Essay On Gender Roles In Saudi Arabia

- Saudi Arabia was ranked 127th out of 136 countries for gender parity by the World Economic Forum 2013 Global Gender Gap Report.

- Gender roles in Saudi society come from Sharia (Islamic law). Islamic law (sharia) is based on the Quran and hadith (teachings of Prophet Muhammad). In Saudi culture, the Sharia is interpreted according to a strict Sunni form known as the way of the Salaf (righteous predecessors) or Wahhabism. The law is mostly unwritten, leaving judges with significant discretionary power which they usually exercise in favor of tribal traditions.

- "It's the culture, not the religion," is a Saudi saying.[19] At least according to some (Library of Congress) customs of the Arabian peninsula also play a part in women's place in Saudi society. The peninsula is the ancestral home of patriarchal, nomadic tribes, in which separation of

women and men and namus (honour) are considered central.
- Saudis often invoke the life of Prophet Muhammad, to prove that Islam allows strong women.

His first wife, Khadijah, was a powerful businesswoman who employed him and then initiated the marriage proposal on her own.[23] Another wife, Aisha commanded an army at the Battle of Bassorah and is the source of many hadiths.[24][25] Muhammad ended female infanticide and established the first rights for women in Arab culture. He reportedly told Muslim men, "You have rights over your women, and your women have rights over you."[26]

- A 2007 Gallup poll found that 66% of Saudi women and 55% of Saudi men agreed that women should be allowed to drive.[35] Moreover, that same poll found that more than 8 in 10 Saudi women (82%) and three-quarters of Saudi men (75%) agree that women should be allowed to hold any job for which they are qualified outside the home.

- Under Saudi law, all females must have a male guardian (Wali), typically a father, brother or husband (a mahram). Girls and women are forbidden from traveling, conducting official business, or undergoing certain medical procedures without permission from their male

guardians.
- An example of the importance of permission: A July 2013 case, where King Fahd hospital in Al Bahah postponed amputating a critically injured women's hand because she had no male legal guardian to authorize the procedure. Her husband had died in the same car crash that left her and her daughter critically injured.
- Saudi officials continue to refuse to register political or human rights groups, leaving members subject to prosecution for “setting up an unregistered organization.” Saudi officials did not pass a long-awaited associations law in 2014, leaving Saudi citizens with no legal avenue to set up non-charity nongovernmental organizations.
- In February, a member of the Senior Council of Scholars, the highest state body for the interpretation of Islamic law, issued a fatwa stating that women are not allowed to visit a male doctor without their male guardians. They are not allowed to expose parts of the body with the exception of a medical emergency. All women remain banned from driving in Saudi Arabia.
- In a welcome move in April, the Shura Council, Saudi Arabia’s highest consultative body, directed the Education Ministry to study the possibility of introducing physical education for girls in Saudi public schools, which, if enacted, would end the longstanding ban on sports for girls.