I had the opportunity to interview Dr. Abdullah Omar Nasseef, the former Vice Chairman of the Shoura Council of Saudi Arabia on the issue of women's representation in the Shoura Council.
Dr Nasseef, said, "In Islam there is no difference between man and woman in matters of life. Of course women have their role to raise the family and to bring up children for Islam; so they have a very noble task to perform. When we talk about the role of women in the political arena; they can be as useful as men and the advice they gave during the time of The Prophet (peace be upon him) is very well known. We have to respect their opinion. They can show more wisdom because they have the time to think. That's why, I think, it is very important for every country to take care of women and let them participate in the affairs of the country."
Speaking about the women as advisers during the early period of Islam, even during the lifetime of the Prophet (peace be upon him), Dr. Nasseef, former Secretary General of the Makkah-based Muslim World League, said, "It is very well known that in Hudaibiyya the Prophet (peace be upon him) asked the people to slaughter their sacrificial animals and shave off their heads. They refused and then his wife Um Salamah told him: 'Give them the example and they will immediately follow. So that's what happened."
"There are lots of examples; there are thousands of examples. The woman who corrected the Umar ibn Khattab on the Mimber. He said, 'yes, the woman is right and Umar is wrong'. There are many similar examples recorded in history. Even the wife of Harun ar-Rashid during the Abbasids period used to give their opinions on matters of public importance," said Dr. Nasseef.
Dr. Nasseef said, "The situation had changed when people stopped asking for contribution of women. This is by tradition but not by religion. Religion gives them, the women, the freedom and power to speak, to take part and also to participate; but yes, some societies neglected and kept the womanfolk away from the public arena. We have to bring them back. Islam is the reference and not tradition of the people."
Then I brought up the case of Saudi Arabia where women are not only progressing in education, achieving good grades specially in economy, business, medicine and education and the number of woman graduates is now more than that of men. Appreciating their contributions to the society and the country, King Abdullah has taken the decision of inclusion of women in the Shoura Council. Dr. Abdullah Omar Nasseef is a former Vice Chairman of the Shoura Council of Saudi Arabia.
I requested him to shed light on this new development. Replying to my query, Dr. Nasseef said, "First of all, I want to say that the contribution of women in the field of national dialogue is very very important. During the last ten years, at the conferences and seminars, 50 per cent of the participants were women, university students, teachers and professors. It was especially very important. Their contribution was much more valuable than men's in the dialogue session. They bring new ideas they are highly educated and they are also very much thoughtful of what is happening."
"Since the establishment of the new Shoura Council, it was suggested that women should participate in its deliberations as soon as possible. When I was Vice Chairman of the Shoura Council, I said it was a matter of time when women will take part in the discussions and debates of the Council. Fifty per cent of the members of the Council should be women. It would be very useful and it is happening now after ten years. Alhamdo lillah, who made this possible," commented Dr. Nasseef.
Speaking about the position of women membership of the Arab parliaments vis-a-vis that of the Saudi Shoura Council, Dr. Nasseef observed, "I had been seeing the Arabic newspaper called the Sharq which comes from Dammam. According to this paper, as for the membership of women in all the parliaments of the world, Saudis are much more progressive. But there are some countries in the Gulf which don't have women members or have only a negligible number. This is not for comparison but it is very encouraging for people."
Workshop on Islamic Dawah in Kuwait
Dr. Nasseef visited Kuwait to attend a three-day workshop-cum-conference on Islamic Dawah. I enquired Dr. Nasseef about that conference. Replying to my query, Dr. Nasseef said, "In Kuwait, there was a workshop about rejuvenation of Islamic Dawah, now when many issues have crept in because of globalisation, international treaties and financial developments in all fields, we should be able to cope with it from the Islamic point of view also because Islam has come for every generations and for the future too. That was the main issue we were talking about how we deal with these problems because some of the societies are unaware of Islam which has dealt with everything which is happening today."
Dr. Nasseef also mentioned about the discussion of other points such as Jurisprudence procedure. He said, Jurisprudence procedure in minority countries is different if they implement it in family affairs; they are worshiping Allah the Almighty, making Salah and fasting. We have to be realistic of the situation."
United Steering Committee in Tanzania
In Tanzania, the Mashaeikhs and scholars have established a united steering committee of all schools of thoughts. Dr. Nasseef attended that joint meeting of the steering committee. I enquired Dr. Nasseef about this meeting. He said, "In Tanzania and Zanzibar, they have Islamic Judiciary system; there are many Qadis (judges) for each town and city; Ulema and organisations made efforts to build one united association to bring them all together, one step to form a steering committee which includes all schools of thoughts and the Ulema and Islamic scholars participated there spontaneously."
Opening of a new centre for training
Then Dr. Nasseef also attended the opening of the Institute of Training Dialogue under the King Abdulaziz Centre for National Dialogue in Riyadh. Faisal bin Muammaar is the Secretary General of the King Abdulaziz Centre of National Dialogue as well as King Abdullah International Centre for Dialogue in Vienna, Austria. About this opening of the Trainings Institute, Dr. Nasseef said, "We have this steering committee which meets regularly."
Speaking about the Academy of Dialogue for Training and Polls, a major center for public opinion surveys in Saudi Arabia, and part of King Abdul Aziz Center for National Dialogue (KACND), Dr. Nasseef, Chairman of the Islamic World Conference, said, "The academy is playing an important role because there are no public opinion survey centers in the Kingdom. There are no specialized institutions that offers accurate and neutral information about the Saudi society."
"The academy is a reliable body that will present objective analyzes to the parties concerned and will help the Saudi government reach accurate decisions that are based on facts," he added.
Speaking about the Secretary General of the Centre, Dr. Nasseef observed, His Excellency Faisal bin Muammaar is "very instrumental" of all its activities.
KACND Secretary-General Faisal Bin Muammar said, "The academy will work to spread the culture of dialogue at the national and regional levels". This will be achieved through providing training to men and women to be certified trainers in the field of dialogue and experts on conducting public opinion surveys that help identify the trends and interests of society, he noted. The academy will focus on two important pillars: training and public opinion surveys.
Evening Qur'an centre in Jeddah
Dr. Nasseef also talked about the opening of Evening Qur'an teaching centre in Jeddah to encourage the people take part in the Hifz of Qur'an, the memorisation of the Qur'an. They have also social activities for the youth leaders for the future.
I have seen recently in Jeddah, young children as well as kids are going to Mosques after Asr prayer and stay up to one hour before Maghreb prayer. Dr. Nasseef said, "In Jeddah there are at least 100 mosques which offer this Qur'anic studies for them. There are different levels, very young, from primary to the university levels. But some Mosques did not join this."
