His Excellency Sheikh Dr. Saleh bin Abdullah bin Humaid, President of the Council of the International Islamic Fiqh Academy, delivered a speech at the opening session of the International Conference entitled Women in Islam: Status and Empowerment, hosted by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in cooperation with the General Secretariat of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation during the period from 22-24 Rabi’ Al-Thani 1445H corresponding to 6-8 November 2023 in Jeddah.

At the beginning of his speech, His Excellency welcomed the guests of the conference, saying: “The guests of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the land of the Two Holy Mosques, you are welcome, to the vicinity of the Grand Mosque, which God has made as a reward and a sanctuary, and to which the fruits of everything are due, including the fruits of men and women, including you hopefully.” He then stressed that “the true religion has established sound principles, solid rules and coherent systems for the establishment of a distinct human society whose members cooperate in righteousness and piety and whose members are integrated in building nations, advancing peoples, and advancing man, where men and women compete in good deeds, within a framework of tight control of rights and duties, and the solid formulation of areas of cooperation, integration and solidarity.

“Guided by the texts of the Holy Book and the Sunnah of the Prophet that are mentioned in women’s issues, especially their legitimate rights to education, work, property, possession, guardianship, consultation, etc., and their intellectual, educational, social, economic and other duties, the honourable ancestors of the Companions, may God be pleased with them, the followers and their followers and the imams of ijtihad made their great effort in explaining the lofty status enjoyed by women in Islam in a satisfactory and sufficient statement, a report to honor them and protect them from humiliation, vulgarity and contempt. In this regard, he noted the importance of finding guidelines that preserve women’s rights and dignity, saying: “In this blessed conference, we need insightful guidance that affirms women’s right and their role in building and comprehensive development in society and affirms their right to education, work and appropriate employment. We need guidance that condemns and resists all forms of exploitation of women in any field that does not give weight to values and virtues that lead to the denigration of women, the humiliation of their dignity, the trafficking of their bodies and their honor, and guidance that prevents women from being thrown into the seas of loss, humiliation and deprivation, and we need guidance on women’s rights coupled with their responsibilities in motherhood and family care.” His Excellency increased this dimension in dealing with women’s issues, especially their rights and duties in society, stressing that “women’s rights are taken and practiced through decency and politeness, surrounded by the fence of faith in God in one united and harmonious Ummah, not conflicting. (And their Lord answered them, “I will not waste the work of one of you, male or female, from one another.) How beautiful it is to talk about the call of instinct that God has instilled in people, the call of instinct that says: The man is looking for a woman who builds the house with her presence, or her work and manages her home, not the woman who goes out to work in fields that leave behind a house filled with emptiness and neglect, just as the woman is looking for the honorable man who stands by her side in the course of her life, a young woman, a happy woman, and a respectable lady, is her residence and she is his residence. “He created you from one soul and made its spouse to dwell with.” In order to enable successive generations to know women’s rights and duties in Islam, His Excellency explained that efforts to clarify the status of women, especially their rights and duties in Islam, have not stopped throughout history, based on what this status and those rights and duties are exposed to from time to time, from usurpation , humiliation and abuse, whether from outdated customs, traditions and customs, or from unjust and legislation and laws, and in an effort to contribute to correcting concepts contrary to the teaching of the right religion with regard to the status of women in Islam, and in the hope of enhancing awareness of women’s rights and duties as determined by those pure and eternal teachings, but in order to remove those suspicions that affect from time to time Islam’s firm position on women’s participation in the efforts of construction, renaissance and development. Referring to the role of the International Islamic Fiqh Academy during the past four decades in explaining the lofty status and high status of women, and rejecting outdated customs that prevent women from carrying out their legitimate and civilized duties towards their religion, homeland, nation and the whole world, women’s issues, rights and duties have been strongly attended in the Academy’s sessions, and specialized jurisprudence seminars, and the Academy issued a large number of sober decisions on women, their rights and duties.

At the end of his speech, His Excellency called on Allah the Almighty to grant this conference success and to reward the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and his faithful Crown Prince, may God protect them, for the attention and care they give to Islam and Muslims, and to reward all those who have the credit for organizing this conference, in particular His Highness Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah, Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Secretary-General of the Organization of the Islamic Organization and all participants in the work of this conference.