Gender and Development Specifically in the Middle East - Literature review Example

By studying the initiative Bab Rizq Jameel (BRJ)1, and examining its underlying principles, rational accomplishments and goals, this study aims to examine its effects on power relations, decision-making and bargaining power in the household. This case study of microfinance in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia aspires to unfold an important and lacking dimension to the current debates surrounding gender and development in developing countries, particularly in relation to debates surrounding gender equality2 vs. . There have been continual debates on whether microfinance can be considered as a saviour to poverty-stricken women from oppression and gendered inequalities or whether having access to micro-financial resources can empower women economically and socially.

‘Studies generally suggest the poorest seldom benefit from microcredit, while the middle and upper poor benefit the most (Maclsaac, 1997). This doesn’t apply to the case in Saudi Arabia because the BRJ scheme is a charity-based approach that is Shari'ah compliant (offering interest-free loans). There is a debate about whether microfinance can help promote gender equality vs. gender equity. (See footnotes 2 & 3 for the difference) In the case of Saudi Arabia, gender equality would be an ideological scenario, given the religious, cultural and traditional framework in which their impoverished women operate.

Gender equity is more of an attainable goal in this context. Furthermore, there are heated debates surrounding the issue of microfinance being regarded as a tool to facilitate women’s empowerment. A recent study in Bangladesh concluded that microfinance politically, ‘does not directly challenge any official views that subjugate women, nor that any hard evidence was found to prove that microcredit credit promotes empowerment or supports women’s liberation ’ (Faraizi et al., 2011). This study is particularly useful to this research because in many ways Saudi Arabia shares commonalities with the religious framework in Bangladesh; where Islamists in high positions of power officially subscribe to unequal rights for women.

Whereby, any contrasting, disparate voices against the patriarchal dominant voice are silenced. (Faraizi et al., 2011) In the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, women are treated as second-class citizens and are chiefly oppressed by the laws and constraints imposed on them. There are also traditions and customs some of which are internalized -even naturalized- that give rise to gendered inequalities that are produced and reinforced through ‘relationships that are intrinsically gendered’ within the household. (Kabeer, 2011)
This study being the vanguard of research in gender and development through microfinance in Saudi Arabia, made it appropriate to start from the grassroots, the household. In Saudi Arabia, the household is the core institution where the female clients spend most of their time. It is where gender-related rigidities and inequalities are produced and reproduced (Kabeer, 1994).