Two recent reports about women’s involvement in the Saudi judicial system indicate that things are likely to change very soon.
This is anecdotal evidence that doesn’t mean much in the scheme of things, but they are examples of what the future may hold for individuals going through the Saudi court system.
I recently met a young Saudi woman at a social function. She was in her 20s and earned a law degree in the West. She is practicing law in the Saudi courts specializing in commercial law with a number of substantial clients in the health care field.
She told me she was confident and happy in her work and the legal environment, despite the continuing challenges she faces in obtaining adequate transportation and the difficulties she had faced in obtaining her law degree in the first place.
With Saudi Arabia now a member of the World Trade Organization, she expects a lot of legal work to come her way and her experience in the courtroom virtually guarantees steady work for the years to come.
Another woman, a physician in the health care field in Jeddah, recently went through a child custody hearing involving her ex-husband and son. Her husband sought to have full custody of her young son, claiming that she had been corrupted in the West due to its “liberal views” and encouraged her son to speak English. He also accused her of not being a good Muslim because she didn’t cover her face.
Alleging that embracing western values corrupts a spouse and is tantamount to abandoning Islam is a common accusation in domestic courts, especially among husbands seeking custody of their children.
At the hearing, the former husband repeated his charges and then the judge gave my colleague an opportunity to speak. The woman told the judge that if earning a doctorate at a western university and teaching her son, who is being taught the Qur’an, to be bilingual is shameful then she is proud of her shame. She said she didn’t wear the niqab because it wasn’t practical in her work environment as she communicated with her work colleagues and patients. It’s not like she stopped praying or being a Muslim, she said. If serving her country the way she does was shameful, then she would be happily shamed, she told the judge.
The husband claimed that it was shameful that she appeared in traditional and social media without the veil and seen talking to strangers. But the mother pointed out that she is responsible for community awareness about illnesses and diseases and the media is the only appropriate avenue to get the word out.
She told the judge her husband abandoned her in the West to return to Saudi Arabia and when he was with her, he had “made her life a living hell.” She reminded the judge that her ex-husband was jobless.
When her husband attempted to interrupt her, the judge silenced him and ordered that she be given full custody of her son. He then told the boy’s father that if he ever harassed or spoke ill of his former wife, then he would be jailed for defamation.
This is Jeddah, so we can’t expect consistent rulings from the judiciary throughout Saudi Arabia, but these two instances give all Saudi women hope that fairness will prevail in the courts.
