Saudi Arabia and Disability - Term Paper Example

• Chapter Two- Research in Saudi Arabia and disability
  • • Introduction
  • However, the reality is very different from what should happen in practice and this chapter will also highlight the reality for many people with disabilities in the country.
  • In this chapter, we also discuss Saudi Arabia as a Muslim country and its restrictions on the working conditions and independence of women. Women face different challenges in carrying out their functions. A woman carrying out research for instance faces challenges while interviewing respondents and in general data collection and compiling.
    • A Brief about Saudi Arabia in general

Saudi Arabia is located in the Middle East, it borders the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. The country is ruled by an absolute monarchy. It is mainly a Muslim country and uses Arabic culture. Sharia laws are used in governing. Disability in Saudi Arabia is a great societal issue. It is estimated that 3.75% of its population has functional disabilities that limit their functionality and independence, ( Al-Gain & Al-Abdulwahab, 2001). We have different forms of disabilities that range from physical disability, visual impairment, hearing impairment, intellectual disability, and psychiatry disability among other types of disabilities. A disability in the Arab World is growing because of mainly three reasons: violence, poverty and malnutrition, and blood marriage (Kabbara, 2003). The practice of consanguineous marriages or blood marriages is the greatest contributor to disabilities in Saudi Arabia. Various employments and service provision programs to disables have been enacted in Saudi Arabia but more needs to be done.

• • • Saudi female Researcher situation in Saudi Arabia

Just like any other Arabic country, Saudi Arabia researchers face a number of limitations. For instance, body language differed in my case depending on gender. For example, shaking hands or any type of bodily contact between different genders is not common for religious reasons. However, the issue is slightly different with visually impaired people as people from different genders make physical contact with the visually impaired in order to guide them and this is accepted. Green and Thorogood (2004) point out the connection between eye contact and listening in an interview. In this research, however, this was not effective when interviewing visually impaired people and so was replaced with physical contact such as touching a hand on some occasions. Although male interviewees were not touched, the researcher had to guide people with disabilities ---both genders to the room allocated for the interview. Consequently, there was a need to lower the voice as a woman when talking to males, a common practice when women are talking to men in Muslim countries. As the ethics prescribed, it was necessary to pay attention to issues of dress and to dress differently in different places. For example, in the male-dominated areas, the researcher had to wear a cloak (‘abāya /data) and went without makeup.