“Men who harass women in public will be fined and publicly defamed under a new law being drafted by the Shoura Council. The action is due to huge public demand to end the phenomenon that humiliates women and even leads to traffic jams. Shoura Council member Zain Al-Abideen Bin Barri urged ‘the council to follow the suit of countries like Kuwait and the UAE where similar laws have successfully deterred the unwelcome advances,’ Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reported. ‘Besides penalties, we’re going to consider imposing fines. The penalty of public defamation will deter public harassers,’ he said.

“The nuisance is widespread throughout the Kingdom particularly in blackspots such as Al-Elaya Street in Riyadh and Al-Tahliya Street in Jeddah. Many businesses are now losing customers who avoid malls out of fear of harassment.”  ~ From the The Saudi Gazette

You mean there is still street harassment in Saudi Arabia, a country where legal restrictions keep women from being in public freely and dictate that they be veiled when they are in public?

I’m shocked.

Nope, I’m not.

Street harassment is a global problem and as long as women are viewed and treated as second-class citizens and are “othered” from men, street harassment will persist.

I’m interested to see if this law will be enforced and if it will be effective. I didn’t know about the Kuwait and UAE laws, so if those laws truly have been successful at deterring harassment, maybe a law in Saudi Arabia will to.

Regardless of its effectiveness, I’m glad to see an article and a proposed law that place the blame on men (although honestly, there are already so many restrictions on women’s access to public places there, what more can they do to women?). For example, in the past I’ve blogged about clerics who wanted women to wear veils with only one eye showing to reduce harassment because two eyes were too “seductive,” and I’ve blogged about men who justify the law against women drivers by saying if they drove, it would lead to an increase in harassment. At least this article and law place the blame and the attention on the men who harass. That’s some progress.

[Thanks for the news tip, P.J. Aroon, copy chief at Foreign Policy Magazine]