LONDON — No society in the world can live in complete isolation from others since human beings are social creatures by nature. However, some standards and customs become so ingrained they encourage people to withdraw into a cocoon for fear that if they venture outside they will find themselves in a strange land they are not accustomed to.

Saudi society is an example of this. Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal recently told an American audience: “Some people come (to Saudi Arabia) and have the impression that society is boiling to the extent that it is preventing reforms. But I see the opposite of that. The government is boiling to institute reforms whereas the obstacles may come from the people.”

The foreign minister wanted to say that a large proportion of Saudi society rejects social, political and economical changes, and the reason lies in an upbringing based on inherited traditions that stand in the way of change, especially regarding Saudi women.

When King Faisal decided to allow education for girls many religious leaders objected that education for women was sinful. But because King Faisal believed that women had a right to public participation, introduced girls’ education, though he initially made it optional. In other words, families that wanted their daughters to learn would be allowed to send them to school and those who did not would not be obliged to do so. Because of this, he was able to contain the problem. That was the beginning of progress for Saudi women.

Now that Crown Prince Abdullah has established the first National Center for Dialogue, a cornerstone for the political reforms that Saudi intellectuals have petitioned for, many Saudi women including myself are asking: Will women have a place in this forum or will all the decisions be taken as usual by men? There are certainly many qualified and educated Saudi women who are capable of expressing the concerns of women in an environment that severely restricts them.

The malaise of Saudi society have many roots. First among these is the family, where the role of women is still limited and where their abilities are still in doubt. A second root of our troubles is the education system. The curriculum teaches that anything that comes from the West must be rejected, as if our society were so fragile that it might disintegrate if it comes into contact with anything else.

But as a result we fail to prepare future generations for the social changes that are a natural result of social development without necessarily conflicting with moral principles. The upshot has been that we now have terrorists and extremists among us who resort to violence to express their demands. This means that nothing short of a revolution in the school curriculum is needed, and that school books need to be re-written so they are applicable to women in the real world.

Lastly, the Saudi media need to face up to their responsibilities in creating public awareness, especially among the younger generation.

The oil boom brought great changes in the Gulf countries in material terms, but unfortunately it did not change the fundamental attitude toward women. In fact, it has if anything got worse now that our economic situation is going downhill again, and in many parts of the Arab world women are the first victims of poverty, illiteracy and disease. That is why society as a whole will be better off when women are able to speak out about their own situation.

There are men in our society who take flagrant advantage of the situation of women by appropriating their salaries and denying them their rights as mature human beings. Others threaten to divorce their wives as a way of ensuring their orders are followed at all times. Many men divorce women who have put up with them for half a lifetime and throw them out into the street without visible means of support. This surely requires a fatwa that guarantees widows and divorcees their financial entitlements.

Some people are objecting to the phenomenon that has become more common recently of the wives and daughters of Arab rulers taking up administrative posts in their countries. But I think it is a healthy thing that will open the doors for the participation of educated women to build more democratic societies. Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri has asked all the women in the world to denounce war and destruction because it is women who become their first victims. At an international conference in Casablanca, female participants demanded that the dignity of women must be protected by respecting their rights and their independence.

Arab societies must start make changes to their social structures, if only so as not to give the West a pretext to come in and blow up the roof over our heads on the grounds that our houses are unfit for human habitation.

The goal of Arab women is not to drive men off territory that is exclusively male, if such territory exists. By nature, we would rather be beside them and work hand in hand with them to build and develop our societies together.

That is precisely why we are having such difficulty in an environment that insists on segregating man and women. Similarly, we cannot make progress while there is a pervasive belief that if women are given the rights that are naturally theirs, an earthquake will shake society to its foundations and all morals will collapse.

The question is: How can women be trusted to bring up future generations when they are at the same time seen as beneath men in terms of their mental capabilities and in many cases unfit to hold a pen?

— Zainab Hafni is a Saudi writer based in Jeddah.

- Arab News Opinion 21 August 2003