JEDDAH, 15 March 2005 — Dar Al-Hekma College for Girls celebrated International Women’s Day yesterday by highlighting Saudi women’s participation in volunteer and charity work. The annual forum is part of the college’s efforts to present Saudi women’s achievements in various fields. (See also Page 12)

Attended by around 300 women, the theme of the event was “Women Working to Establish Social Progress and Stability Through Charity Work”. Each of the speakers focused on charity work in her own country. The speakers included Princess Fahda bint Saud ibn Abdul Aziz, Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley, the US consul general in Jeddah, Eman Keskas from the Lebanese consulate, Raghda Al-Salah from the Jordanian consulate, Khadija Ashraf, wife of the Bangladeshi consul general, and Carma Elliot, the British consul general in Jeddah.

Princess Fahda was critical of the effect of outside pressures and influence on Saudi society and how they make women’s work and progress in society that much harder.

“Recently, in Muslim societies, women’s issues have come to the fore with considerable force, supported by conspicuous pressure by foreign powers and international organizations with the intention of reforming our laws regarding women,” said the princess. “Our duty is to acknowledge and make clear that all Muslim societies have deviated from the true ideals of Islam regarding the status of women, just as they have deviated from Islamic precepts concerning other aspects of their lives.”

She blames this huge gap between what Muslims believe and what they actually practice as well as their adapting foreign ideologies and doctrines on the Muslim world’s economic and social backwardness, scientific bankruptcy and intellectual stagnation. She implores the West to take account of these facts and to deal with Muslim societies accordingly. “They have to leave us alone to pave our own path and to create our own renaissance ... this can come only through cooperation and not domination,” she pointed out.

To achieve progress and development in our society, we need political and economic stability on the regional and international level, according to Princess Fahda. “However, we have been deprived of these more than ever since the 9/11 disaster and the invasion of two Muslim states with others also on the list,” added the princess.

She made the point that because of these events, social and charity work in the Kingdom has suffered. For example, donations have decreased because of fear of retribution, and charity organizations have been subjected to new regulations that have made it very difficult for them to help poor families sustain themselves.

In addition, she accused new local training centers operating with foreign NGOs of undermining the work of Saudi charity organizations. Because the foreign NGOs, she claims, “come into our country with agendas for change prepared without the knowledge of the dynamics of our social system, values and family structure.”

She asks Muslim women to stand together as a shield to defend and protect all that has been entrusted to them. “Only then can we really celebrate our own women’s day,” she said.