Have you ever heard of men-only hospitals where women are not welcome, of restaurants that serve men six days a week and women only one, of malls and shopping centers banning women and admitting only men?
Of course, such places do not exist here or anywhere else in the world. Such places are designed to serve the public, both male and female. Now what about “public libraries”?
As the word “public” suggests, they are open to all members of the public, both male and female. Perhaps this is true in some places but not here in the Kingdom. Women are often not admitted to “public libraries” and this amounts to a serious discrimination and denial of rights.
In response to repeated appeals, requests and mounting pressure, some libraries, including those run by universities and local chambers of commerce, have agreed to admit women — but only for a limited number of hours.
King Saud University, for example, has agreed to open its library to women but only on Thursdays. The Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry library has done the same — only on Thursdays again. King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah is less generous; it admits women to its central library only once every two weeks — on Thursdays of course. Umm Al-Qura University in Makkah is the most generous of all; its library is open to women two days a week — on Mondays and Wednesdays.
The Ministry of Education, on the other hand, refuses to admit women to its library at any time whatsoever. The only library that I know of that admits women every day is the King Faisal Center for Islamic Studies and Research. It has a separate library section for women — but the problem is that it does not have the same facilities as the men’s section. Nevertheless, it is open throughout the week.
You can imagine the inconvenience and trouble experienced by a woman doing research at any of the above-mentioned institutions as well as other so-called “public” libraries. Time is precious, but a woman sometimes has to wait from 160 to 300 hours between visits to a library where she can look for information she needs. Many other women patiently wait their turn to make use of the only five hours available to them before the library closes.
Some libraries, including those run by the Institute of Public Administration and King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology, as well as Jeddah Public Library, are trying to help. They suggest that a woman send her male guardian, usually her husband, to get the material she wants from the library. Do these people think that a husband is superman who could just fly anywhere at anytime to save someone in need of help? And surely the libraries realize that if a woman is doing research, she needs to look at the material herself. Even the best-intentioned and most willing of husbands is not good enough to do the job.
Libraries are the life and passion of researchers, and if women are barred from our libraries, how can we expect them to produce and excel? For how long will women continue to be treated as a minority who have to beg for their rights?
