Daqfaq, head of the Women's Committee at Riyadh Literary Club, has said that new regulations governing literary clubs “marginalize woman” and urged the Ministry of Culture and Information to help define the role of women intellectuals in cultural life. “It provides nothing for women, and covers women in vague terms,” said Al-Daqfaq of the new by-law defining the tasks of literary clubs and the contributions of its members. Al-Daqfaq said she published an article several months ago, when the bylaw was issued, in which she noted that it made “special mention of male intellectuals while marginalizing edly requested that the formulators of the bylaw ignore gender and define the rights and obligations of intellectuals equally, but all our calls have been ignored,” she said. “This poses a crucial question: on what basis was the Women's Committee not allowed to attend the meeting of the club's board of directors? It could be that the board was worried the committee might ask to be financially rewarded, as is the case with board members.” Al-Daqfaq appealed to the “authorities concerned at the Ministry of Culture and Information to give women intellectuals a defined role so they can play the rule required of them in the Kingdom's cultural movement”.
