The Plight of Women in Saudi Arabia

There are several injustices, issues, and hurdles facing the women of Saudi Arabia today. In the year 2011 women are not treated equally, they are not treated fairly in this society. Over the next few blog posts I will try to organize and explain how this is so, and hopefully how it is also changing.

Personally, how do I feel being a western woman captive in a society so freely exercising human rights infringements against my sex? Shitty and thankful. Thankful that I know when I return home I will have all my freedoms back, instantly, no questions asked. Shitty because I see how this society is keeping the women in a place not equal to the other sex.

There are so many unfair rules of engagement. Men can do whatever they want. Women can not go out in public without being covered. They cannot leave the country without the written permission of their guardian.  (For all intents and purposes the hospital is my guardian, saying when I can and cannot leave). Women cannot work in the presence of men for fear of seducing them with their womanly ways and distracting them from their jobs, and of course the woman are the only seductress and temptress in this situation. They cannot drive and they cannot vote. Sometimes when I look at these women swishing down the hallway or around at a store they seem like a black shadow. Do they know they could have more? Do they feel this is unfair? Is it religious? Cultural?

I have been here for about 8 months only and even I can feel myself changing and having a different perspective. I think when I first came it was all very new, exciting and different. I was quicker to accept the difference as differences in cultures. But now I feel more and more strongly that this is not fair and this is not right. Women are not treated fairly at all. I'm not really even talking about the abaya, covering. It is much much deeper than that, it is lack of freedom (voting, driving, guardianship, working, etc.). Recently I saw a picture on a news site of a woman in a blue burqa in Afghanistan, and my first thought was “BLUE! How very liberal Afghanistan must be!!!” What?!! Afghanistan liberal? Wait a minute, here I was thinking because they can wear a different color than black the women of Afghanistan must be liberated more than the black clad women of Saudi Arabia. Oh a year of learning and exploring in thought and culture.

Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, where I live is apparently the strictest of all the cities in the Kingdom. I met a couple of coworkers who are Saudi women (women and men can work together in the hospital) and they are from Jeddah and Dammam (the 2^nd and 3^rd largest cities in KSA). When they arrived to Riyadh to start working they were going through culture shock. Shocked by the strictness of this city and the lack of outlets, particularly for Saudi nationals. Both these women said they felt suffocated and out of place in Riyadh, wishing to return to their home cities or more normalcy. Nearly all Saudi women in Riyadh cover their faces. There is not really anywhere to go for women (except the shopping malls). There are no parks or beaches here like the other towns have. Side note, geography lesson: Riyadh is in the middle of the country, middle of the desert; Jeddah is on the Red Sea; Dammam is on the Persian Gulf. So it is interesting to me to hear that women who spent their entire lives in this country were just as shocked by the strictness of Riyadh.

Another interesting fact I have noticed since I've been flying in and out of Riyadh fairly often. As soon as you leave Riyadh and arrive at a new destination it seems a transformation has occurred. Women are no longer covered, showing their faces or even off with the abayas all together. It seems to be an inconsistency of values. But let me tell you, I am for sure one of the many high flying transformations, but again covering isn't one of my values, I am only another lady following the rules, or grudgingly trying.