Gender Inequality in Saudi Arabia

ALTSAQAFAH.ID – Saudi Arabia is known as the most socially conservative state, especially when it comes to controlling the women’s population (Gorney, 2016). The idea of ‘men above women’ has been ingrained in Saudi culture. This essay will discuss how gender inequality affects women in Saudi Arabia, focusing on domestic abuse and the freedom of women. It will then pose two possible solutions to deal with gender inequality, including abolishing the male guardianship system and loosening the religious police system. Finally, it will evaluate these solutions, finding that the best solution is to abolish the male guardianship system.

Every Saudi man is given the right to control a woman’s life from birth until death (Human Rights Watch, 2016). The problem associated with sexual discrimination is it restricts women to live normal lives. According to research by The UN Women, almost 40% of Saudi women have experienced domestic violence throughout their lives (UNwomen, n.d.). Several women activists started to bravely speak up, however, the Saudi government seems to have closed their ears.

Most of Saudi Arabia’s law and social construct are based on Wahhabi scholars, which is the most restrictive interpretation of Islam (Human Rights Watch, 2016). Although this has become the culture of Saudi, some people argued that this system needs to be reformed as it’s no longer relevant in today’s world. Some laws that specifically restrict women such as the Male’s guardianship system and ‘Mutawa’ or usually referred to as religious police are construed by the strict Islamic scholar. These systems are believed to be the centre of the problem of why gender inequality occurs (Human Rights Watch, 2016). Furthermore, as time passes, reformation to liberate the women’s movement will be a complex issue to be addressed due to social and cultural taboos (Aljarallah, 2020). This means reformation should be issued immediately to prevent more problems caused by gender inequality.

Firstly, gender discrimination in Saudi Arabia allows men to abuse women physically and psychologically. In other words, dozens of women in Saudi have endured domestic violence, to the point where it seems to be ‘normal’. According to the Ministry of social affairs, more than 8000 reports of domestic abuse in Saudi Arabia have been reported over the last 1 year (Human Rights Watch, 2019). This is mainly because, in Saudi, people believe that males have more power and are stronger than women. Most cases that contribute to the excessive numbers of domestic violence are caused by friction between females and their male relatives, mostly regarding basic women’s rights, such as education (Human Rights Watch, 2016). Moreover, seeking protection from the police is almost impossible due to complicated regulations such as they must have a guardian to file a report (The Week, 2020). As a result, Saudi women often tried to escape from their families. According to current research in 2017, there are over 1000 cases of women fleeing from the country every year. (Worley, 2017). They chose to seek protection in another country rather than live another year in an abusive household (Kasinof, 2019). This type of case has gone viral several times, which would not only make the people of Saudi resent their own homeland, but also the reputation of the country itself will seem awful. Therefore, gender inequality in Saudi Arabia needs to be overcome to stop violence toward women.

Secondly, gender inequality limits women to express themselves through fashion. The highly restrictive religious law and social taboo are the main reasons why women can’t wear any favourable clothes. For instance, Saudi women are banned to accessorize themselves as it’s considered provocative to men (The Week, 2020). This means women can’t even wear a single piece of make-up, nail polish, or even colourful clothes. Ironically, while women are only allowed to wear unappealing clothes, men are allowed to wear jeans, suits, and thobes, and be fashionable (Gorney, 2016). This law is clearly unfair and irrelevant in today’s world. Besides, women are highly disadvantaged by this law, as this allows abusers or rapists to victim-blame (McIntyre, 2020). This will result in a high number of crimes, which creates an unsafe environment for women. Therefore, it’s clear that discrimination toward women limits their appearance as if telling them that being pretty is a crime.

There are a few solutions that could possibly be taken by the government to prevent those problems caused by gender inequality. The first solution is for the government to loosen the male guardianship system. This means Saudi women should be given more chances to live without male involvement in their daily life. Many Saudi women have been demanding to abolish this system as it limits them to do basic activities. In 2018, Saudi women are finally permitted to drive by themselves without their guardian’s permission (Ngo, 2018). Adult women above 21 age are also legally allowed to travel by themselves (Said, 2019). This means, Saudi women can financially support themselves by working in a car service company such as Uber (Ngo, 2018). Due to this, female participation in the workforce has increased by 4.1% (Al Omran, 2020). Furthermore, this reform has opened many doors of opportunity for women and allows them to become independent (Al Omran, 2020). The implementation of these laws is that women are allowed to hold the accountability for themselves and therefore provide them more freedom to choose basic decisions without male entanglement. This belief is that by doing so, women will feel more empowered and less threatened by their guardians as they no longer have the power to control women’s life. Therefore, it is argued that by abolishing this law, gender equality will surely be achieved.

Another approach is for the Saudi Government to reform the Mutawa or religious police system. The existence of religious police has been unsettling, especially for women. Religious police or ‘morality police’ hold a responsibility to guide people to follow the strict Islamic law- which in this case, Wahhabi scholars. The official Saudi Press Agency has made a reform regarding this matter, after hearing dozens of complaints by Saudi women. The religious police are now required to be gentler and lenient towards people, especially women (BBC, 2016). This means they are no longer permissible to harshly force people to follow the Islamic rules. Moreover, the power to arrest people or harass women regarding their clothes is stripped away by the government (BBC, 2016; Financial Times, 2020). These moves are made in hoping to achieve more endurance as well as presenting the peaceful sides of Islam (Bashraheel, 2019). With the less restrictive ‘Mutawa’ system, changes are slowly noticeable in public places such as Riyadh. Saudi women became more confident in the outfit they wear as vail is now no longer compulsory, and they are now allowed to freely wear more variations of clothes (Al Omran, 2020). Although this matter is still considered taboo in Saudi, people should at least make progress towards equality. Thus, gender equality can be accomplished by loosening the religious police system.

Each solution is crucial and must be applied to achieve gender equality in society. Removing the male guardianship system would be an effective approach to stop gender discrimination, although it may take several years to be done. As mentioned by Dana Ahmed, the representative of Amnesty International, the centre of the problem that supports most gender discrimination is the male guardianship system (Foreign Policy, 2019). Nonetheless, there is a feasible drastic improvement in women’s status in recent years. For instance, according to the Arab Women Committee, the Saudi city of Riyadh is nominated as the capital of Arab women for 2020 (Arab News, 2020). Saudi women who smoke vape or shisha are normalized in Riyadh, which symbolises the liberation of women (El- Tabei, 2020). Moreover, according to the current research by Business Insider, public concerts and cinemas with mixed-gender environments are now legalized in Riyadh (Reynold, 2020). Many women from other cities and abroad are now seeing possibilities to migrate, some of them even willing to reinvent themselves and leave everything behind to live in Riyadh (Al Omra, 2020). The impact of this solution is significant, which even made the city more liveable. Despite all the positive impacts, Saudi people are still contemplating whether they are ready to embrace these amendments (Al Omra, 2020). Although the guardianship law is more lenient, certain decisions regarding marriage and divorce still require a male’s approval (McKernan, 2019). Besides, the government’s commitment to empowering women is still questionable as several women activists are still imprisoned (Ngo, 2018). Thus, completely abolishing the male guardianship system is certainly viable in the long term, with the support and participation of the government.

Secondly, changing the Saudi religious police system could be an effective solution. Religious police or also called the Committee for Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice have been quite lenient in recent years. Most feasible changes can be seen in Riyadh, where women now can wear more clothing and no Niqab or vail (El-Tabei, 2020). Moreover, in Jeddah, plenty of women openly wear colourful abayas and do fun activities such as picnics or cycling in public places (Reynold, 2020). Hence, not only making people more relaxed but loosening ‘Mutawa’ also creates a pleasant and peaceful environment in Jeddah. However, although many changes are made to the religious police system, the reality is social and cultural taboos seem to conquer everything. In 2019, ‘several Saudi women were legally arrested after their dancing videos went viral’ has become a piece of controversial news (Al Bawaba, 2019). Moreover, people who wore immodest clothing still can be detained due to violating “public decency” (AFP, 2019). This news obviously doesn’t match with the promises given by the government regarding changes made to the religious police. Thus, ‘freedom of Women’ might take several years to accomplish as the law seems to be stuck in the same old mindset of women.

In conclusion, this paper explored gender inequality in Saudi Arabia, along with the problems arising in the last decade. It has been discovered that the removal of the male guardianship system was the most effective method to decrease sexual discrimination. Although Saudi Arabia has successfully taken a step forward, there’s still a great deal to be done as those problems can’t be solved overnight. Therefore, the contribution and commitment of the government as well as the Saudi people matters. Hopefully, we can see significant changes in Saudi Arabia in the next five years.