Muslim Women, With ID Cards, Undraped?

J. Grant Swank, Jr.

That’s what Muslim News reports. The headlines read: "New identity cards: Saudi women find their feet — and face too."

Muslim women must wear fabric covering the entire body. If an ankle shows, a male can beat her. If she bothers a male too much, he can shoot her in the head. Muslim women have a demonic curse on them from conception, according to Islamic custom. It would have been better for them never to have been born.

Therefore, when the news comes out that Muslim women are going to be undraped, that’s news indeed. And when it comes out that they are going to have their own identification cards, that’s more news indeed.

Up till now, the Muslim female is identified via her male identification card. Otherwise, she doesn’t exist for all practical purposes.

So now the Arab News from Riyadh reporters Raid Qusti and Somayya Jabarti states that "Saudi women will no longer be faceless identities. As of mid-2006, it will be compulsory for every Saudi woman to have her own ID card with her face on it, terminating the age of women depending on the current family card that only carries their names.

"Hissah Al-Suwaileh, the head of Women’s Civil Status Department in Riyadh, confirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat, a sister publication of Arab News, that Saudi women would soon no longer be using the traditional and current method of proving their identity with the family card.

"The department will now be providing separate identity cards for women, delinking her from being just another name on the family card.

"She said that an ID card for a woman had become a necessity to verify/prove her national identity and that it would be the only card recognized by banks and government sectors in the future. At present women are using the family card or their passports in their dealings with banks and the government."

Is this a turn that males will approve of, not only in Saudi Arabia but elsewhere? And will this measure actually see it to the light of day, 2006? Or this merely wishful thinking on the part of some Muslims? Time will surely tell. However, at present the tussle is real.

"’It is a necessity that must be acknowledged,’ said a Saudi female employee at one of the local banks who identified herself only as Noura. ‘We’ve been asking clients to bring in their passports and for those who don’t have them, they’ve got to bring in a male guardian to verify their identities.

"’After all, the family card only has her name on it which in any day and age could never be enough. The process of identification has kept pace with modern technology as in many parts of the world with voice detectors, retina and palm scanners being used. We however still are at point zero dealing with the photo issue: To show or not to show!’"

Stay tuned.