Stop Whistling, Start Listening

Women’s rights in Saudi Arabia

It’s been a conflicting week of news in relation to women’s rights in Saudi Arabia. On Sunday King Abdullah announced that women would have the right to vote and stand for election in 2015. It’s a major reform and shouldn’t be dismissed, as women have fought hard for suffrage around the world. It’s an important right, both symbolically and practically as women can support candidates who are in favour of further reform, or can even stand themselves.

In practical terms though women’s lives in Saudi Arabia remain shockingly restrictive. Women must be accompanied by a designated male guardian whenever they leave the house. It is legal to beat disobedient women in a family and marital rape is not recognised. Women are also massively under-represented in employment and can only work in ‘suitable’ roles, such as teaching.

However, it is the driving ban which has been a focus of media attention in recent weeks. While there is no written law which bans women from driving, women are stopped by police and, if they refuse to sign a declaration promising they will stop driving, can be taken to court. in fact tonight BBC News are reporting that one such woman, known as Shema, has been sentenced to 10 lashes. Defying the ban and going to court is an attempt by many women to publicly challenge the law, but this case has resulted in a shockingly regressive sentence handed out to this woman for nothing more than independently going about her business.

Gaining the right to vote is significant, but King Abdullah is misguided in thinking that this will take attention away from all the day-to-day restrictions on women’s lives. It’s hard to believe that someone is truly in favour of reform when so little is changing on a practical level, leaving his moves appearing like nothing more than empty rhetoric. If King Abdullah is really serious about women participating more fully in public life, then they need to be able to go about their lives independent of the men who currently have total control over them.

 ***Updated 29th September 2011***

The woman who was sentenced to 10 lashes has now been named as Shaima Jastaina, and has since had her punishment overturned by the king. While this is brilliant news and I’m heartened that it came directly from the king, there are still no moves to end the driving ban itself and it’s worrying that the unusually strong sentence came so soon after the announcement of women’s voting rights. King Abdullah will need further action to ensure that there is no backlash to his announcement and that more conservative men in his society don’t try to clamp down further on women’s small freedoms.