When asked his opinion of women serving as members of the Shoura Council, a council member gave an ironically worded reply that women would not be short of excuses to absent themselves, including of course going to hospital to give birth. It seems that being a woman in Saudi society and asking for full rights as a citizen has become a rich source of jokes. We all remember the controversy surrounding the issuing of personal identity cards to women. That victory required a fierce battle and the prolonged dispute only ended with a long list of undertakings, including one that requires the husband or male guardian of the woman to state in writing his agreement to her having the identity card.
I must admit that I still don’t have an identity card because my husband is always too busy to spare the time to fulfill the condition.
My situation pales in comparison to that of a friend who is a medical specialist with the highest academic and practical qualifications. When she approached Saudi Telecom Company to get a private telephone line in her name and making it plain that she would be financially responsible for the line, she was told that she needed a letter from her male guardian giving his approval to her having a telephone in her name.
I understand that cultural conditions require time to change. Yet despite the fact that the cruel and appalling pre-Islamic custom of burying young girls alive no longer prevails, we are still a culture that prefers boys to girls and views women as somehow different.
What is hard to understand is how in institutions and government, women have been turned into second-class citizens, and how tribal traditions continue to influence the status of women, especially in regard to citizenship.
Tribal customs dictate that a woman who marries a stranger from outside her tribe goes with her husband and she herself becomes a stranger. Just recently, the Shoura Council passed a law under which a non-Saudi woman who marries a Saudi can be granted Saudi nationality. At the same time, a Saudi woman who marries a non-Saudi can renounce her citizenship in favor of her husband’s. Is it just possible that we welcome strangers in our midst while shunning our own?
