Last week I saw something I had not seen in Saudi Arabia before. For the first time in my life, I saw a photo of a Saudi female columnist in an Arabic language Saudi daily. Many people, particularly Western or non-Saudi, might not understand the significance of that. But for a people who still largely see the uncovering of a woman’s face in public as a sin punishable by God, how can it not be?
Some people say that our country is going through a transition and that Saudis are changing their lifestyles and ways of thinking. Others go so far as to say that our society is now in a tug of war between the conservatives and the moderates. It only takes a little skimming through our local press to see examples of that.
Just before Haj, an interesting article was written by one of our locals and was published in the pages of our most readable newspaper. The title was “The Temptation of Women in Hospitals”. The writer launched a fearsome attack against Saudi women working in the health sector as they were a source of corruption and seduction. He went on to say that many of them do not cover their face — which he says is a grave Islamic sin; that they wear tons of makeup; that they wear tight jeans that reveal their body structure; that they receive men at the counter the same way they receive women; and that they talk to strangers — their colleagues — in the workplace without shame. All this, the writer concluded, is causing a disease in our society that must be stopped.
He suggested that we open separate divisions within our hospitals — one for females with an all-female staff and the other for males with an all-male staff. These measures would avert God’s anger against us. He concluded his article by saying that women are the source of corruption and temptation for mankind and that many civilizations before us were destroyed by it.
What surprised me was the enormous response from both men and women to the article. To see a debate between our moderates and our conservatives in the media was thrilling.
There were Saudis who actually supported this writer in his views of the danger of mixing of sexes in the health sector. At the same time, there were others who opposed him, saying that Saudi men still have a narrow perspective of women, that the writer’s religious ideas were incorrect, and that our society should have more faith in our women and the role they play in society.
I went on reading and collecting the feedback for several weeks. One of the first responses came from a Saudi woman from Jeddah who works in a hospital. She said that to this day some people still do not approve of Saudi women working in hospitals and think of it as an affront to our religion, customs and traditions.
She said women uncover their faces everywhere: In streets, malls, universities, and so forth. The author should not get fixated only on female hospital employees. She also said these women talk to their male colleagues in an open public space, not behind closed doors, and that communication is for necessity, not for pleasure. The same could be said of a woman talking to a shopkeeper, a tailor or a police officer, she added.
Moreover, she rebuked the writer for forgetting one of the principles of Islam, which is for men to lower their eyes when a woman comes in sight and not to stare. How had the writer even managed to notice the tight jeans, the hina (red drawings) on their hands and other details without staring?
A local of Jubail responded to the article by saying that he was not surprised to see that there were still people in Saudi Arabia with this mentality even in the 21st century. Unfortunately, he said, there are those who still perceive women only as a source of temptation and evil. The upbringing of these people has cemented a narrow perception of women into their brains, he added. He went on to say that though our religion has advised us to stay away from temptations, that does not mean that women should be barred from talking to their male colleagues at work in matters of necessity. He also said that the uncovering of a woman’s face is permissible in Islam and has been agreed upon by scholars, and that the covering of a woman’s face does not make sense. Saudi women who do not fully cover their face and do not wear gloves, which the writer says they should, are by no means considered badly behaved. He concluded by saying that patients come to the hospital for treatment, not to look at what women wear.
These are only some of replies the article has triggered from Saudis and that reflect the mentalities of our people. A transition in Saudi Arabia? Perhaps.
Arab News Opinion 19 March 2003
