Women And Empowerment In The Arab World - Research Paper Example

Women And Empowerment In The Arab World In most countries around the world the image of a women zooming past you in a car is nothing to care about, but if you’re in Saudi Arabia, you will not even have the chance to see such an image because of the simple fact the Saudi Arabian women are not allowed to drive. Saudi Arabia is a patriarchal country which is administered by the holy laws of Islam and the Sharia laws lays down strict rules and restrictions for the women of the society. Some rules are fair enough and may be respected but outrageous laws such as that of a woman being not allowed to drive is not something that most modern people would agree with. I believe that the world cannot advance with men alone because women are equally, if not more, important to the advancement of the world and the right to something as basic as driving should not even be a matter of controversy. However, Government policies also forbid women to drive and to board airplanes alone without written permission from a male relative (Doumato, 2000). My stand on the argument is not based simply based on an activist point of view because I also believe that by allowing women to drive, the country will become economically stable and even protect its resources. Driving is an adult right in most countries but the Saudi women are denied that right which shows the existence of gender bias in the country. In spite of protests from Saudi women themselves, driving remains a taboo for women. Though few women had the courage to demonstrate an act of civil disobedience and flouted the ban, nothing much came out of it because they were either arrested or punished. The Shura Council, a powerful Islamic religious body in Saudi Arabia conducted a study and has reported that if women were allowed to drive, the rates of divorce, prostitution and drug abuse would go up. Academics belonging to the Shura Council have even stated that “if the ban is lifted, there will be no virgins left in the Islamic state.” However, no statistics or proofs to support the claim were presented. According to BBC middle East news , most men in Arabia have this notion that if the if the Government gives into the demands of the activists asking for the right for the women to drive, it is very much possible that a few years later they would drop their veils and slip into mini-skirts in a process of aping the West (BBC news 2011) and that their beliefs are rooted in Islam alone but a certain group of people especially those Arabians who live in foreign countries also believe that such denial of women’s rights is rooted in the hegemony of social practices, dubbed by many as customary laws or traditions, rather than rooted in Islamic essence (Arebi,1994, p.217). They completely ignore the fact that foreign drivers who are employed to drive the women around may even be harmful for the women. Most Saudi Arabian homes where the male members are too busy to escort the women, hire foreign drivers to do so without considering the possible consequences. Rape, murder and even abduction cases may rise if the drivers are not of a good moral conduct. Again, most of these drivers may even abuse drugs or drink alcohol which may harm their driving ability and this obviously poses a threat to the women who may have to face road accidents because of rash driving. But, in case the women were allowed to drive around by themselves such problems and situations would pose no threat at all. Since it a rule that women must be accompanied by men whenever they are travelling it is obviously impossible for a woman to go out whenever she feels like such that even in case of any emergency the women need to wait for a male member to arrive first. The ban is perhaps a way of limiting mobility of females. The work force of Saudi Arabia is really small and has been estimated as ranging between 20 and 30% of the Arab population as compared to more than 50% in the developing world (Hijab, 1989). In fact the percentage of women working outside the home, according to the 1999 census, is five per cent and these women are in the teaching and health sectors (Shukri, 1999, p.28). Even after being educated and trained women do not enjoy the privilege of working outside their houses. Women in Saudi Arabia are not allowed to work in certain professional fields however since education is on the rise and girls in the Islamic nations are also receiving proper education it is possible that there will be more women professionals. In my opinion a professional women should be able to drive themselves to work instead of burdening a male member. For example, if a woman serves as a doctor and is called in for an emergency service, the present ban on driving would not let her fulfill her Hippocrates oath in case a male member is not present to assist her. Owing to driving and mobility problems women may even give up their professions which will may have a negative impact on the family economy. Women in Saudi Arabia are making a growing impact on the economy. About 10% of private businesses in the kingdom are now thought to be run by women, compared with hardly any a generation ago and the economy may be further boosted if the women were allowed free mobility so as to pursue business or other works. Empowerment of women is a global issue and in most countries women enjoy equal positions. Equality boosts the self confidence of women which paves the way for an advanced society. Though the Saudi Arabian government has stated time and again to about granting equal rights to women too, no such activity has ever taken place. At least 10% of Saudi women hold an international driving license but once they return to the country the license is of no further use. These educated women who have had so far seen how women enjoyed freedom to movement are often left helpless. Such women lose their self confidence and are forced to become dependent on the male members of the family. The government must understand that when it promises equality to both men and women, allowing women to drive is a very basic right. Allowing women to drive will not only empower the women of the Islamic society but will also helps the state economy in a number of ways. Firstly, one should be aware that Saudi Arabia is not a very rich country and minimum wage in the state is nothing commendable. Hiring a foreign driver especially for the women can be really costly because most of these drivers are kept on a 24-hour basis which means that the employers need to pay for the quarters and the food. Thus the entire cost burden that includes air fare, visa tax, medical clearance, insurance, quarter furnishings, and quarter electricity bill must be borne by the employers on top of paying the driver his monthly salary. If the woman of the household is a working woman, almost all of her month’s salary is used up paying for the driver. If the women were allowed to drive, there would be no need of foreign drivers in the country. This means that the extra cost of all the things involved in hiring a driver would be gone and the financial state of the family would be sounder. Another great advantage of letting women drive is the significant conservation of resources of the country. Water is one of the most precious and a rare resource in Saudi Arabia, since it is a desert country with no rivers, lakes or fresh water bodies. The country faces acute shortage of natural fresh water and thus each and every drop is really precious to the country. Some 95% of water comes from aquifers. Desalination plants and waste water reclamation projects provide about 4% and 1% water respectively. About 30% of the water for household consumption comes from desalinating plants ( Zahrani & Baig, 2011). The ever increasing population due to the massive inflow of expatriate workers in the country has increased the domestic requirement of fresh water too (Al-Zahrani, 2009). At present the state produces desalinized water at the high cost of $2 per cubic centimeter of water. Desalinating plants run on fuel, especially natural gas and oil which is not economically profitable. To meet the increased demands of water and run the sea-water desalinating plants, Saudi Arabia, uses up its only natural resource, i.e. oil. Most of the oil dug up from the ground is used up in the production of water than being used for import purposes. But the demand is much higher than the production which means that Saudi Arabia needs to establish more desalinating plants at high costs. One way of reigning in this skyrocketing of costs is letting women drive. If everyone drives on their own there would be less inflow of expatriate drivers from other countries resulting in a lower population. The expatriate workers use a lot of water mostly without thinking because they are not the ones who pay for it; their employers are responsible for paying for the water. Thus the average domestic water consumption would also reduce thereby reducing overall cost of water production for the country. Thus, letting women drive is one of the best and rather cost effective ways to protect the water resources. Expatriate workers and drivers, are known to cause trouble in the country too. Being from a different cultural background, most of the workers cannot adjust to the sudden strict environment and indulge in many illegal activities. Since now that women are banned from driving, a driver is crucial for any household in Arabia and the employers are literally forced to hire a foreign driver without even having the slightest idea about the driver’s background or moral conduct and give him the grave responsibility of escorting the women of the house. Moreover, as most of these drivers maybe from poor households or maybe treated badly by their Arabian employers, made to work for long hours without proper wages, theft is not an uncommon occurring in the Saudi Arabian homes. Besides theft, the drivers may also indulge in many other immoral activities which may not be criminal in nature in other countries but are banned in this Islamic state. Thus, a percentage of crème and immoral activity can be brought under control, if the Saudi Arabian women are given the control behind the wheels, which will automatically result in inflow of lesser expatriate workers especially in to the homes. Many expatriate drivers working in the harsh conditions of Saudi Arabia hail from third world countries. Though it is essential that each foreign employee be screened medically before arrival a recent study revealed that proper screening of the workers is not done before employment and some even hold fake medical certificates. The relative frequencies for syphilis and HIV were 23.8% and 19% respectively (Hamdi & Ibrahim, 1997) when the Government conducted a medical screening. HIV was reportedly more prevalent among African drivers while Asians especially from Indonesia and Philippines bore syphilis. These communicable diseases along with other diseases enter the Arab state along with the workers and may even spread within the country. Besides STD’s, intestinal worms from other countries were also found in another study. A study conducted in Riyadh on foreign drivers showed that 32.5% were infected with some form of intestinal parasites or the other (Al-Shammari et al, 2001). Thus many forms of communicable disease enter the country when foreign drivers are employed. If women could drive all by themselves, there would be no need to employ expatriate drivers and thus some forms of communicable diseases can also be prevented. Saudi Arabia stands its ground on the decision that it is not “America” or “Europe” and it agrees to the fact that every single citizen abides by the Islamic laws set down by in the country. We have seen how a simple change, such as allowing the women to drive will uplift the economy and the social stature of Saudi Arabia and let the country conserve its own distinct nature. But, for a country so imbedded in deep religious beliefs because of which they deny basic rights to the womenfolk, change is really hard. HRH Princess Basma Bint Saud Bin Abdilaziz once said in a press conference that change is hard for her country and women should not drive because men would never allow it. The constitution of the country needs to be changed first and grant equal rights to both the genders. The first need is to educate the men on role of a woman in the world. It may take some time for the hundreds of century’s old patriarchal mind set to change but there is hope that with advancement women of Saudi Arabia will be granted their small wish to control the wheels. WORKS CITED Al-Zahrani Khodran and Baig. M.B. “Water in the Kingdome of Saudi Arabia: Sustainable Management options.” The Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences 20 march 2011: 601- 604. Print. Hamdi Sami and Ibrahim Abdulbari. “Sexually transmitted disease in Domestic Expatriate workers in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.” Annals Of Saudi medicine 1997- 29-31. Print. Al-Shammari et al. “Intestinal parasitic diseases in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Prevalence, sociodemographic and environmental associates.” Tropical and International health March 2001:184-188. 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