By Christine Humphreys, AW Surrey
Women are now practising new freedoms in Saudi Arabia. Traditionally draped in their hijabs, Saudi women’s rights have been limited as compared to its neighbouring countries.
At an Arab women’s event at the CSW62 in New York, I took the empty seat next to a Saudi participant who introduced himself as a journalist. I had a conversation with him and I said to him that it would be good to see changes for gender equality in Saudi, as women face so many constraints, eg. women should not be sitting next to men nor exercising their rights in family affairs and indeed in public matters.
It is clear, we women need to speak up to achieve gender parity in proposing policy changes for Human Rights, Justice and Freedom with peaceful negotiations.
Today, we hear the good and positive voices of women’s expressions in Saudi as they promote peaceful negotiations for their future, focussing on women’s rights and empowerment and policy changes on family issues. Here are some of the new changes.
1. Women were not allowed to drive but can drive today without being chaperoned.
2. Women needed approvals from guardians to travel but now they have freedom.
3. Women graduates now represent a greater percentage compared to men in education.
4. Women are now allowed in the workforce and their empowerment is helping to diversify the economy and overcome the country’s recent economic loss in the oil industry.
5. Women now have voting seats and representation in National Legislation.
6. Women have social freedom to mix with men in sports and at concerts and the separation of single men from family sections in restaurants has been scrapped. In my days in Arabia, I was at a grand Arab wedding feast where we women had to gather in separate quarters from the men and never the two sides should meet.
7. Women now have their maternal rights to register the birth of their children.
8. The Mutawas or religious police are no longer on the streets. They were allowed to hit women with a stick to enforce conservative Islamic norms of public behaviour.
When I was an expatriate woman living in the very conservative Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for 11 years, I had to submit myself to the local laws and regulations. I was challenged on a few occasions and feared being victimised as a woman. This included times of conflict during Gulf War 2 and when left alone when my husband had to travel on business. Thank goodness, I did escape the terror attack in our compound which happened just after I left for England in 2003.
These are indeed milestone achievements for Saudi women and I am so pleased that my women friends who are living in Saudi today are embracing the new freedoms.