Now, I find this interesting…
A Saudi cleric and legal advisor, Sheikh Saleh Al-Luhaidan, issued a fatwa saying it was permissible for Saudi women to work as maids. That is, there is no religious barrier preventing them from doing so. Government policy supports their taking such work as well.
But Saudi society looks down on domestic work as ‘unfitting’ for a Saudi woman. So, these people are arguing that social constructs—aversion to housework, concepts of ‘dignity’, etc.—outweigh religious judgment.
If social views are more important than religious rulings, does that apply across the board? Or does it come into effect only when the social views are more conservative than the religious view? Do these critics really want to go down that avenue?
I’m afraid the academics and lawyers interviewed in this Arab News are fools. They delude themselves into believing that their personal preferences and views of propriety are more compelling than a religious view that condones honest work while permitting poor Saudi women to earn an income. Nice.
Also nice, Saudi society seems to have no difficulty with other Arab, Muslim women working in domestic jobs. But somehow, that kind of work is just to ‘yucky’ for Saudi women, the precious flowers that they are.
Academics, lawyers reject fatwa allowing Saudi women
to work as maids
MUHAMMAD AL-SULAMI | ARAB NEWSJEDDAH: Saudi academics and lawyers have rejected the fatwa of legal adviser Saleh bin Saad Al-Laheedan allowing Saudi women to work as maids, saying such work is humiliating for them.
They said Saudi people in general opposed the idea when Labor Minister Ghazi Al-Gosaibi issued a decision two years ago allowing Saudi women to work as house managers and servants.
Speaking to Islamonline.net, Suhaila Zainul Abideen, a member of the National Society for Human Rights, expressed her surprise at Al-Laheedan’s fatwa or religious edict. She strongly opposed the idea of Saudi women working as maids.
She said the state is responsible for taking care of women if they are in need of financial assistance. “Where is social insurance?” she asked. She also wondered why scholars were not applying the principle of preventing the reason (Sadd Al-Dharai) in this issue in the same way that it is applied in other issues such as women driving and mingling with the opposite sex.
…
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
March:21:2010 - 11:31
More evidence that our religion is defiled by the current situation.
The faith of the Rasulullah does not distinguish based on citizenship.
Thus, of course our religion permits women to engage in honestly performed moral labour.
And, that permission does not vary based on citizenship.
Could one imagine French lawyers or academics rejecting a statement saying that serving as a street cleaner is permitted to French Catholics, on the basis that such menial labour should only be performed by immigrants from abroad.
This points out that our society that self-consciously asserts that it is based solely on the words of God is not.
Rather, our society is based on the very human impulses of avarice, ethnicity, lust for power, and others.
March:21:2010 - 12:26
I would say I agree with one thing. Where is the social assistance? I think that is valid. One could argue that Saudi women shouldn’t NEED to be maids because the income of the nation should provide adequate social assistance for it’s citizens.
Saudi would not be required to provide social assistance for the rest of womenkind. However it should have nothing to do with “dignity” or “humiliation”.
Honest work is honest work.
March:21:2010 - 14:42
All I can say is I’m about ready to bring my rainbow vacuum and some dettol to work and bust out the rubber gloves because the place is filthy. Wait no, I wouldn’t torture my rainbow and subject it to such humiliation LOL
March:21:2010 - 15:36
Sheikh Al-Laheedan said it is permissible for Saudi women to work as maids if they cannot find other jobs, if they are over 50 and accompanied by a mehram (a close male relative). Suhaila asked whether any family would allow their womenfolk to work along with their mehrams.
Interesting restrictions, since as I am aware, in other Muslim countries, women of a certain age are given a lot more freedom than this. This proposal reminds me of the double contraceptives required for adult women to take Accutane (for acne) to prevent pregnancy and fetal abnormalities. One 99% effective method isn’t enough, 2 are required by law.
March:21:2010 - 17:49
I see nothing wrong with working as a maid or any other honest job, and I wrote about this a while ago, before letting them work as maids… http://qusaytoday.com/en/2009/08/saudi-maids/
March:21:2010 - 18:36
I think it’s only those people who have a magnified (and wrong) concept of ‘Saudi dignity’ who think it unbecoming. I also think they are idiots.
March:21:2010 - 18:45
if they are over 50 and accompanied by a mehram
So what is the mehram supposed to be doing while the “over 50″ female mops floor and does the dishes?
March:21:2010 - 22:02
Whatever it is, I suspect it wouldn’t include cleaning the toilets.
March:22:2010 - 02:23
So honest work is too humiliating for them but being treated like a child with no rights from the cradle to the grave is NOT? Its almost too comical how some Saudis think.
March:22:2010 - 03:48
So why aren’t these restrictions applied to maids from other Muslim countries? Are Saudi Muslim women somehow more Muslim then? I wish someone had asked him these questions.
March:22:2010 - 04:38
I’m an arab muslim who lived in Saudi most of my life…I studied Islam extensively at school and I lived and grew up around Saudis. I can fairly assert that conservative Saudi traditions are most originated from the prevailing tribal structure of the society. Conservative Saudis belong to their tribes and clans before they to any religion or belief. Should a conflict arise between tradition and religion, tradition rules and influences religion to adjust and conform. Skewing religious teaching is a Sociopolitical industry in Saudi Arabia.
Islam has curbed the extreme paradoxes in such societies, but it will never be fulfilled without major events that slap people out of their tribal nests and adopt human reason, honesty and decency that Islam brought to the desert and the world as a whole. Islam freed women from worse situation in this lands, and is still struggling with the rigid tribal mentality to this day.
March:22:2010 - 06:13
I wish the world stops paying attention to such imbecile utterances that come out of Saudi Arabia.
March:22:2010 - 07:42
Ahmed, Welcome and thanks for your comment. Saudi Arabia is incredibly reffed by paradox and contradiction. That’s why the country and society is having such a hard time adapting to the 20th (never mind the 21st) Century.
March:22:2010 - 12:43
You often get the impression, that some Saudi imams doesn’t know there is a world outside.
March:22:2010 - 13:43
“Islam has curbed the extreme paradoxes in such societies, but it will never be fulfilled without major events that slap people out of their tribal nests and adopt human reason, honesty and decency…”
What sort of “major events” do you have in mind, Ahmad?
March:22:2010 - 15:56
Hi Solomon,
People in Saudi resist change (please tolerate the generalization in this context, we all agree that there’s always the good and the bad, but let’s think who’s overpowering whom?). The government is for change and for modernization, and uplifting the society to the 21st century globalized world standards, they invest hugely in developing the people and economic infrastructure. But the people are not as dedicated to development, they resist change, fiercely sometimes. They would like to indulge themselves in “traditions” that require no much intellectual effort to accept or reject, they just simply go by the norms.
Something should shake up this lifestyle. Some sort of extreme Hardship, i’m afraid, like any hardship that faced any civilization modern or ancient before they rose and flourished. I believe curing a whole society and fixing a whole nation require more than PR awareness campaigns or building infrastructure. It’s about fixing the will of the humans and urge every individual to rise and change from within.
I really hope my views are wrong and that there are other means to cure a society. what do you think Solomon?
March:22:2010 - 19:56
Ahmad,
That’s because they are getting their money without much effort. After the oil finishes in a couple of decades, Saudi Arabia will come round.
March:23:2010 - 02:13
What Daisy said. Most Muslims don’t have a problem with work. Saudis are an enigma in this regard. I find it arrogant and racists to imply that non-Saudi women can “humiliate” themselves with a day of honest work but that this is above the “divine” race known as the Saudis.
After all, look at everything Saudi women have contributed to the world! We should all be in awe!
March:23:2010 - 02:26
Anonymous,
Besides, don’t forget that Islam is supposed to treat all humans as equal. There is not supposed to be this racist attitude in Muslims.
March:23:2010 - 02:47
Hi Anon,
Work is explicitly and precisely considered a way of worshipping God in Islam. There’s a saying by profit Mohamad telling his companions “work in this world like you’re living for eternity, and work for your afterlife like you’re dying tomorrow” and in another he said “if the end of this world is upon you and you’re holding a seedling in your hand then you shall plant it in the earth”.
Earning living through any decent work no matter how menial or how prestigious is essential in Islam which dignified and strictly equated between all people, kings and peasants. However Islam and “Muslims” are clearly not on the same page in Saudi and many other Muslim countries as well.
March:23:2010 - 21:53
Mishly,
I agree with you.
March:24:2010 - 16:30
as this article so vividly yet painfully points proves, saudi is still a nation of tribes which is intellectually backwards, and primitive in structure.
March:26:2010 - 13:49
Some sort of extreme Hardship, i’m afraid, like any hardship that faced any civilization modern or ancient before they rose and flourished…I really hope my views are wrong and that there are other means to cure a society. what do you think Solomon?
First, that such hardships can be manipulated. We just saw that in the past year in Pakistan, when the ruling class, just to teach the little people a lesson, permitted the Taliban to take over the province of Swat for a time so people could experience for themselves what Taliban justice was like. Something like a quarter million people fled into internal exile. Other than kicking the Taliban out, nothing new has been promised and nothing new delivered to the populace.
When the French Revolution occurred, the imprisoned King Louis XVI did not shake his fist at the failing farms and fields of his country and declare, “This has ruined France!” – for famines and failed harvests and worse had happened before, without lasting political effect. No, he shook his fist at busts of Voltaire and Rousseau and declared, “YOU have ruined France!”
“Hardship” isn’t the essence for real political change. New ideas are. And new ideas can only come from individuals willing to face argument and ridicule. Their ideas are often ignored in good times and catch on quicker in bad times, but they can spread in good times or bad.