RIYADH, 14 November 2002 — Saudi women eager for higher education and a window on the world have an ally at the center of power in the Kingdom.
In a festive hall at the royal palace, Princess Al-Jouhara bint Ibrahim Al-Ibrahim, the wife of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd, hosts a reception to discuss women’s needs at King Saud University, the largest and oldest of eight in Saudi Arabia.
Surrounded by more than 100 lecturers or professors, all of them women, the princess listens quietly as her guests outline how her grants of SR42 million ($11.2 million) have been spent or allocated at the Riyadh-based university.
"We have our own traditions, but they do not prevent women seeking education," said the soft-spoken princess, addressed as Umm Abdul Aziz, an honorific that identifies her as the mother of King Fahd’s youngest son.
At the start of the reception, some of the guests stood up to thank their publicity-shy benefactress for her backing for female education at their university while others lobbied for new projects.
Princess Al-Jouhara, the recipient of an honorary doctorate, has frequently urged Saudi women in private gatherings and at graduation ceremonies to take advantage of the higher education programs that were not available in her youth.
She has also called on women to put their education to use, as long as they remained within the bounds of tradition and respected the moral code of Islam — revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) 1,400 years ago.
Women in Saudi Arabia live a complex existence which mingles strict traditions and codes of conduct with modern demands of education and freedom.
While most women wear a veil in public and they may not drive, they are a far cry from the stereotype of downtrodden underlings often perpetuated in the West.
Trying to balance the challenges of modernity with the demands of traditional past has meant that change is cautious and slow, but women insist that change is afoot.
After years of educational constraints, the government introduced a national education program for girls in 1960, giving religious leaders assurances it would have a solid religious component and giving them direct supervision.
Earlier this year the Ministry of Education took over the supervision of girls’ education after a devastating school fire killed 15 female students.
Saudi women now outstrip men as graduates of universities and other specialized colleges, making up 58 percent of a total of nearly 32,000 students in 2000.
Female students have separate facilities from their male counterparts and listen to male instructors via a closed circuit video and audio system.
"It isn’t just a way to get out of the house, it makes me feel useful," said Madawi, who didn’t want to use her full name.
Many Saudi women are annoyed that Western observers often preach about the shortcomings of the Kingdom and focus on issues such as sexual segregation, but fail to see the issues that women themselves find far more frustrating.
"Get over it!" Gihan Ramadan admonishes Western journalists she faults for being unduly concerned over restrictions such as the veiling of Saudi women and a prohibition against their driving.
Ramadan, in a commentary published by Arab News, said Saudi women were more concerned about finding good work in a tough jobs market than being veiled.
Ramadan then criticized the barriers that prevent Saudi women from putting their education and energy to work, from restrictions on what fields women can enter to pay inequality.
Only six percent of women in the overall population are categorized as workers, many absorbed into teaching, nursing, medicine or charity work. Although many women do not work from choice, there are also some restrictions on their participation in various professions.
In some cases, the constraints on women are not enshrined in law, but in practice. For example, there are no programs to teach women engineering or law in Saudi Arabia — unlike in other Arab countries.
Similarly, although women own 40 percent of private wealth and thousands of businesses from retail to heavy industry, they face frustrating cultural and legal restraints.
Women must rely on male agents to deal with government offices and conduct many business transactions.
Many say tradition and culture, not Islam, support these restrictions, citing the religion’s support for women’s rights both at home and at work.
Islam assures women sole control of their inheritance and grants them property rights. The Holy Qur’an, ensured women economic and social rights long before Western women attained them.
The issue of allowing more access to jobs for women is soon overwhelmed in any discussion of unemployment in the Kingdom by the growing pressure to find jobs for Saudi males.
The onus on men to work rather than women is high in this traditional society where unemployment among men is estimated at 12 percent and set to grow.
The average age for the 16.2 million Saudis in the Kingdom in 2000 was 16, making the issue of job creation all the more pressing in the short to medium term.
This also makes the drive to replace the five to six million resident foreigners with Saudis a hot topic and has prompted the government to take steps to restrict work visas and announce it will impose income tax on non-Saudis.
Back at the palace reception, one woman present still had at least one idea about how Saudi women would fit into this drive for "Saudization".
"Nursing, that’s really where there are jobs for Saudi women in our hospitals to replace the expatriates," she said, adding that one of the achievement prizes endowed by Princess Al-Jouhara was promoting good competition in nursing courses. (R)
