The speech
is about a personal experience of Manal al-Sharif, a woman from Saudi Arabia
who started to be an activist in 2011 when she realized that religious laws in
her country (the Sharia law) are not fair for women.
Some day
she was talking with a work colleague about the harassments when
she needs to go back home. Then she realized that there wasn’t a law banning
women from driving, only religious traditions.
After she
broke the ban, she received threats from the society of her country. The
religious and politic authorities arrested her in many times and some men raped
women who drive.
After a few
months, Saudi women dare to drive in their country and finally nobody arrested
them. It was the beginning of a new era for the women of Manal al-Sharif
country.
She
questions the traditional Saudi religious law about the women rights, but she
also questions her society, because nobody knows why women can’t drive in
her country, they just accept the Sharia law. The only reason why women couldn’t
drive in her country is because they believe their inferiority.
Finally, in
February 2013 the Shura Council accepted for women to drive, but the religious
authorities (The Grand Mufti) said that it’s not recommended. Manal al-Sharif
won the fight and women of her country realized they need to question their
religious traditions.
This is
just an example of what the society forces the women to do. We don’t have these
problems in Chile, but we do have some pressure about the things we supposed to
do at certain age, like get married at 30 or don’t get pregnant when we are
teenagers or when we are 20, because we “are too young for it”, but everybody knows
that is the perfect time for our bodies to have babies.
