If we were to examine the whys and wherefores of Saudi society as envisioned by the original framers of our system of government and by Islam, then we would recognize that a priority among Saudis is the protection of the female population.
Saudis are family-oriented and usually dote on their sisters, daughters and mothers. Our intense desire to make sure they receive the very best care and love can actually go too far. It's not uncommon that families become zealous in making sure their female members find the right man to marry, take a job in a safe environment and get the best education available.
But the families who make such decisions usually have pure motives and best intentions. This is a tenet of our faith and our society. After all, the key argument among Saudi men in support of preventing women to drive is they must be protected and kept safe from injury and death in accidents and from harassment of male motorists.
Yet this aspect of Saudi society has in recent years devolved into misogyny. There has been a fundamental shift in attitudes among many Saudi men who seem to have become self-appointed judges.
Many individuals believe they have license to threaten and coerce Saudi women who choose to appear in public. And for the record, these are women who are fully covered and behave in public as any Saudi woman should.
The Arab media recently reported, citing a study, that a majority of Saudi women fear for their safety while in public. The poll questioned women between the ages of 18 and 48. It found that a whopping 78 percent of the women polled experienced sexual harassment. Twenty-seven percent of the women said they had been verbally harassed. About 15 percent said men physically harassed them. Nine out of 10 said that sexual harassment in public is increasing in Saudi Arabia. The respondents noted that the problem is especially significant in Jeddah, Dammam and even Taif, which has a reputation for a family-friendly city.
Many Saudi men who have no relations with women in public have always taken it upon themselves to lecture women on their morals. But it has been taken to another level as evident in videos regularly posted on social media depicting young men and teenagers chasing women in malls and other public spaces. The most recent example of this deplorable behavior was a video posted of dozens of young men surrounding and shouting at two young women on the Jeddah Corniche.
Such videos of abusive behavior are a reflection of what is taught in the home. It could be that young boys learn from their elders that their sisters, cousins and even their mothers are goods and chattels to be ordered around and to have their movements strictly regulated. Our efforts to protect has mutated into efforts to control Saudi women. Our efforts to control have moved on to efforts to shame. The desire to shame women has moved on from private shaming to public shaming.
So what are the motives for this illegal conduct? It can't be about how a woman dresses. The videos clearly show women fully covered. And it's really not about women without a mahram because these incidents occur in malls and public spaces occupied by families. The mahram is somewhere near. His job is not to keep an eye on every female member of the family 24/7.
Rather these fellows are cowards who harass women simply because they can. The police that patrol the Corniche and have a presence in the malls rarely intervene in such incidents. These boorish men know that they can harass women with impunity. Simply, there are few consequences to their actions.
There have been elements of misogyny in our society over the past two decades, but harassment has only been a recent manifestation. In our so-called desire to protect the morals of Saudi women we have excluded them from public functions, thus reinforcing the concept that women must be hidden from view. We are so fanatical about gender segregation that we exclude half the Saudi population from participating in society.
A case in point is the exclusion of Saudi women writers from the King Fahd Park Theatrical Competition. The event was not billed as only for men, but organizers barred women from entering the venue or participating on any level. Such treatment is the lot of a Saudi woman's life and we have become cynical about our role in society. But the damage is deep because Saudi women are forever being marginalized and excluded from public events that it leads to group-think among some men who see women in public as somehow sinful. By not seeing women in public and fully engaged in society, there is a tendency among some men to view women in public as somehow shameful.
We have done little to address this issue and, of course, the Shoura Council, has shown little interest in tackling the problem. What will happen, though, is obvious. Violence against women will escalate. And just what will we do then?
