I HAD promised myself to keep away from women’s issues for a few weeks, but the papers this week showed very clearly that no matter where you look, you just can’t get away from them. In one week there were three women-related news items and each one implicitly asks the same questions: What is happening to Saudi Arabian women? Are they destined to be forever in the back seat?
To take the items one by one, the first and the most unfair in my opinion is the new citizenship law. In the law, the children of Saudi men who are married to non-Saudis are eligible for Saudi nationality. Reverse the situation — a Saudi woman married to a non-Saudi — and the children are not eligible for Saudi nationality except for the sons when they reach the age of 18 and the girls only if they marry Saudis. I am not going to spend time bemoaning the whys and wherefores of the law as it has apparently become the norm not even to think about or consider women’s rights. But what do we say to those who are affected by the law? That women don’t have the right to marry a non-Saudi? And if they do, they will be severely punished? Or that no matter how you look at it or what you think, if you are not a male in Saudi Arabia, you will not get all your rights?
Many women who are married to non-Saudis find it unnecessarily hard to deal with the problems of their lives on a daily basis. If they are living in the Kingdom, there is the matter of iqamas (residence permits) for their husbands and children, the special permission required to enroll the children in Saudi government schools and, depending on the circumstances, permission for the children to marry. By the way, Islam tells believers to seek husbands and wives from among the most virtuous and it makes no mention of race or nationality.
Now to the next item on the list. The Ministry of Education is preparing a list of all qualified women (qualified in this case means MA and PhD holders!) in order to make them eligible to attend official functions — such as conferences or international meetings — outside the country. The list will be given to the Foreign Ministry so that the women will have a chance to represent the Kingdom outside the country. Apart from the academic bias, I would think that this a good step. So far it is, but in the regulations there is a specification that participation will be according to Islamic rules and it went on to stress that women must be accompanied by a mahram (male guardian) who will keep their charges on the straight and narrow. I prefer to remain silent on this except to ask the ancient question of who will guard the guards?
The final item concerns a statement by the minister of labor. He says the rate of unemployment in the Kingdom has reached 12 percent and that there are 500,000 Saudis, male and female, seeking jobs. He even says that in his own family, there are many qualified women who are jobless. Interesting and candid remark from an official, and it might reassure some women but — and there is always a but.
He went on to say something that, to say the least, I find a little patronizing and unrealistic. He said, “We do not want to cause a social upheaval or shake the social structure in order to employ women.” How, may I ask, would providing jobs for unemployed women cause a social upheaval? Judging from the suspension of the decision to let women work in lingerie shops, we might draw the conclusion that the decision has caused a number of problems for the ministry and that is why the minister is stepping so carefully around the subject. As regards that particular decision, it was wrong to listen to the hardliners. According to them, women should not work as salespersons in lingerie shops though it is all right for men to do so. And for those men to serve Saudi women who are buying personal items!
The decision is unreasonable and does in fact go against our “values and traditions.” But the funny thing is that those values and traditions seem flexible where men are concerned. If a decision angers a few men, then it is always possible to change it. To the men in Saudi Arabia, I ask you to consider sitting in the backseat for once just to see how it feels and, at the same time, to see how women handle things if they are for once allowed into the front seat.
