The Blenching Face of Modern Institutions; Saudi Arabia to Lead CSW

The modern age is the era of unbelievable and astonishing changes in the societal and technological life of human being. With the advent of AI in recent months, humanity has high hopes for a faster and smoother progress towards welfare and joy. The technological advancements, nevertheless, seem to have failed to secure the improvement of abstract concepts like freedom and equality, which in turn have significant roles on the actual life experience of a large part of the human society. More perplexing is the fact that the movement towards attaining these concepts are led by forces who have been known as obstacles of their realization.

Rights activists and organizations criticized Saudi Arabia after it emerged victorious in its unchallenged drive to chair a UN committee on women’s rights for the 2025 meeting. Critics cite Riyadh’s profound history in oppressing the rights and authority of women based on religious and non-religious codes. The Kingdom’s ambassador to the United Nations was chosen to lead the Commission on the Status of Women, an organization dedicated to defending and advancing women’s rights in the global scene.

The kingdom’s progress toward broader personal and societal freedom for women in not negligible. But the country is still far away from a state to label it a defender of the women’s rights considering the legal and unofficial restrictions employed against a group sharply in need of empowerment following centuries of humiliation and insult. In the authoritarian state of Saudi Arabia, the female group was not allowed to drive few years ago. Additionally, women were governed by a mechanism of oversight known as guardianship, which subjected them to a need for approval from a guardian, a male one, to move, get married, and engage in other significant life choices. Religious law enforcement searched the cities for single pairs, not officially engaged, for long years yelling at women to hide their body and diminish their presence in public.

These prohibitions, to a considerable extent, have been lifted since a few years ago by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The young prince, wishing to transform the Saudi face in international arena to pave the way for economic and political overhaul, is in charge of the reform initiative. An unprecedented amount of female community is entering the workforce, and the rigid clothing regulations and gender-based discrimination that governed society in the past are slowly fading.

Women in the Islamic nation argue that getting a divorce and obtaining custody of their kids has gotten smoother. Despite the fact that marriage in most Islamic nations still requires the consent of an adult male, some rare reports verify that the bid in getting judicial authorities to overturn their guardianship’s ruling has been successful. The kingdom, by the way, has retained a large portion of its segregating gifts for the female society. Riyadh was introduced as one of the worst states on the disparity between men and women in the world in 2023, according to the World Economic Forum. The monarch of the realm is required by law to be a male descendant of the royal family. Whereas a few of women have attained top posts in the government, the prince’s senior advisors and important government members are all male. There are severe limitations on the freedom of movement and other basic liberties of most female immigrants to the nation, especially those who serve as domestic servants.

A broad repression on internal opposition has also been led by Bin Salman. The young prince started and consolidated his rule by arresting loads of Saudi citizens from all political backgrounds. The crackdown included female citizens who have opposed administrative conduct on X and many of the nation’s most well-known women’s rights advocates. Loud voices who opposed the driving and movement prohibitions were jailed for long terms and are still unable to cross the borders.

A U.S.-led resolution two years earlier saw Iran expelled from the same U.N. panel, following months of protests in Tehran by women and youth who were calling for a termination to the Islamic authority. The exclusion from the U.N. women’s body was an unprecedented decision since then. 45 people make up the commission, which was founded in 1946 and is chosen according to regional quotas. A nation does not have to pass a screening procedure or adhere to any particular gender rights requirements in order to be nominated for leading the commission, an evident bug that could place any oppressive state on the seat. The decision on Saudi Arabia has rung the bells over the malfunctioning of the rights institutions leading to the irony of the oppressor and the oppressed getting misplaced.

This instance is indicative of a larger worldwide backsliding in gender parity. Following a reaction against the #MeToo campaign, South Korean misogynist president declared that the gender equality department will be abolished upon succeeding the 2022 presidential election. China has clamped down on feminist activists, scaled down feminist freedoms, and instructed the female group to adhere to family traditions. In the Gambia, politicians are working to reverse a law prohibiting female genital mutilation. The United States, which supported strong action during the Beijing conference, eliminated women’s legal choice of an abortion when Roe v. Wade was overturned after almost fifty years. Taliban rulers have declared that they will once again openly stone women to death. The community’s entitlement to reach out for communal places, jobs, and schooling had previously been impeded.

The worldwide hunger issue, which has further intensified the sexual assault, abuse, and underage marriage, has disproportionately affected the female community. The impact of the environmental challenge is more profoundly felt by one half of the society. At the present pace of advancement, it will require nearly three more centuries to eliminate discriminatory legislation and solve legal security deficits. Women’s rights are not always promoted by female authorities. However, inadequate representation both locally and at the United Nations is not a unique problem; it also feeds into other injustices. Women have also suffered due to the advent of authoritarian, sexist rulers. The Beijing summit left numerous countries with the impression that female demands are not only nice-to-have extras, but rather an essential part of human rights. Independence and freedom of choice, including on personal and reproductive entitlements, often amounts to a critical option impacting the well-being of women in both traditional and modern societies.

The scene is the same; the difference is where the judge and the convict are standing. It is clear that allowing Saudi Arabia to assume the CSW chair is inconsistent with the flow of calls to boost the women’s rights. UN members’ concerns about setting a pattern for opposing nominees invalidates their claims about the necessity of the promotion of female role and place in society. Across the globe, men and women are still fighting, frequently at personal peril, for the girls and women.