Ahmed Zaki Yamani
Ahmed Zaki Yamani is a specialist in law and Islamic law. He was born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. He attended Cairo University, New York University Law School and Harvard University School. He received his LL.M from Harvard. Yamani later went on to serve as advisor to the Saudi government in 1958. In 1962 he became Saudi Arabia’s minister of petroleum until 1986 and became OPEC’s first secretary General.
Yamani is known as the founder of many of the kingdom’s modern laws and regulations. His article “the Political Competence of Women and Law” he discusses the controversial topic of women participating in public life in Islamic societies. He believes that “men and women are equal in their human value, their social rights, their responsibilities and their subjection to reward and punishment. (pg 171)” He says that when speaking of political competence in Islam we need to distinct it from the western concept. Westerners see political competence it as a right, while in Islam it is seen as action. An action has to be performed while a right does not have to be performed. However a political action in Islam does not have to be performed by every citizen, just by a sufficient amount of citizens so that the others are relieved of it. This action includes women. As long as a woman is educated and is aware of the current politics then he sees here no different from a man.
Yamani believes that Islam does not prohibit nor try to minimize the participation of women in politics. Her duties are defined by her abilities which are dependent on her social conditions of where she lives. He says Muslims should reject the view that women should refrain from taking part in political activity because Islam prohibits the mixing of men and women. This is not true and only applies to when a woman and a man are alone illegitimately.

“Ahmed Zaki Yamani.”Wikipedia.com. 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Zaki_Yamani