Casablanca – A photo of the inaugural meeting of Saudi Arabia Girls’ Council, the first such council of its kind, was met with a rain of criticism and derision from social media users across the Arab world.
Held in the Al-Qassim region on March 11, the event was organized by the Princess Abeer Bint Salman Al-Mandeel and is the first of its kind in Saudi Arabia.
The meeting of the first Girls’ Council was characterized by a total absence of women Girls participating had to communicate their concerns through men, via an internet connection operating from an adjacent room.
Social media users throughout the world shared the photo showing men only in the conference room set against the conference poster in the background that read “The First Meeting of Girls’ Council.” The comments and captions on Facebook ridiculed the fact that the supposed meeting for girls showed only men.
Faisal bin Mishaal bin Saud bin Abdulaziz, the Emir of Qassim, expressed his pride at the event, and noted that it is everyone’s responsibility to pave the way for everything that serves the benefit of women and girls in Saudi Arabia.
“We must prove to the others that the Saudi woman is a Muslim woman who is active and creative in all fields if she is given the opportunity in accordance with our religious constants. We are in a country that gives high esteem to women while being constrained by the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of his messenger,” the Emir said.
