The Saudi Association for Women’s Development – DOAA – under construction Forum on Minority Issues Guaranteeing the rights of minority women Geneva, 29th-30th November 2011 Article 3 of the Agenda: Minority Women and Girls and the Right to Education Introduction by En’am Abdul Jalil El Asfour, the Saudi Association for Women’s Development (DOAA) Qatif Thank you Madam President for giving me the opportunity to speak to you. Thank you to High Commissioner for Human Rights for including us in our colleagues’ programme on minorities, giving us the opportunity to participate in this valuable forum. Saudi minorities are dispersed in different regions of the kingdom, living in a state of marginalisation, exclusion and deliberate suppression of their religious identity. Additionally, they are subject to interference in their religious affiliation due to coercion, imposition and charges of unbelief which are a blatant violation of human rights and an appropriation of the most basic rights and lowest level of freedom. In education, despite primary education being mandatory in Saudi Arabia, the expansion of higher education and granting graduation to everyone, the field of education is not devoid of discrimination and bias. These practices of discrimination are contained within the equational curriculum including references to Shias as apostates. In addition the Shia region, which has a population of 500,000, is deprived of universities and colleges, restricting the Shias’ opportunities to enrol in universities and educational exchanges. There is a lack of equality in educational posts - there is not a single Shia director of studies at the regional level. There is also discrimination according to faith and not according to ability with regard to promotion in educational posts. The