In the midst of the current heated political atmosphere a group of Saudi men produced a document called a “Vision of the Nation’s Present and Future”. The document discussed real concerns and issues that have remained unresolved, and presented solutions and reforms that will require great effort to achieve.

Reading over this document one finds oneself agreeing with much of it, so well does it speak of one’s troubles and personal worries. The document addressed the need to firmly establish such basic concepts as justice, equality, and respect for differences, equal opportunities, employment, working to reduce the budget deficit as well as the need for political participation.

It seems however that the highly educated people who produced the document for some reason thought it better to exclude women from it. Women are mentioned in section three, “Strengthening interaction between society and its leadership.”

“Women represent half of our society and are central to its creation and development and therefore they must be permitted those rights guaranteed by Shariah in order to perform their legitimate duties and activate their role in the public interest in a way that accords with the Shariah,” a subsection reads.

What is interesting is that the document talks of “citizens” in its future vision — not specifying sex, sect or region. No one reading it feels left out — until you come to the subsection quoted above and realize that everything else referred to men only.

Is this really what that elite group saw in their vision? Perhaps the reason why women are mentioned in this way is due to the sensitivity of the issue. In fact, it might have been better had women not been mentioned at all, so that it spoke in one voice — talking of citizens — rather than separating women and dealing with them in such a general, unhelpful manner.

Women in the Gulf and more specifically in Saudi Arabia need to set up a women’s committee that deals with their issues along the lines of the “National Committee for Women” in Jordan. Established by the Kingdom of Jordan, its aim is to improve women’s situation in all areas. Its most important achievement is the fight against illiteracy among Jordanian women. In 1979 illiteracy reached up to 48 percent of women 15+ but in 1994 it was down to 20.6 percent and today a lot less. Other achievements included spreading awareness centres in villages and towns to educate women and enlighten them on the rights of citizenship and equal opportunities. This increased women’s effective role in society, at universities, in the work sector and reduced the number of foreign workers and consequent exporting of the country’s money. On the social rights front the committee sought to protect women from violence and was able to delete article 340 from the penal code, which pardons a man from punishment if he kills or injures a woman in honor cases.

One question remains — why were women excluded?

Women should understand that this is their battle to fight; neither is it anyone else’s duty to defend women nor should they be fought and prevented from realizing their full rights. Gulf women have become used to laziness, subordination, dependence and waiting for men to come back from the battle zone carrying the spoils of war. Most Gulf women have a negative outlook towards improving their status — complaining about their situations and berating their fate when society robs them of the right to make a decision whether on matters of marriage, work, education or even necessary medical surgery. Women naively imagine that some day society will bestow on them such rights without having demanded or striven to get them. Women will remain the dead half of society so long as they pant after every beauty product and fashion item.

Awareness requires effort and effort requires real work and seriousness in order to progress and win for oneself a decent life.

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(Wajeha Al-Huwaider is a program analyst at Aramco. She holds an MA in Reading Management from George Washington University.)