Against a backdrop of quickening change in Saudi Arabia, Jeddah broadcaster and journalist Samar Fatany chronicles in her third book the march forward in “Saudi Challenges and Reforms,” which is a collection of her commentaries from the op-ed pages of Arab News.
Fatany has been at the forefront of the Kingdom’s push for reform and has served as a representative for the nation in several delegations, attending conferences and interacting with other women around the world who are political, development and legal experts. The result is an enlightened view of the obstacles to progress and how other societies have faced — and overcome — these challenges, many of which overlap.
Regarding the global issue of spousal abuse, for example, Fatany notes that attitudes must change along with enforcement practices and legal remedies in Saudi Arabia before any meaningful reform takes hold. She also criticizes the acquiescence of police, clergy and courts on the issue and encourages people to demonstrate outwardly the concern and respect that Islam requires for mothers, daughters and sisters rather than turning a blind eye to obvious outrages that wind up in the crime blotters of newspapers too often to be ignored.
As for accepting guidance from the experience of other societies on the pathways to reform, it is worthy to note that particularly in relation to issues of women’s participation in the workplace and as equal partners in decision making, most societies have scarcely more than a century of history in these regards. In that way, Saudi Arabia can consider itself much closer to a lasting solution provided progress in these regards is not impeded.
Fatany sees these impediments more often in terms of conflict with outmoded cultural traditions masquerading as imperatives of Islam rather than any conflict with Islam itself. She sees Islam more as a guarantor of women’s liberty than any faith-based mandate standing in opposition to reform. To those ends, she again blames society and its members for dismissing confrontation as the biggest obstacle to the empowerment of women.
As women represent about half of the Kingdom’s population and more than half its college graduates, Fatany correctly assumes that impediments to women’s full participation in society is putting the brakes on the nation’s economic development, which precariously dangles on the price of oil at this point. For a healthy expanding economy, private-sector activity must expand at a far greater pace than it has in recent history, and women’s full participation is a significant key to the future the Kingdom must make if current standards of living are to be maintained, let alone improved. Improvement will obviously ensure the success of future generations of both Saudi men and women.
Fatany’s perspective certainly is not that of a negativist. She praises progress when and where it has been made in the mosques, the Shoura Council or the ministries, but as often as she praises progress, she asks the question why in terms of what should seem obvious steps to ensure the Kingdom’s future success and prosperity. When it was announced that women would be sidelined during the second round of municipal elections — an important step on the path to some style of participatory democracy — she could not help but wonder why the integration of women into an electoral process had again been delayed and what purpose such a delay could possibly serve.
She is an ardent supporter of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and has served, at his request, as the Kingdom’s representative in international delegations and at international conferences.
Clearly, she sees the king as a great leader who has to await a certain level of enlightenment among the general population before he can effect the much-needed reforms for the Kingdom. There is great wisdom in that position, and to those ends a National Dialogue has been initiated to encourage people to start considering issues on their merits as opposed to simply following the positions of a local imam or a tribal sheikh which, up until now, have created a quiet status quo, fearful of producing solutions or even original perspectives by which to address important social issues.
Perhaps the greatest importance of “Saudi Challenges and Reforms” is that it is a look at the issues beyond a simplistic, one-dimensional approach and that it explores the larger ramifications that the issues have in terms of economics, quality of life and the long-term consequences on generations to come.
Copies of this book sold outside the Kingdom will give people a greater understanding of the challenges facing Saudi Arabia and will certainly please the author. But the real importance of this book should be viewed in terms of copies sold within the borders of Saudi Arabia, where refreshing perspectives will give Saudi men and women a better understanding of the issues on the table and hopefully contribute to the dialogue and interplay between contrasting perspectives and concerns that lead to solutions — and eventually will contribute to the people’s formation of the mandate that a generous and forward-thinking ruler awaits.