If history had been able to attest to anything, it’s that with the dawn of the earliest civilizations, being a woman and attempting to function fully and live with the equal merits rendered for the woman’s counterpart in the grand scheme of things, is difficult.
It has baggage and is pretty much a hassle.
And I say this with all the love in the world for my gentle sex (and the opposite sex) because honestly, I wouldn’t trade my sex for anything. Sure, I’m considered by several, nay, most societies as the “lesser sex”, my opinion equates to half the opinion of the average man (unless he’s proven to be deranged), and yes most scripts say that we, women, are responsible for the original sin, the fall from grace, so it suffices to conclude that it’s tough out there for us woman. To be more accurate, for a woman in the Arab states, of an Arab descent. Life can be peculiar.
We are raised to adhere to dogmas so removed from the realm of reason, that one wouldn’t know how, and where from, to tackle them. But we’ve been conditioned, to a large degree, to live with those encompassing hindrances.
One may argue that several of the Arab states with the societies comprising of said states are progressive, particularly when it comes to gender equality. Still, some issues that women face are usually shelved way up high, left unmoved, collecting dust.
We just don’t go there.
But, in all fairness, positive development and progress have manifested, more obvious in certain sectors, but any progress, no matter how slow, is good, great, in fact.
Political participation, albeit restricted, in relatively high-level decision making is a prominent example of progress for women. Today, there are female ministers in the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and Oman.
In 2005, resulting in a historical landmark for female political empowerment in the region, Kuwait amended the election laws by extending political rights to women. This, subsequently, led to four women winning seats in the Kuwaiti parliament in 2009 through general elections.
In recent news, and maybe most notable due to the context and the slow trailing behind the rest of the Arab states, Saudi Arabia made history.
Through a royal decree, 30 seats out of the 150 on the Saudi Consultative Assembly were granted to women. This states that women must hold at least a fifth of the seats at the council.
Oh, happy day, that day. I remember listening to the 9 o’clock news on the Saudi 1 channel (this is usually the slot where royal decrees are announced) and tears, instantaneous, were streaming down my face. Intelligent, educated, driven, relentlessly trying, against the odds always stacked against them, Saudi women were going to be seated in that colossal hall, relatively equal to my nation’s lawmakers. Still, a seat at the council is one of the highest, most prestigious and important positions granted to a citizen. Thus, 30 seats to finally be allocated to women, when their presence in the council was nonexistent, is a feat worthy of celebrating.
I am a Saudi woman.
Now, how did that decision affect me as a Saudi woman? So far, not much has changed. But I have my fingers crossed. Having the female presence in the council should, amongst many things, assist in with the accepting of a female business associate, colleague, or counterpart as the norm.
I have recently started working in a company that does not enforce gender segregation in the workforce, something that is still practiced in Saudi Arabia, heavily. The melting pot of backgrounds and nationalities I work with is cultivating at best.
And what of it at worst? Well, I still find myself in situations that, if not for the buzzing of gadgets surrounding me, I could swear it’s the 1950’s.
Despite the benefits women in the Arab states have achieved, in Saudi Arabia, some resistance is still palpable. We can trace this back to a strange and almost unique blend of dogmas and traditions stemming from a patriarchal system that still exerts pressure on women.
In the department I work in, with the nature of work I conduct, it is imperative that I deal with a colorful spectrum of Saudis. Being the outspoken woman that I am, this puts me in positions that make me wish some divine intervention to manifest and break the ground beneath me in half and swallow me whole.
It’s not always that bad. I look at it as a learning curve; an opportunity to build character, rendering for me thicker skin.
But maybe denial is only a river in Egypt.
Joking aside, I love what I do. I’ve met great passionate brilliant people, Saudis mostly, men and women alike, that I continue to learn from every day. If that baggage entails that I face a few backward members of society, then so be it.
It’s never easy being a woman. It’s worse, tenfold, for a Saudi woman. I am in no way undermining the plights of women everywhere in the world. I know it can be worse. I am a feminist first and foremost and if it were up to me, I’d dedicate every waking minute of my life to fighting for women’s rights.
Still, it’s pretty tough here. When we’re not being ridiculed for our inability to drive, there’s someone out there supplying the world with great comic relief by announcing that the reason women are not permitted to drive is for fear that their ovaries would get damaged.
It would be funny if it were not sad. Some of the greatest people I know are Saudi Women. Regardless of the impossible circumstances, we’ve managed to flourish. Women are bending their backs backward to obtain the education they deserve, fight for the rights they are owed, expanding in every field available because, to quote the cliché, Women Can Do It.
There’s an untapped resource in the female population; a human capital that needs only minor attentiveness and the overwhelming belief that they are able. When you invest in a girl, giving her the education she deserves and the room to grow, you invest in a whole family, benefiting the entirety of society.
Change, along with the awareness that would result in that change, can only come gradually from within our society. These cultural constraints that people insist on leaving them be, placed on women, should be removed through education and public enlightenment that promotes and accepts women equal to men. The interpretation of the values of our society needs to be addressed. These reforms should start at home with the education of the mother and father, resulting in the upbringing of a more aware generation.
After all, is said and done, I’m still hopeful.