Weekend: Nouha Alhegelan on Saudia Arabia & it's people

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Mrs. Nouha al-Hegelan, wife of Faisal al-Hegelan, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, speaking to an audience at Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter. Mrs. al-Hegelan's addressed topics of her country, its people and their religion, as well as politics in this country. Mrs. al-Hegelan's visit to Minnesota was under the auspices of the Delegation for Friendship Among Women.

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We are trying very hard to have our own Evolution and Evolutions that comes from within and evolution that is not imposed from the outside. And if you give us done we might if we keep the best of our wood and take the rest of yours. We might reach a solution and that will bring happiness to the world where women with their going to come fast women and a man at accomplished Man without the sense of competition between a sense of complementarity that has been in this country as the stability of the Middle East stability of the Gulf States.But you should realize the Confederate be concerned for an outsider watching your own political shakes. Shaking their fingers constantly and teach other why public a shaking their heads over a shaky economy and just about everything else. That's might be considered the least bit shaky. So if we get shaky ourselves about things happening in the woods, you should understand why. But we share with the United States and mainly the Great Central Heartland of the United States some very basic fundamentals some very basic characteristics a concern for religion family social order a concern for free enterprise and sturdy old-fashioned individualism. A concern for genuine political stability both in and out and finally a concern for the economic development and getting on with the challenges and facing us. The Midwest is playing a very important role in our development and Saudi Arabia is reciprocating with regard to the economy of the Midwest. do it this difficult to try to make assure that is different from one's own. Understandable to others but I would still try to make the experience of Saudi Arabia today understood by you. I will try to make it understood by you experience of Saudi Arabia today. And the moment I say today it is already yesterday for we live in the moment of History where change is so speeded up. That would be awesome to see the present only when it is already disappearing. We are running a race against time in Saudi Arabia to meet you with only one fear then when it does you would then have gone further City. But my fear is a different one my fear is that why we are running we might leave behind many of our customs habits and traditions that we can throughout the centuries since that small Arab nation of 680 started to expand and reached its full Dimension from the borders of China and the East to the borders of France in the West. this civilization even if it's greatest moments this nation never forgot that it's love for knowledge and for transmitting it it's generally that made Richard Lionheart crazy, its generosity and Hospitality. That's Matthias Lawrence become one of us the respect of the elders. The love for the young the strong family links the one to learn and want to give my greatest fear is that in our desperate race to meet the modern civil civilization. We might leave behind so many things that are our life and our identity. The Saudi Arabia today is not only at sunrise in the Desert View All Wells not a huge Fortune. It is a combination of all this plus nation that wants the best for itself and the best for the rest of the world. To be able to speak of the present one should speak of the past and since 1902 when a young man called Abdul Aziz Huda came out first king young man this young man decided to unite these tribes in the Arab peninsula into one nation. The country since then never stopped advancing and under the hardest conditions the lack of water the darkness of the climate the lack of financial means it was the faith and courage of these people that made them survive such conditions, but nothing is permanent and we had access to share of the world's comfort. When oil was found and from then on Saudi Arabia has made gigantic steps scores hospitals universities roads, and then it started playing and trying to decide it's all prices and production wisely sinking of the occident and of the welfare of the third world and this decision of the $1000000 a day increase is a proof of it for we should not forget that Saint is Saudi Arabia's only Resorts and only material Fortune. So this is INS are not easy to make we cannot and have not the right to spell out or we have a duty towards ourselves our nation and special about future generations and yet we live in a world of interdependence and we should always be ready to help a friend no matter at what cost Saudi Arabia did not plant oranges in the desert, but it is turning the sea water sweet and Saudi Arabians are bringing a nice perk home for litigation. Saudi Arabia is trying to bring up a generation that will not suffer the cultural shock, but will be the living example that we show the world that East and West can eventually meet. Orange cannot and will not last forever and this we are fully aware of but the human element does and this is where Saudi Arabia is investing the Koran out. Holy book emphasizes on learning and the difference between the Learners and ignorant. The first verse of the Quran says read read in the name of the Creator Outlet in Faison can price of an app that sees one said we continually drill Wells for water and old but most important is the wealth of knowledge. And this is what we are doing Saudi Arabia is building one useful every 3 days and the aim is to build one every two days or 9200 classrooms every week in 1953. There were only 20 Schools elementary and intermediate in 1973. There were four thousand and today that are 6005 universe. In 1972, the education budget was 133 times higher than in 1952. So we shall lead with humility and without bitterness for we know that the cycle must earn. And it should be completed and that the time when the algebra was Justin Eyes by the Arab mathematician Muhammad Musa and 1/2 0 was invented and I must admit that I'm very glad that you change the zero to the F because I would have had many of those. And when the end of astronomers, we're calculating the circumference of the earth and mapping the skies the chemistry the philosophy the medicine. Do you know for instance that in 1986 there was a manual of medicine surgery that explained exactly. What was in Little Alchemy how it's between a goiter and a cancer of the thyroid gland we talkin about the year 986 the delivery how to deliver infants in abnormal positions. how to do iron pottery how to tie octopus how to repair fistance healing aneurysm In 1917. There was a hospital in Baghdad and this Hospital have interns extra beds nurses doctors women and men and it had Pharmacy that brought drugs from all over the known world at that time and 850 as you all know, the astronaut was invented and by the Arabs just to see the navigation of celestial bodies in 968 second to University of Cordoba was built and was considered through from 968 to the 14th century as the best university of the known world and their students would go from all over the world as they would come to this beautiful college and add their graduation. Do you know why the students here at graduation wear the hat the the regular square hat When I have my theory about that, and I think that's in the times of the University of Cordoba. The the graduation time the students had as a proof of their graduation. They had to put on their head the Koran which is the holy book and that's why it has and walk and not only that but the book has a mica and the book marker is your phone off today. In 975 at its Mexican oceans were introduced in the year 1000. There was a dressy who made the first operation of the Cataract in the eye. In 1030 the Canon of Medicine by Alesana that is used on till today in all packages of medicine was written and an 1149 a benzo are the Old Saybrook on the otitis media and the paralysis of the pharynx and a three-car Titus in 1354 via Alhambra husband, and this was a jewel of architecture and after that they had to leave Spain because it was the decline and it was the start of the Inquisition and dad is Wicca doc from back part of Europe. And when was the last hurricane in Spain had to leave he was crying and his mother looked at him with lots of anger and she said don't cry like a child a kingdom that you did not know how to preserve like an R. and how does time is gone now so we should learn and help recycle be completed I must say a few words about religion about this land that along with women in the Arab world is very much misunderstood in the Western Hemisphere Islam is a religion adopted by 800 million people out of words consists of 200 million people on it so it is even better than the art of community Islam recognizes Judaism and Christianity as to Great religions and Jews and Christians are called by Muslims the people of the book The Koran relates the miraculous Tales of Jesus Christ and Mary is the most venerated women for Muslims Islam is a religion that has the believer that is only one God and religions are messages from that one omnipotent omniscient omnipresent God as long as you believe you are accepted in Islam, even those who reject the face it said that in matters of Truth we can make no compromise, but there is no need to persecute or abuse anyone for his faith or belief and I'm quoting the katana say, oh, yeah, that's reject face. I worship not that's what she worship notary near worship. That's which I worship to you and to me mine. There's no Decatur's guilt and Islam and I quote no soul may be charged with more than you can bear. No soul may be charged with the sin of another to every person belong what he or she has wrote and Aunt now in the hitoshi. I would like to stress the fact that women and men have been have been addressed separately and Islam and you will find the Heat and she took when when is it when the Quran talks about human beings about people it would always stress the Heat and she which has given us women Muslim women and identity that the that is not Superior or inferior, but absolutely equal and different. And it's not on there the universalism it embodies all ethnic groups. There is a community and I quote we created you from a single fair man and woman and major tribes and Nations that you may cooperate with and compliment one another. No, it's only the Moriches. So there's no superiority for a Muslim among and other Muslim Arab Arab for black over white or vice versa. In-N-Out the relations between people there's not the Revenge idea ignore the Christian loving turning the other cheek because the Quran says if you had a good rest upon attack aggressive in the same measure if the aggression stops remember that God is merciful and forgiving the property is sacred in Islam as it is and everything and every other culture but violating house or belongings are a very major crime. Humans are innocent and not Fallen. And whoever kills one man in Islam has killed the whole of humanity and whoever has saved one man has saved Humanity. International law in Islam has started the Millennium before groceries started the Western International and it has the ideas of Justice human was measured measured in words and achievements. But then every person is responsible for history to transform the creation and themselves into the ideal religion has no meaning in Islam other than this transformation, but every Act of which is an act of worship. The international trade the diplomacy the relations between nations in War and Peace citizens and States not their own tariffs to aunts and nieces and that's realization Transit and visit all these things have been treated in Islam. The dominant objectives being justice as well as Liberty and dignity for all. The art of us from the architecture and was not very great and Islamic times, but I think that the Muslims so that they could not reproduce God Creation with the same protection. So the pain to the touch with words and the colors were the times those who couldn't manipulate the word well enough to represent Kratos the Pentagon for others to see and learn the atoms discovered very early that you communicate words where the best vehicle so they excelled in them before Islam the best poems when hanging in the temple that is not like the two other religions wasn't is religion of the word Islam is the religion of the abstract a Muslim has to believe in the world without seeing or touching without anything concrete. It is a religion that forces you to use your mind. The word. Through the word to believe and to reach God. No, the women what Islam give the women. Many rights and first of all the right of being a human being of having a sword the right to go to heaven the right to pray that I have to go to hell the right to go through all the rituals of of the religion in the Civil way though. It is a religious Muslim woman can keep her maiden name after her marriage. She has her financial autonomy so she can deal with her own belongings and nobody has any say on that. She has the right of inheriting from both her parents the right of divorcing. And plus this being addressed separately that I think shaped the sort of women in Islam more than anything else and that's why Elmo someone that is not trying to be coming that she said if she has her status but evolution is her own and she does not have the copy or to escape buttons already made made designed by The Format. in Arabic husband and wife the words literally translated mean One part of a single-payer. So again in this just by the semantics you are given a quality when we don't notice it very much better when you study at you realize it because we use it. So so often that we we forget the meaning some huh We had many many women in Islam that we're really important famous weather for today poetry or their philosophy order medicine. We had queens and Islam that have done what you are doing, which is libraries and and the 10th Century Inn in Baghdad. The best library in the world was in the Palace of Haroon Rasheed and that was thanks to his wife Queen zubeida who after his death took over and she told her son's so well how to rule with Equanimity and how to rule with Justice that those two sons when which was their turn to rule where the best rulers they were those who helped the Sciences the Arts and whatever we have received from that era we had women wear. What is through the jewels 3 was Queen after her husband's desk. She fought the Crusaders and the Moguls and and she did when sometime lost others So what is an Arab woman? Finally? I think she is a combination of femininity and feminism. She is a kind of feminine feminist if this is possible ask for the new Arab women the recent ones after the decline of an Empire the ignorant strains and we lived through those Dark Age not parallel to the European Dark Ages, but right before after that and and for 600 years ignorance was very strong, unfortunately, and we were colonized and we were in very good shape. But today's women are trying to become everything they can become if it's in the field of Sciences. We have physicist psychiatrist. We have judges generalist doctors dentist lawyers. Learn the professor's politicians computer programmers archaeologist artist can a Level above all The housewives and Dad crowd of being housewives that are mothers and their are proud to be mothers and they don't feel that they are diminished if they are only mothers or if they are only Housewives and again, or we can say that this feeling is due to the Islamic religion that promised heaven to the mothers to the prophet who told them the child to teenager who came to ask him whom from both my parents. Should I respect most and he said your mother is an after your mother said them then said your mother so then then your father But the mother is so important that all the poets the other poets have have gone through olds and verse in poetry telling about the importance of the education of mothers talking about the importance of the influence of a mother and a nation and when they were saying mother they were meaning women because a nation cannot be born without women. All this does not mean that women in Saudi Arabia have reached their aim because as long as there is life the amp should be higher and higher still if you're a different it's just because people don't take ready-made ideas and that Justin as computers to but we are trying very hard to have our own Evolution and Evolutions that comes from within any pollution that is not imposed from the outside. And if you get us done, we might if we keep the best of our world and make the best of yours. We might reach a solution and that will bring happiness to the world where a woman would they're going to come first woman and man at accomplished Man Without a sense of competition between a sense of complementarity without hatred in Genesis, but with love and understanding and mutual respect. I tried as quickly as possible to explain as much as possible and in my best Swedish, I would like to say thank. It's a very interesting question and as everybody seems to have it. That's why all the Shakey's Shakey's but I haven't had roads and the Shakey's shakes talked about the support within Saudi Arabia for the learning house is like the support of a child to his parents or to another to his parents not a child because no children. We have no children and we have the kind of relationship that there is between the ruling family or our King is a relationship like the one that there is between parents and children adult children. Sometimes they don't short rib else and it's normal but most of the time the love and respect are much more important. What's greater than the Rebellion that comes in the one per million or 1% million? So whatever happened in Mecca, it does not concern me. I don't know if this is what it does not indicate internal problems. It indicates that there are individuals who sings Who think differently who have been misled with whatever reason for whatever reason but it does not at all indicate any internal problems because we do feel for our King and we don't actually the name King is wrong between cuz we don't address the address him with his first name as if we address the father. We talked to him every citizen goes to the matchless and speaks to the king every citizen is invited every night to the king's table to eat. Every women is invited to go and speak to the king and we talked about our problems and so There is no it on the country. Our feelings are so much together that I don't feel any internal problems. And Islamic religion, I did not speak of the rituals of the Slime collection. We have five pillars of Islam which are the prayer. First of all the witness saying that there is only one God second the prayers five times a day should the fasting of the month of Ramadan, which is you fast during daytime from sun up to sun set in the arms giving and 2/5 the pilgrimage to Mecca once in a lifetime if it is at all possible. So these are the pillars of Islam and each one who believe in these things or does those rituals is She thought she goes to the pilgrimage alongside. The man she is she has to pay for her own sense and no man is going to take over that and no man is able to tell her what to do because and Islam everyone is responsible of his own Deeds one. He knows his food at once. He knows his religion. So ordained does not exist because we don't have priests and it's now the church does not have the same meaning the mosque is not the equal is not equal to the church because there is no clergy and there is no hierarchy within the clergy so they're not men or women that are teachers of Islam and these are Scholars who have started the religion and the four most important colors are for demands that spread from the 8th Century up to the 11th. And the one most recognized between them is in a Magic Chef light and then I'm a chef and one of his book. He actually gives one whole book on his teacher who was the woman so they can even teach in Islam and the prophet Elisha his wife was able to explain the Quran and he would ask her to explain the Koran too many of the people who came asking when he couldn't do it and and he would say learn your religion from that thing checked and because she he used to call her rosy-cheeked don't think she did because she had them cheeks. The VIN is a tradition and it's an Arab tradition. You would find that and many other countries women are not bathed and yet you would find an Islamic non-arab countries women are there in Saudi Arabia women RVs and Saudi Arabia is the most conservative country in all of the Islamic countries because it holds and it's nuts the two holiest places which are Mecca and Medina for for the Muslims next to Jerusalem. The three places are the holiest shrines for for the snap is simple and it is a symbol of modesty the vein conveys. A lack of provocation the veil is a symbol of an inner life versus an outer life. That is not that important and that's why Muslims actually pray 5 times a day you play if we have the prayer break instead of the coffee break because we think it's so important to always be reminded that we are human beings and human beings mean not only buddy butts all too. So we have to give our time and our souls at least five times a day to remember because we are living in a very tempting and in a very corrupting word and if we do not remember our sword we are ready to sew the veil might seem very humiliating to the onlooker who is not used to it, but Saturday, An older generation would feel very humiliated if she had to take it off. So I always equate this to the relativity of perception. If we go to an Indian tribe in the Amazon and see that they are half-dressed. Some people might say that it's terrible about how stress can I had did you see them off naked and if an actress very famous movie star goes to the party house rest everybody. Say what the fashionable dress so who is the judge and who am I to say if the veil is good or if the van is that I think that they do women when they think that the veil is not very comfortable. They would take it off I have had this Experience in my own family. My mother was the first woman to take the van and Syria Frances of there are women that have taken the veil in Egypt other women who have taken the vent that there is a starting point. But as long as they don't see why they should take of it. I don't think I or anybody else could tell them the veil is humiliating when they don't feel humiliated wearing a house in Arabic house, when locked from the outside might seem very simple and almost ugly but you're good with in the house inside the house. The real camera from outside is absolutely nothing you go inside and you find the fountains in the green and the richness it is a symbol again. It is a symbol of the richness of the soul. And this is what the van is do not look at me as in just an object and mirror reflection of the body. I have a soul and I have an inner life respected, please. I don't know if I might in 10 years time even Vale outside. I really don't know I drove it inside but the but I'm convincing myself. I think they outside again is against against the horde symbol because if the symbol is Modesty then it is not modest to be the focus of attention. If the Miss is the symbol is like a provocation again, it is not really being true to the symbol. If one does different League from wherever one is. If I were good enough, I would have arranged marriages for them. But I really I don't know how I arrange my responsibility and I don't want them to tell me all the time. It was your fault if they're not and if they're not happy and if they are happy then forget I did it. there is no such thing in Saudi Arabia is dating that is such thing as courtship with the not exactly that live in Saudi Arabia women and men or young girls and young boys segregated somehow they lived up in the environments and then when they meet in the family environment in the Family Image picture, so if they like each other and the parents are agreeing then there would be a kind of the fairies short culture that could lead to engagement and marriage now if my children are dating When they are living in the United States of America and if they are not they think that would be considered as a note to normal or abnormal or whatever the older two and the younger one has one in mind and that she does not really like him as much as he does her.

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Digitization made possible by the State of Minnesota Legacy Amendment’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, approved by voters in 2008.

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