Browse Exhibits (2 total)

"Trends in the enforcement of Islamic code have influenced women's rights in Saudi Arabia. The Iranian Revolution and September 11 attacks constitute recent inflection points in Saudi cultural history.

In 1979, the Iranian Revolution led to a resurgence of fundamentalism in many parts of the Islamic world. Fundamentalists sought to repel Westernization, and governments sought to defend themselves against revolution. In Saudi Arabia, fundamentalists occupied the Grand Mosque (Masjid al-Haram) and demanded a more conservative Islamic state, including "an end of education of women".^[169] The government responded with stricter interpretations and enforcement of Islamic laws. Newspapers were discouraged from publishing images of women; the Interior Ministry discouraged women from employment, including expatriates. Scholarships for women to study abroad declined. Wearing the abaya in public became mandatory.^{[17][31][68][69]}

In contrast, the September 11 attacks against the United States in 2001 precipitated a reaction against ultra-conservative Islamic sentiment; fifteen of the nineteen hijackers in the September 11 attacks came from Saudi Arabia. Since then, the mutaween have become less active, and reformists have been appointed to key government posts. The government says it has withdrawn support from schools deemed extremist, and moderated school textbooks.^[22][32][33]

The government under King Abdullah is regarded as moderately progressive. It has opened the country's first co-educational university, appointed the first female cabinet member, and prohibited domestic violence. Gender segregation has relaxed, although it is still the norm. Critics say the reform is far too slow, and often more symbolic than substantive. Conservative clerics have successfully rebuffed attempts to outlaw child marriage. Women were not allowed to vote in the country's first municipal elections, although the King supports a woman's right to drive and vote. The few female government officials have minimal power. Norah Al-Faiz, the first female cabinet member, will not appear without her veil, appear on television without permission, or talk to male colleagues except by videoconferencing. She opposes girls' school sports as premature.^{[32][33][34][170][171][172]}

The government has made international commitments to women's rights. It ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, with the proviso that the convention could not override Islamic law. However, government officials told the United Nations that there is no contradiction with Islam. The degree of compliance between government commitments and practice is disputed. A 2009 report by the UN questioned whether any international law ratified by the government has ever been applied inside Saudi Arabia.^[16]

Some of the recently appointed female advisors to parliament (shurah) believe slow reform is effective. According to Dr. Nora Alyousif, "The Saudi leadership is working hard on reform and supporting women ... Seventy years ago we were completely isolated from the world. The changes which are taking place are unmistakable, and we have finally started opening up."^[24] Dr. Maha Almuneef says, “There are small steps now. There are giant steps coming. But most Saudis have been taught the traditional ways. You can't just change the social order all at once."^[32]

Local and international women's groups are pushing governments for reform, taking advantage of the fact that some rulers are eager to project a more progressive image to the West. The presence of powerful businesswomen—still a rare breed—in some of these groups helps increase their representation in Saudi Arabian government and society.^[32][161]

Lubna Olayan, the CEO of Olayan Financing Company, is a well-known advocate for women's rights. She was the first woman to address a mixed-gender business audience in Saudi Arabia, speaking at the Jeddah Economic Forum in 2004. She used the occasion to advocate for economic equality:^[173]

My vision is of a country with a prosperous and diversified economy in which any Saudi citizen, irrespective of gender who is serious about finding employment, can find a job in the field for which he or she is best qualified, leading to a thriving middle class and in which all Saudi citizens, residents or visitors to the country feel safe and can live in an atmosphere where mutual respect and tolerance exist among all, regardless of their social class, religion or gender.

Forbes and Time magazines have named Lubna Olayan one of the world's most influential women.^[94] The Grand Mufti, Abdul-Azeez ibn Abdullaah Aal ash-Shaikhcondemned the event, saying "Allowing women to mix with men is the root of every evil and catastrophe ... It is highly punishable. Mixing of men and women is a reason for greater decadence and adultery."^[174]

Wajeha al-Huwaider is often described as the most radical and prominent feminist activist in Saudi Arabia. In a 2008 interview, she described plans for an NGO called The Association for the Protection and Defense of Women's Rights in Saudi Arabia. She described the goals of the organization:^[175]

Among the issues that have been raised, and that are of the utmost importance, are: representation for women in shari'a courts; setting a [minimum] age for girls' marriages; allowing women to take care of their own affairs in government agencies and allowing them to enter government buildings; protecting women from domestic violence, such as physical or verbal violence, or keeping her from studies, work, or marriage, or forcing her to divorce ... We need laws to protect women from these aggressions and violations of their rights as human beings. And there is also [the need to] prevent girls' circumcision ... We truly have a great need for a Ministry of Women's Affairs to deal with women's rights, issues of motherhood and infancy, and women's health in rural areas... This is our ultimate goal ...

In 2008, the government warned The Association for the Protection and Defense of Women's Rights in Saudi Arabia not to hold any protests.^[29]

In 2013 Saudi Arabia registered its first female trainee lawyer, Arwa al-Hujaili,^[95] who is also the first Saudi woman to attain an aircraft dispatcher license.^[176] The same year, Saudi women were first allowed to ride bicycles, although only around parks and other "recreational areas".^[111] They must also be dressed in full Islamic body coverings and be accompanied by a male relative.^[111]

Saudis frequently debate how to bring about change. Those who oppose activists like Wajeha al-Huwaider fear that an all or nothing approach to women's rights will spur a backlash against any change.^[69] Journalist Sabria Jawhar dismisses Huwaider as a show-off: "The problem with some Saudi activists is that they want to make wholesale changes that are contrary to Islam, which requires a mahram for traveling women. If one wonders why great numbers of Saudi women don't join Al-Huwaider it's because they are asked to defy Islam. Al-Huwaider's all or nothing position undercuts her credibility."^[54]

Retaliation against women's rights activism has some precedent. Immediately following Operation Desert Storm in 1991, Saudi women launched a campaign for more rights. Forty-seven women drove illegally through Riyadh, in protest against the ban on driving. Activists presented a petition to King Fahd requesting "basic legal and social rights." Subsequently, a feminist leader was arrested and tortured. Fundamentalists demanded strict punishment of the women who had driven in protest, and denounced activists as "whores." The mutaween enforced the dress code more aggressively.^[177]

Many believe slow change is the only kind possible. History professor Hatoon al-Fassi says recent campaigns for women's rights have opened up public discourse on topics such as child marriage and rape. "It's an exaggeration to call it a women's movement. But we are proud to say that something is going on in Saudi Arabia. We are not really free, but it is possible for women to express themselves as never before."^[32] Nonetheless, she says Westerners do not understand Saudi culture and how potentially traumatic change can be: "People had lived their whole lives doing one thing and believing one thing, and suddenly the king and the major clerics were saying that mixing was O.K. You can't begin to imagine the impact that the ban on mixing has on our lives and what lifting this ban would mean."^[19]

Others regard the current pace of change as much too slow, and activism as too limited. Sumayya Jabarti, editor of the Arab News, says there are too many women with decision-making power who are like "queen bees," doing nothing to question the status quo. "People say things are changing for women because they are comparing it to before, when things were below zero. People say 'change,' but it is all relative and it is very, very limited ... Change is not coming, we are taking it ... I don't think the way is paved. I think we are building it through the route taken ... Most of the time, we are walking in place."^[26]

Most Saudis oppose mixed workplaces and women driving in cities. Most women want to wear the veil and do not think women should hold political office. Many Saudis view their country as "the closest thing to an ideal and pure Islamic nation", and therefore most in need of resistance to Western values. Conservative cleric Mohsen al-Awajy says the country must resist secularization: "Saudi society is a special, tribal society, and neither King Abdullah or anyone else can impose his own interpretation of Islam. They can do nothing without Islam. There is no Saudi Arabia without Islam."^[14][19][32]

Princess Loulwa Al-Faisal describes herself as a conservative, advocating change that is gradual and consistent with Islam. A member of the royal family, she argues that Islam sees women's rights as equal but different, which "Together, add up to a secure society that works". Princess Al-Faisal argues "The ultra-conservatives and the ultra-liberals both want the same thing, the destruction of the Islamic way. We are preserving it ... There are problems mostly with the way the law is interpreted, mostly in the courts, but those are changing." According to Princess Al-Faisal, Saudi women are better off than Western women in some ways: "their property is inviolable and that men have a duty to look after them". She also says the "lack of modesty" in the West is "bad for the children". Nonetheless, she supports the women's suffrage in municipal elections.^[178] When Thomas Friedman asked her what she would do if she were "queen for a day", she replied "First thing, I'd let women drive".^[179]

In 2013 the Saudi government sanctioned sports for girls in private schools for the first time.^[112]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women's_rights_in_Saudi_Arabia