Since I currently work in Saudi I’d thought I share a few facts about the way it is for women here in Saudi.
Saudi women are generally not allowed to work in their country. In spite of the fact that around 70% of Saudi women go to university they make up around only 5% of the total workforce.
Women cannot testify in a Saudi court of law unless it was a personal matter that did not happen in the sight of men (except presumably a male defendant if she is testifying against him). Non-Muslims, male and female, cannot testify in a Saudi court whatsoever. When a woman testifies it is treated as a presumption rather than a fact.
Women are not allowed to drive motor vehicles or ride bicycles on public roads in Saudi Arabia.
Woman citizens of Saudi are prohibited from marrying non-Muslims.
Women, especially Saudi women, are required to wear ‘abaya’ in public. The abaya is an overgarment that goes from the shoulders right down to the ankles. Traditionally it is black and most women’s abayas are black. They are also required to cover their heads with a scarf. Many also cover their faces. Foreign women (especially non-Muslim) do not have to wear the abaya but they are required when in public to be modestly dressed and that means long sleeves, full length trousers or skirts and they should not show too much neck.
Above is a picture of Moon dressed in her abaya. Suits her don’t you think? Moon came to stay with me here in Saudi during the last two weeks in July.
Women cannot generally go anywhere in public without being accompanied by a male relative. There is a provision that the male can be a young boy. I have seen women here in the supermarkets seemingly without their men but almost always they are in the company of one or more other women. From what I understand, women who go anywhere without a male relative, have to have the permission of their husbands.
What some call gender apartheid is prevalent. Segregation of male and females in public places is commonplace such as waiting rooms in hospitals and banks. Beaches and restaurants have areas segregated for families and non-families. That means you can only go to the family section when you are in the company of your spouse and or children.
Daniel McNeill in his book published in 2000 The Face: A Natural History wrote:
“Most Saudi homes have one entrance for men, another for women. Women ride in the back of the bus in Riyadh, and enter it through a separate door. Until 1981 a woman couldn't meet her spouse unveiled till after the wedding. Saudi daughters inherit half as much as sons. Amusement parks and skating rinks have segregated hours, so families cannot visit together. Saudi banks are so segregated that only female auditors examine women's accounts. Medicine is the sole career where the sexes mix, because, though fundamentalists object to women doctors touching male patients, there aren't enough male physicians to go around.”
Women following Muslim practices under Sharia law are not supposed to make eye contact with any male except their spouse and perhaps certain family members such as their sons and fathers.
Under Saudi Basic Law women are denied participation in public law or government. They do however have the right to own property, transact business and have their bank accounts in addition to their husband’s support.
A Saudi woman cannot leave the country without her husband’s or father’s permission and almost never without being accompanied by a male relative.
In 1978 the late and well known American feminist Andrea Dworkin wrote about Saudi Arabia:
“Seductive mirages of progress notwithstanding, nowhere in the world is apartheid practiced with more cruelty and finality than in Saudi Arabia. Of course, it is women who are locked in and kept out, exiled to invisibility and abject powerlessness within their own country. It is women who are degraded systematically from birth to early death, utterly and totally and without exception deprived of freedom. It is women who are sold into marriage or concubinage, often before puberty; killed if their hymens are not intact on the wedding night; kept confined, ignorant, pregnant, poor, without choice or recourse. It is women who are raped and beaten with full sanction of the law. It is women who cannot own property or work for a living or determine in any way the circumstances of their own lives. It is women who are subject to a despotism that knows no restraint. Women locked out and locked in.”
The severity of the situation today has probably lessened somewhat than what it may have been in 1978 but how can we know for sure that in some remote parts of the country that this kind of extreme injustice isn’t still going on?
Saudi Arabia is a country that practices both capital and corporal punishment. According to an article in the Daily Telegraph there were 191 public executions in 2005. So far this year (2007) to July there have already been 107 public executions including just 3 women. There is a case going on at present concerning a Sri Lankan maid who was working for a Saudi family. She was 17 years old and had only just come into the country. She has been sentenced to death by beheading for strangling a four month old boy. The girl now 19 and whose job as a maid was not meant to include child care now denies this and says she was forced to sign a confession under duress and that he was choking on the milk and she tried to save him but to no avail. The girl was denied a lawyer to represent her in court.
The last I have heard was a report in the Times on 26th July that says:
“It was only when the BBC World Service radio reported on the case in Sinhala, the main language of Sri Lanka, that the Asian Human Rights Commission intervened. It raised £20,000 to hire a Saudi lawyer and accused the Sri Lankan Government publicly of failing to protect its citizens. Last week, the Government sent Hussein Bhaila, a deputy foreign minister, to Saudi Arabia along with Nafeek’s parents, who visited her in prison yesterday. “Emotionally and mentally, she’s very down,” Mr Bhaila told The Times.”
In the case of women migrants, especially domestic workers to Saudi families, there is a lot of abuse going on. Presently the Sri Lankan, Malaysian and Philipino embassies can have as much as 150 women in embassy shelters because of abuse at the hands of their employers. This may only represent the tip of the iceberg of the actual amount of abuse still going on.
Saudi Arabian men can have up to four wives at any one time according to Islamic law. And many wealthy Saudis do just that. Tribal societies still exist in Saudi Arabia. There was a report in the media (I recommend following the last link below) in January 2005 about a very wealthy 64 year old tribal chief who was a shepherd turned business man - Mr Al-Sayeri and at the time of the report he had already married 58 wives, although only four at any one time. Whilst Mr Al-Sayeri is more of an extreme example, Saudi men having several wives during the course of their lives is much more common than first meets the eye.
References:
Daily Telegraph article; http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=45BQVYBAZNEV1QFIQMGCFFWAVCBQUIV0?xml=/news/2007/07/16/wsaudi116.xml
The Times;
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article2141360.eceAnything & Everything Blog;
http://ballyblog.wordpress.com/2007/08/01/teenage-girl-faces-beheading-in-saudi-arabia/Sex Segregation in Islam;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_segregation_in_Islam#_note-13Polygamy in Saudi;
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-01-01-saudi-polygamy_x.htmOther sources used:
Wikipedia on Human Rights.
I had an absolutley gorgeous Saudi friend, whose husband was with the embassy here...obviously from a wealthy family, obviously well-educated, charming, polite, and gracious. She once had a coffee at her home to try to explain Saudi customs...and why it was such a good deal for women. She didn't get too far with us westerners. She had four or five children at the time and became pregnant (against her wishes) just before they were stationed to China. She left Spain in fear of her life because she would have to deliver the baby in a Chinese hospital...(full of infidels) and was hoping to return to Saudi to wait for the baby while her husband went to China. I have no idea what happened to her...I lost touch after she left. But, I adored her... I've had one or two other Saudi aquaintances here...most Saudi women with the embassy don't go out much...one of the reasons is that Spaniards keep dogs and are not at all good about cleaning up after them...so going out for a walk is almost impossible for them, as it is against their religion...it's unclean. Like all women, I long for the liberation of women all over the world. I wish we in the west set a better example with our liberty than we do. If all I were a Saudi Muslim woman, with Britany Spears and Paris Hilton as the only western women I was familiar with...I'd stay covered up and in the house, too.
Hi Anne... on what you have just shared I have to agree with you. I've not had as much opportunity to have open talk with Saudi women while here which is a huge shame. While Moon was with me I could have had the opportunity to visit a family home as a guest but unfortunately in those two weeks that she was here my closest Saudi colleagues were all on holiday.
I am aware that many Saudi women are comfortable in this lifestyle. It is the culture and religion that they've been brought up in. Even those Saudi wives who have had the opportunity to go abroad still feel that their way of life is fine and perfectly right.
The quality of family life in Saudi Arabia for many is in fact very good. The men do look after their wives very well indeed. And for many wives, being behind the veil is very comforting and secure. They feel very special having a body that is hidden from the world and that belongs only to the eyes of their husbands.
I wish I could have more opportunity to hear more from the Saudi women of how they really feel about their lives.
One thing I am sure of is that there are many women who hate the life they have to live in Saudi. For women who for whatever reason cannot be part of family life, and there are plenty of them, I think the situation can be extremely difficult for them.
Thank you so much for sharing this...for myself I know I would find it difficult to be there very long at all. I wish we could take some of the best parts of the many different cultures and put them all together. The life of a married woman there sounds like it has some positives; but the general lack of respect of women in general would be abhorrent to me and I would not feel safe there at all.
Power is a terrible thing to have over another human being. Each person should have their own power over their own lives and their own destiny, without being permitted to hurt anyone else of course. I have been a very lucky woman...living as I do at this point in history. The great evolution on women's rights, which started actually as a result of the industrial revolution, and gathered tremendous steam at the turn of the century, has allowed me to live well and pretty much as I wish. As this light of freedom shines brighter...eventually women living in the darkeness in oppressed societies will see it and want to bask in its warmth.
i am for sure that for me... there is not a job anywhere nor money to follow that would make me think that i needed to work, live, visit where you are...
this helps remind me that my part-time job, my crappy love-life, and my low job skills make me far more happier than any $$$$ i once thought could...
thanks for this blog-post!
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