JEDDAH, Feb 20 (Arab News): A leading Shariah scholar in the Kingdom has demanded the formation of a special commission to look after women’s rights, according to Shams daily.

“I call for a special commission for women’s rights and other matters that concern the people,” said Saud Al-Fonaisan, former dean of the Shariah faculty at the Imam Muhammad bin Saud University in Riyadh.

Sheikh Al-Fonaisan is the latest to call for an improvement in women’s rights in the Kingdom.

There have been a number of high profile cases recently where women such as Fatima Azzaz who had to fight for the right to live with her legal husband and father of her children after her family tried to force the couple to divorce. Eventually the Saudi Human Rights Commission and Supreme Judicial Council had to intervene.

The discussion of women’s issues is a sensitive matter in the Kingdom. Women are not permitted to drive even though there is no clear law prohibiting them.

They are also seen as not having the same number of rights women in other parts of the world currently have.

There are people who view that women are only created to serve men, to give birth to  and raise children,  and that anything beyond that is Western decadence. They do not want women to realize that they have been deprived of rights given to them by their religion. Among those rights is the right to take part in decision-making and play a larger role in life.

Al-Fonaisan is also against the trend of setting up commissions of Muslim scholars, such as the one recently formed in Kuwait. He fears the increasing number of such organizations can only help sow the seeds of discord.

Al-Fonaisan wants a merger of all organizations of religious scholars.

“There is a commission of religious scholars affiliated to the Muslim World League, a commission for European Muslims, there is even a Shariah Commission for the Gulf. An increase in their number will not serve the interests of Muslims. On the contrary, it will only create more disagreements,” he said.