's like the women are working in a prison, cut off from everyone else in the building." -------------- CALLING FOR US COOPERATION -------------- ¶6. (C) Both Al-Fareed and her husband Yahya Mohammed Al Quraish, also a political exilee in the 1980s, called for more U.S. involvement in the Shi'a community in the Eastern Province. They did not request monetary support, which they noted would be difficult to legally accept, but rather RIYADH 00001380 002 OF 002 partnerships with US organizations, visits from US experts, and greater attention. "Of course reform must come from within," Al-Fareed said, "but pressure from outside helps us push from inside." -------------- BIO-NOTE -------------- ¶7. (U) Born in 1967, Aliya Al-Fareed has been an active political reformer since her youth. She was arrested for four months in 1982 and then fled the country. She spent twelve years in Iran, Lebanon, Syria, and London, only returning to Saudi Arabia after the government amnesty for Shi'a dissidents in 1993. She has a degree in Islamic Studies from a university in Iran, and has written several books on social and political issues in Saudi Arabia. (APPROVED: SPEIDEL) OBERWETTER