Are the women of Saudi Arabia ready for change?

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:44

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of the most conservative states in the world. Here, strict segregation of women is observed, mainly outside the walls of the house. Women in Saudi Arabia have very limited rights. This is due to the great influence of religious leaders and the peculiarities of the country's laws based on Islamic law.

The life of a woman in Saudi Arabia

Every adult resident of the Kingdom is required to have a guardian - a close male relative. Without the consent of their guardians, women in Saudi Arabia are unable to travel, obtain business licenses, work, attend college or university. Education is allowed only in a female environment, male teachers can communicate with students only on internal television.

Even in cases where the consent of the guardian is not required by law,power structures turn to him for permission. Without the permission of a husband or guardian, women in the welfare state are not provided with medical care. There are no laws prohibiting violence against women in the country, but there are a great many legislative norms enshrining the dominant position of men. So, men enjoy the right to have several wives at the same time, to divorce them unilaterally, without putting forward legal justifications. For the fairer sex, obtaining a legal divorce is fraught with great difficulties. A female heir may claim a half share of the inheritance as a male heir. Residents of the country do not have the right to drive a car. They are required to cover their face, hair and wear an abaya - a long black dress that hides the figure.

Conservative men agree to more rights for women in Saudi Arabia

In 2011, King Abdullah issued a decree allowing women to vote in municipal elections. Moreover, the country's women have been granted the right to sit on the Royal Advisory Council, which previously consisted exclusively of men.

Undoubted progress has also been made in sports: in the summer of 2012, for the first time in history, two women from Saudi Arabia participated in the Olympic Games (photo). In April 2013, the news of the new generosity of the men of the Kingdom spread around the world. They allowed their ladies to ride bicycles and motorcycles, but introduced a number of restrictions. First, Saudi women cannotride without the accompaniment of her husband or other male person who is related to her. Secondly, you can ride only along the cycle paths of parks and in other specially designated places located as far as possible from places where men gather. Finally, the last restriction: women in Saudi Arabia can ride a bicycle or motorcycle only wrapped from head to toe in the national dress - abaya. It remains to be added that the observance of these rules is monitored by the religious police, which suppresses any attempts to violate the canons of Islam.

Despite some reforms to some extent improving the legal status of Saudi women, discrimination continues to exist. The stability of Islamic customs and traditions does not allow us to hope for an early progressive change in the situation of the Saudi Arabian women, which does not correspond well to modern legal norms that fix the status of the fair sex in the field of international law.