Slow Changes To Women’s Rights In Saudi Arabia

It is no secret that the women of Saudi Arabia live under a great deal of oppression. It’s not much of a stretch to claim that they are treated like property under, what has so far been, a rather strict fundamentalist Islamic law. They are subservient to men in every way. Women must be fully covered with black veils and are segregated from the males in society, having separate entrances and isolated areas within temples or places of business. They are not allowed to drive cars, may not travel in or out of Saudi Arabian cities without a designated male guardian, are not allowed to vote, must get the approval of their husband for nearly everything, are almost never allowed to be employed, and are denied the ability to represent themselves in a courts system that already regards women as inferior.

Even here in America, there are stories of women that have come from Saudi Arabia to study at our universities whom undergo a great deal of harassment when they encounter Saudi men on campuses. The fact that women are not allowed to travel on their own and are not allowed to enroll in mixed-gender schools is cause enough for harassment from Saudi males, students at American colleges, should they see an unaccompanied Saudi woman receiving an American education.

Men, by contrast, exercise suffocating control of the lives of women. Polygamy is permitted in this patriarchal society – up to four wives -provided the man can materially support the wives. If a woman were to bring shame upon her man (by doing something like getting a job… god forbid) “honor” killings are not uncommon, as part of a corporeal punishment.

It seems that things are finally starting to change though, even if that change is painfully slow to develop. Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has been acting king since the mid-90’s (officially took the throne in late 2005) and has been promising reforms for a long time. In early 2009, major cabinet changes, including the appointment of a woman as vice-minister of government, indicate King Abdullah is finally putting his reform rhetoric to action.

In a Wall Street Journal article, Karen Elliott describes some of the changes:

“Out is the religious sheikh who headed the Supreme Judicial Council, the kingdom’s top court, which last year upheld a ruling punishing a young rape victim with 200 lashes. This forced King Abdullah, who has talked repeatedly of judicial reform and greater justice, to step in to save the girl — and his own reputation. Out also is the head of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice — or so-called religious police — who stroll the streets enforcing prayer times, dress codes and separation of the sexes. In addition, the ministers of justice, education, information and health are new. And the Consultative Council, the kingdom’s appointed 150-member parliament, has a new head. All these individuals are more moderate than those they replaced.

“Obviously, new faces don’t guarantee real reform. But what is clear is that the 86-year-old king at last has acted to remove individuals who have used their positions to block his tentative efforts at reform for the past half dozen years. Even before becoming king in 2005, Crown Prince Abdullah began to talk of religious tolerance, of interfaith dialogue, of assembling Sunnis and Shiites (apostates in the minds of his Wahhabi religious leaders). He opened space for dialogue among Saudi citizens in the press and public gatherings. He sought to create new opportunities for women, to improve education and reform justice.”

She goes on to note that the “new education minister, Faisal bin Abdullah, a son-in-law of the king, surely has his work cut out for him. He’s a modest, modern man who loves photography and supports his wife’s efforts to expand opportunities for women; his appointment means that at least at the top of the educational bureaucracy there is support for reforming education to encourage inquiry, not simply to propagate a strict Wahhabi [conservative and somewhat nationalistic] interpretation of Islam.”

We are soon to mark the end of the first completed school year for Saudi Arabia’s first mixed-gender university. The the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology has drawn over 800 students with a goal of producing scientists. Such a maneuver was not without opposition, but officials who back Abdullah fear that without reforms young people will be drawn to militancy in the future. The campus is located near the Red Sea, and is supposedly away from the eyes of the religious police. However, local Saudis make up only 15 percent of students coming from 61 countries.

Some reforms of the law are also slowly being implemented. The activities whereby women need only to present an ID instead of being accompanied by male guardianship is expanding. A law will soon allow women to appear in court on family-related cases, such as divorce and child custody, instead of merely being able to work behind the scenes in government and court offices. Besides finally allowing women lawyers to argue cases in courts for the first time, the new legislation will also allow Saudi women to complete certain procedures without the presence of a witness.

No doubt these are major steps forward amidst so much backward treatment of women. Saudi activists like Wajeha Al-Huwaider are waging campaigns against restrictions on driving and travel without male guardianship. In August 2009 she published an op-ed in the Washington Post called “Women Can Drive. Just Let Them.” The Al Waref Institute, a group working to cultivate cultural understandings between the Middle East and the Western world, recognized her for encouraging the international community to take note of the challenges facing women in Saudi Arabia and other parts of the world today.

She says, “I am tired of being humiliated solely because I am a woman.”  In an attempt to reconcile these feelings of inferiority, which have been worked into the institutions in place, Al-Huwaider creates what she refers to as “video protest campaigns” and tries to organize events to incorporate women participation in protest. These campaigns include videos, circulated through YouTube and other media outlets, which focus on a number of women’s rights issues like child marriage, polygamy, and guardianship laws.

Jane Fonda writes on globalsister.org:
“On November 6, 2009, Saudi women launched the Black Ribbon Campaign, an international campaign against the Saudi male guardianship system. Some women protested by driving their cars through Riyadh, an action which is still illegal for Saudi women.

Led by Wahija Al-Huwaidar, and marking the anniversary of a famous protest in 1990 when 47 Saudi women drove cars through the capital calling for the right to drive, the Black Ribbon Campaign demands that:

A) the Saudi woman be treated as a citizen just like her male counterpart;
B) the Saudi woman enjoy her rights to marry, divorce, inherit, gain custody of children, travel, work, study, drive cars and live on an equal footing with man;
C) the Saudi woman gain the legal capacity to represent herself in official and government agencies without the need of a male guardian.

The campaign calls on women around the world to tie black ribbons on their wrists in peaceful support of the campaign’s motto: ‘We will not untie our ribbon until Saudi women enjoy their rights as adult citizens.’”

While the issues of guardianship are an important feature of Al-Huwaider’s activism, she states “The guardianship rules are only part of a bigger system of subjugating women.”  For years she has written and worked to fight this system and encourage others to join in her struggle to affect widespread change throughout the Middle East. It is not just about civil disobedience she writes, “it’s the whole system that needs to be changed.”