Amira Kashgary comes from Taif, a nearby mountain city. She was born to a middle-class family and came to Jeddah to study. After the death of her father, her mother soon joined her in Jeddah. At the time many of Taif’s citizens moved to Jeddah since job opportunities in the lively seaside city, the second largest in Saudi Arabia, differed greatly from those in quiet Taif, a tourist destination known for its fresh and pleasant climate. Amira graduated in Jeddah, but completed her Masters and a PhD at California’s famous Stanford University. After returning from the United States, she taught linguistics and translation techniques at the King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah where she was also a researcher. She is now an associate professor at this university.
She considers herself lucky since she was born to a broadminded family, was able to travel freely and do what she wished. She is happy with her large family’s level of education and has four brothers and five sisters all of whom have degrees. She is married to a former professor from her university who is now an entrepreneur and has always supported her.
Amira says that when she returned from the United States, she immediately became involved in social activism, which she immediately started to link to her work. She has fought for women’s rights and social change in Saudi Arabia. Since 2001 she has been writing about these issues for Saudi Arabia’s most progressive daily newspaper Al-Watan. This daily, often subjected to disciplinary measures imposed by the authorities, “asked” very soon Amira and another well-known female journalist, Amal Zahid, to stop publishing their articles for a while. According to Rob L. Wagner, managing editor of the English-language daily newspaper Arab News published in Jeddah, Amira has effectively been forbidden from publishing anything. Amira and Amal allegedly overstepped the limit due to their stand in favour of democratic reform. They also signed an appeal requesting that Saudi Arabia become a constitutional monarchy. For those ruling the country, the most difficult thing to accept is the request to give citizens political rights. It is for this very reason that arrests and imprisonments are frequent and often imposed without a trial and for very long periods.
In October 2010 the daily newspaper Al-Watan lost its editor-in-chief, Jamal Khashoggi who was known for being a “daring” editor-in-chief. His motto was “no fear, no favouritisms.” He had been obliged to resign from the same newspaper in 2003 just two months after being appointed for criticising Islamic extremists. I had met a number of Al-Watan’s journalists in 2002 when others of them were in prison.
In Saudi Arabia the issue concerning the condition of women has a clear political meaning. It is a central issue in the internal struggle for power. On one hand there are those who believe in the reforms started by King Abdullah and would like to see even greater change, while on the other there are those who think that even the smallest change would lead a “sinful” country straight to hell and into the arms of the devil.
According to Amira, life itself is a challenge in Saudi Arabia, but life as a woman is an even greater one. Furthermore, there are the problems posed by social activism and a desire to express one’s opinions in the press. All in all she is satisfied with her life. Her grown-up children, who live in the United States, ask her why she does not move there. Amira says that she could have settled in America but never thought she would stay. “Saudi Arabia is my homeland. I am happy to be here because I am a large fish in a small pond, while in the United States I would be a small fish in a big pond.”
Amira’s daughter has lived in the United States, but now, influenced by her mother’s enthusiasm, she has returned to Saudi Arabia. She does not like today’s Saudi Arabia and therefore she has joined the youth movement to change the country. Two thirds of Saudi Arabians are under the age of 25 and the young know that the future is theirs. The NGO founded by Amira’s daughter is active in many sectors and also organises theatrical performances satirical of political and social phenomena.
All her life Amira has faced challenges in the hope that one day society will change. She has found other women who share her objectives and they too have set up an non-governmental organisation.
Maha Akeel, is forty years old and studied for many years in the United States where she graduated in Communications Science, Marketing and Women’s Studies. She is divorced and “luckily” she says, she has no children. If there had been children, divorce would have been a problem. Maha is the managing editor of the magazine published by the Islamic Conference, which has its headquarters in Jeddah. Before that she worked as a journalist for the daily newspaper Arab News, for which she occasionally still writes.
The third woman I met was 50-year-old Amal Zaid, who like Amira has been forbidden from writing, and was once a housewife. A little over ten years ago, she started to write short stories, inspired by her old passion for literature. With six children and a traditionalist Saudi husband, she was obliged to concentrate on family life, and, since her husband would not have approved of her work as an author, for some years she was obliged to write in secret and published her work under the name Amal Abdullah (Abdullah is the first name of her father).
One day, Amal decided to tell her husband about her writing and presented him with a choice; he could either accept her for what she was, or they would divorce. The battle between Amal and her husband lasted three years and in the end her husband surrendered. “Writing changed my life, because now I have found myself. For two decades I worried I would no longer be capable of writing.” Amal had planned to publish her stories as a book, but in March 2011 she was forbidden from writing and this forced her to reflect on her position.
In March 2011, a United Arab Emirates newspaper reported on the publishing ban imposed on Amira Kashgary and Amal Zaid, explaining that Saudi conservatives had criticised on-line the publication of the stand assumed by the two journalists. In their opinion it was anti-Islam for women to publicly expose themselves in the press and express their opinions about world events.
On the website for the young called Saudi Jeans there is an article dated November 1, 2008, about Amal’s work and advises people to read what she has published. The article entitled The hypocrisy of the Saudis and the strengthening of women’s status states that Amal Zaid is a journalist and author who is well known in Saudi Arabia, and is the president of the Medina women’s literary club as well as writing for the Al-Watan “in the pages of which authors with an inclination for liberalism bring a breath of fresh air to the social debate.” Saudi Jeans quotes the work of Amal addressing the hypocrisy of the organisation of the religious police responsible for the morality of Saudi citizens. The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vices, the so-called mutawwa, the religious police, believes that many Saudis lead a double life. At times, even those who are religious, conservative and respectful of society’s official rules, lead a secret second life, often abroad and characterised by unrestrained and often extreme behaviour.
The article is followed by a very lengthy debate, a real battle of conflicting opinions. Conservatives believe that freedom makes women “prostitutes” with children born out of wedlock and therefore women’s freedom would result in society losing its morality. “When mothers are not at home, society is filled with people enslaved to drugs, because even a small degree of women’s emancipation results in a great catastrophe,” they say. Others instead reject these predictions and remember that women are human beings. The website reports both on the social debate that influences these committed women, whether or not they manage to have their articles published by daily papers or online websites. Saudi Jeans in fact also speaks of articles by Amal Zahid that have not been published but quickly circulated online.
The fourth woman sitting with me in the hotel hall is Suhair Farahat, also a university professor who writes for the reformist newspaper Okaz. Suhair has studied educational programming and administration. She studied in Saudi Arabia because she was married at the age of 16 to an officer from a military family. Her family comes from Mecca, as does her husband’s, but her mother came from Egypt. In spite of having six children, she managed to complete her studies. After graduating she found a job at the university and started to write for the newspaper Okaz, but her husband found that excessive and obliged her to stay at home and look after their children. They divorced, but now, following a long period of negotiations they are back together again. Her husband believes he has won a difficult battle and that he has obtained what he wanted, but so does Suhair. She is now free to do as she wishes and her husband encourages her to write and take part in debates, speaking openly about their country’s problems.
In 2008, Arab News reported Suhair’s demands for improving the position of women in the labour market. At the time, Suhair was attending Saudi Arabia’s national forum where the debate concerned the labour market and social problems.*
At the forum on the labour market, Suhair proposed that the retirement age for women should be raised from 55 to 60 and that mothers experiencing domestic problems should work shorter hours. She demanded that Saudi women should have the right to work part-time and maternity leave (in Saudi Arabia there is never talk of parental leave), in addition to the current 40-day “abstaining from work” due to maternity. At this same event, more conservative women asked for a total separation of the genders to be applied to all work places as happens in schools. This request came following a statement a day earlier by the Ministry of Justice explaining that women and man working in the same place poses no problem if women wear the hijab and their virtue is guaranteed.
The organisation of other women’s national campaigns
Amal believes that Saudi Arabia’s codified political system cannot supervise everything and therefore thinks that the king’s attitude, as far as certain issues are concerned, is extremely important. The king and his daughter, Adelah, are in favour of reform and yet the condition of Saudi women is still appalling. Women there have been fighting for two decades for the right to drive cars, but a decision is always postponed. The battle has revealed more than others the conflict between religious conservatives and liberals, but the government has not yet decided who to side with on this issue, fearful, above all, of the political consequences of a decision that will inevitably result in a great deal of controversy from one side or the other.
According to Amira, however, women should press the government and that is what they did in 2011, when on June 17 a number of brave women sat behind the steering wheel and drove their cars in various parts of the country. The campaign for the right to drive was a more or less successful attempt by Saudi women to become an influential power in the country and succeeded in attracting the attention of international opinion.
Activist Manal Al-Sharif began to demand driving licences from the transport department. Her campaign encouraged many other women to do the same and now dozens of requests for driving licences have been presented by women and await a legitimate reply. The transport department gave a negative reply, although there is no law in Saudi Arabia that forbids women from driving. The current ban is only an interpretation by the authorities.
The weaknesses of women: brain washing, fear and individualism
According to Maha, women are still not able to work as group, although individually they do work and are very productive. “We must learn to join forces and create an organisation that protects the interests of women. We also need someone to direct women’s activities. Amira’s work is known as is that of Amal, Suhair and my own, but although we share the same objectives, we work as individuals,” said Maha.
A few years ago these four women tried to create an organisation of female writers, to unite all those writing for newspapers or working in the media, but were unable to obtain authorisation. They did, however, manage to organise a course, teaching participants the basics of self-organisation. For two years they tried to obtain authorisation from the Ministry for Communications, which, however, did not consider it was competent in this field and passed the request on to the Ministry for Social Affairs and Activities. The answer provided by the state to so many NGOs has discouraged activists, although they have not yet given up all hope of registering their organisation. Without authorisation it is very risky to carry out any kind of activity in Saudi Arabia. According to Maha, Saudi women should learn from the experiences of women in Qatar and Kuwait who pursue their governments with far more force and determination. She believes that Saudi women should also be prepared to accept very serious sacrifices, even as harsh as imprisonment, if they intend to accomplish change.
According to Amira, Saudi women have been instilled with a great deal of fear, while in other countries in the region women have freed themselves of many fears. Suhair remembers that, for example, women in Kuwait have obtained the support of political organisations and the government, while in Saudi Arabia they operate almost alone. Amal believes that the Saudi people do not want significant change. The law treats women as ‘minors,’ obliging them to have a male relative as a tutor, (a father, a brother, a husband or a son) a mahram who accompanies them everywhere, which for the more progressive women is a profound humiliation. Maha criticises activists and women’s group because this is a phenomenon that is not often discussed. “How can we even imagine we will be allowed to travel alone, drive a car, run for election or vote if we need the permission of a male relative to do anything? How can we lead a team at work that includes male workers when we cannot even tell our male children what to do. On the contrary, they are the ones who decide what we are permitted to do.”
Women are the victims of an Islam frozen in time
Saudi Arabia’s official Islam is like a product placed in the freezer a thousand years ago and that must now be followed as it stands. I asked the four activists to express an opinion on this subject.
Maha believes there are two “types” of Islam that interfere with the lives of women. Political Islam and Islam bound to just one interpretation. “These two Islams try to obstruct change and reform in all Muslim societies; in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt and in other countries. And yet, there is no one single interpretation of Islam and Islam has no provisions for political activities. Islam is a way of life and everyone is permitted to live according to the rules of Islam in a manner they consider right. There are various schools of thought in Islam, many schools, and they spread everywhere during the almost 14 centuries that followed the time of the Prophet. The real problem is that in our society Islam is controlled by just one school of thought, which wants to oblige the others to adapt to its interpretation of Islam. Women are the primary victims of this interpretation, because all the most conservative interpretations of the verses of the Koran are applied to them.”
Maha mentions in particular the Koran’s Verse 34 of the sura on “Women”: “Men are in charge of women by [right of] what Allah has given one over the other and what they spend [for maintenance] from their wealth” (translated into Italian by Gabriele Mandel Khan, UTET, 2006). The Finnish researcher and expert on Arab affair, Sylvia Akar (Ihmisoikeudet ja islam, by Kriina Kouros and Susan Villa, Like, 2004, p. 166) believes that this verse means, men are the protectors/tutors of women. Akar believes that those who interpret the Koran in a progressive manner think that the verse means that woman have the right to rely on a man’s help and that men have the duty to support their wives.
Maha Akeel agrees with this interpretation, on the basis of which a man must take suitable care of his wife. That is in fact the manner in which most translators and reformers understand those words. “For this reason we fight to eliminate the conservative interpretation. We think that the government is preparing something on this subject. Unfortunately, no clear public decision has been made so far. Rendering this public would also send a direct message to the international community regarding the government’s intention to open a debate and allow various interpretations. Here one is not allowed to abandon the old-style Salafite perspective on the basis of which one must follow to the letter whatever the Koran or the Prophet’s traditions establish. Furthermore, we must apply these words of the Prophet to our lives.”
Maha’s explanation is also very important because she works for the former Islamic Conference, which is now called the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and has its headquarters in Jeddah. This organisation was once controlled by Saudi Arabia, but now things are changing. Since 2005 the organisation has been directed by a Turk, Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, a former university professor and a diplomat. On its website the organisation states that the period under the present Secretary General is characterised by a desire to reform the organisation and its ideas.
I talked to the four activists about the interpretation provided by the Iranian Grand Ayatollah Jussuf Sane’i, who believes that the Sunnis originally interpreted that verse mistakenly. The Grand Ayatollah, who is close to Iranian reformists, believes that it is not possible to find in the Koran and in Islamic tradition any statement establishing that women should in any way be placed in a position inferior to men.
According to Suhair, the status of women in Saudi Arabia is linked to Islam, but she believes that Islam was once a religion open to women. The problem in her opinion is not Islam, but those who apply these rules to life and above all the manner in which they do it. In divorce cases, for example, there are judges in Saudi Arabia who abandon women to their destiny and rule that an extremely wealthy man must give only 500 rials (a little over 100 euro) a month to the woman who takes care of their children. Another problem is the fact that women must wait ten years for a decree absolute and Amal adds that divorce is perceived almost exclusively as a man’s right.
Suhair mentions that marriage is actually a contract between a man and a woman and that both are needed to rescind the contract. In practice, in today’s Saudi Arabia Islam is applied in a manner that answers the needs of the men who are in power. Men believe that should they behave differently, they would lose the power to supervise women. “I seriously approve of Islam and its rules because Islam has many beautiful rules and respects women,” adds Suhair. She means that when Islam is correctly interpreted it is more favourable to women than in the official interpretation currently followed in Saudi Arabia, which according to many women is inspired by tribal culture rather than by Islam itself.
Amal reminds us that before Islam women were not taken into consideration and totally subject to the power of men, and that it was only after the advent of Islam that they started to obtain many rights. However, after the first three centuries, the so-called ijtihad – the possibility to address new interpretations better suited to the historical context – was abandoned in the Sunni world. With the help of the ijtihad, it would have been possible to “update” Islam. Amal believes that “freezing” Islam was linked to the idea that imposing rigorous discipline on women was a way of controlling the whole of society.
Maha instead thinks that women themselves were brainwashed, which led them to believe that the conservative interpretation of Islam is the only one possible and that women must obey their husbands whatever they may decide. She emphasises that many women are not aware of the rights that Islam gives them and that schools in Saudi Arabia do not tell girls about them. She adds that when women are not aware of their rights, they cannot be aware of their position nor understand the meaning of rights. They are not able to be proud of the fact that they are women, adds Suhair. “Our women do not believe in themselves, because starting at a very young age, little girls are told they are worth less than men and that their only role in life is to serve men. It is the duty of women who are aware to teach younger girls how to abandon these beliefs.”
In spite of their pessimism, my interlocutors think that in a couple of decades significant progress really has been made. In the past no woman could show her face in newspapers or on television. Among all the women they know, only one has never shown her face in public. But they consider themselves ready for change, although they worry about their families’ reaction.
In Jeddah change can be sensed in many ways, even in the way women dress. In Riyadh one rarely sees a Saudi women without her black hijab, while in Jeddah women use a broad range of colours. Amira said that in her free time she never wears a black hijab, but is wearing one now because she has been at work. Amira’s friends are wearing blue, dark red and rust coloured hijabs. The women in Jeddah rebel against compulsory dress codes.
Islam’s official representatives in Saudi Arabia (The Senior Council of Ulema), a council of wise men belonging to the Wahabi clergy, has given no sign indicating a change of rules. When the Labour Ministry decided that women could work as cashiers at supermarkets, the council condemned this decision issuing a fatwa stating that work done by women is sinful and therefore forbidden if done in a public place where men are also present. Many women had already started to work, but were obliged to return home although at a later date they resumed their jobs. Conservative Saudi Arabia fears that the decisions on women working may threaten society’s stability.
In a separate meeting I asked other women to tell if they think that the religion should be separated from the state in Saudi Arabia. Some believe that it would be a good idea, because it would allow everyone to behave according to their own ideas and would pave the way for religious freedom of which there is no sign in Saudi Arabia. Such a separation would be a way of protecting religions and putting an end to the conflict between the various religions and schools of thought. “When religion is separated from politics, everyone has more freedom,” says one of the women.
Many Saudis consider the separation between the state and religion and secularism as atheism, and since atheism is forbidden, it is risky to even discuss such matters in Saudi Arabia. Even the word ‘liberal’ must be used cautiously in this country. The woman who spoke more bravely about these things believes that religion should remain a private matter. These women have great respect for religions, but no one has the right to dictate what one drinks, eats or how one dresses, because these are strictly personal matters. The arrival of such freedom is still a long way off In Saudi Arabia.
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* Saudi Arabia’s national forum meets now and again to debate various problems. It was set up in 2003 when a more liberal atmosphere came to Saudi Arabia. At the time Crown Prince Abdullah, the current king, created this forum also as a reaction to various attacks carried out by Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia. One of the forum’s main objectives is to address the vast problem posed by religious extremism that exists in Saudi Arabia. One of the most important events was the meeting between the religious leader of Saudi Arabia’s Shiite minority, Hassan Al-Saffar, and representatives of the Sunni clergy to discuss the subject of national unity. The fight against fanaticism and extremism was discussed at the next meeting while women’s rights were discussed at the third.
Translated by Francesca Simmons