Saudi Arabia has no minimum age for marriage. This fact leads to several unhappy outcomes. First, young girls, as young as eight, are sometimes married off by their parents. Their agreement usually involves a hefty payment by the would-be husband, often decades (if not a generation) older than the bride. Various reports, including by Saudi researchers, have found that marriage is not something for small children to undertake for reasons of both psychological and physical health. Then too, child marriage is extremely objectionable to most societies across the world. That Saudi Arabia permits it to continue provides grounds for Saudi-bashing.
Now, Saudi media report, the Ministry of Justice is preparing to announce a minimum age for marriage. The Ministry is not yet prepared to say just what that age is as it is still under discussion.
The major problem facing the Ministry is that child marriage has a long tradition in the region and is not forbidden by Islam. People can point to Islamic history and see that even Mohammed, in a very different time, married Aisha at a young age – various reports say she was 8, 9, or 13.
The fact that something is not forbidden by religion, though, does not mean that it cannot be forbidden by the state. Slavery, too, is permitted within Islam (as it is, textually, within Christianity and Judaism). But societies around the world, including Saudi Arabia in the 1960s, have banned slavery. Not only do attitudes change over time, but circumstances do as well. While child marriage may have made sense when societies were small and under constant threat of annihilation, they no longer do. Saudi society is now mostly urban, tribes and tribal identities are less important, society knows more about the psychology and physiology for young women. Too, the institution of marriage in Saudi Arabia is under great pressure already, with a large proportion of them ending in divorce. Permitting another negative factor to be introduced does nothing to resolve those problems.
While no age is yet stated, I expect it will be set at 13. I wouldn’t be surprised if it were 16, but doubt that Saudi Arabia will go as high as 18, though many of its neighbors have. Saudis go for compromise and consensus and 13 strikes me as the number most likely to find that consensus. This does not mean that that age is fixed forever, though. Once the fact that law can operate in setting a limit, that limit can be later changed. As Saudi society continues to change, as Saudi women continue to be educated and employed, there will be fewer parents who believe that their financial salvation rests in the bodies of their daughters.
Age of consent for marriage of Saudi girls soon
DAMMAM: ARAB NEWSThe Justice Ministry will soon make an announcement to establish the age of consent for Saudi women to marry, local daily Al-Madinah reported yesterday quoting an official source at the ministry.
Director of the Department of Marriage at the ministry Muhammad Al-Babtain said a decision on the issue would soon be announced following the agreement of departments in the ministry involved on deciding on an age of consent.
“The project was discussed by a number of government departments concerned. The ministry deemed it appropriate to decide a certain age for the marriage of the underage girls taking into account its social and psychological aspects,” he said.
Al-Babtain declined to reveal the age of consent for marriage, but said the issue was still being discussed.
He said fixing an age for the marriage of young girls is commensurate with Shariah rules and the culture of the society. “Underage marriages are permissible under Islamic law,” he explained.
Al-Babtain pointed out the ministry had prepared a Shariah-based study that confirmed that marrying young girls was not against Shariah rules.
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The veil is such a norm in Saudi Arabia that many women feel rather naked when seen without it. Due to the unwelcome publication of photos of bare-faced ladies taken at women-only events like weddings or school graduations (where veils are dropped), the Saudi government instituted a ban on cameras and camera-enabled cell phones at these events. Times have changed, though, according to this piece from Saudi Gazette. Now, it’s almost impossible to find a phone without a camera and people have become so attached to their phones that they are loathe to surrender them. Rather than ‘punishing’ an entire group for the misbehavior of some, women are suggesting that the actual miscreants be punished.
End camera-phone ban in weddings, say women
Doha Ghouth | Saudi GazetteJEDDAH – Many young Saudi women detest the societal norm to ban camera phones in women’s sections during weddings and graduation ceremonies.
They call it absurd that such conservative norms exist in the 21st century. Moreover, they say it is problematic for women to leave their mobile phones outside the wedding hall and many a time they end up losing their phones.
In a Saudi Gazette survey of 300 females in the age group of 20-45, 95 percent of women own smart phones, 4 percent own camera phones and only 1 percent have a secondary non-camera phone.
“Personally, I understand the reasons for concern, but I believe having surveillance is enough,” said Dr. Niven Farid, a psychologist. She says trust in people can be developed through installing means of surveillance. That would put an end to absurd norms. Many women dread social events like weddings or graduation ceremonies because they feel they are deprived of what is their property.
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The government of Saudi Arabia has a subtle way of using international agreements to push reforms that find opposition within Saudi society. Saudi accession to the World Trade Organization, for example, required changes in Saudi law that directly affected long-term business practices in the Kingdom. The government did not want to be seen to be directly taking something away from from its citizens, but under the weight of international treaties and agreements, it found it could make the necessary changes.
Arab News reports that the Kingdom is working within the Gulf Cooperation Council’s Health Ministers Council to improve the health of young people. All GCC states, excepting Saudi Arabia, have organized athletics for girls, including within state-run schools. It’s also incontrovertible that active lifestyles lead to better health. Due to social rules, fully half of Saudi society is barred from the most basic physical exercise.
Could the government be looking at another international agreement that forces its hand to make desirable changes, even if some in society don’t like the change? It looks like it to me.
Regional body to look after health of Gulf youth
RIYADH: MD RASOOLDEEN | ARAB NEWSA regional body under the umbrella of the GCC Health Ministers Council is to be formed to implement integrated health programs for adolescents and youths in the member countries.
The decision was taken at the concluding session of the first Saudi Conference of the Health of Youth and Adolescents held in Jeddah yesterday.
Speaking to Arab News yesterday, Health Ministry spokesman Dr. Khalid Al-Mirghalani said such a body would promote the health of adolescents and youth and organize community participation.
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The announcement that Saudi women would be able to participate in the forthcoming Summer Olympic Games in London raised spirits both in Saudi Arabia and abroad. Now, the Saudi Olympic Committee is ‘clarifying’ its stance. Women can go, but the Committee won’t be sending them: they’ll have to make arrangements for themselves.
That’s a tad churlish. I think the least the government could do – while still keeping its head down to prevent it from getting knocked by the troglodytes who think ‘women’ and ‘sports’ don’t belong in the same sentence – would be to offer to handle the applications and paperwork for entry. It might even offer discounted, if not free airfare. Instead, a wave of cowardice has swept the Saudi Olympic Committee. Perhaps some male Saudi Olympians might want to help out their sisters.
And rather than ‘slowly open the door’, this particular door needs to be kicked in. Every year that goes by without Saudi women being able to participate in school athletics and sports is another year in which their health is undermined.
Female athletes’London dreams shattered ? No,not really, say Saudi women
Laura Bashraheel | Saudi GazetteJEDDAH – The announcement that the Kingdom will not prevent its female citizens from competing in the Olympics, but will not officially endorse them has evoked mixed reaction from Saudi women.
Prince Nawaf Bin Faisal, head of the Saudi Olympics Committee and President of the General Presidency of Youth Welfare, said at a press conference Wednesday that Saudi Arabia will not officially send women athletes to the London Olympics this summer.
He, however, said that Saudi women taking part on their own are free to do so and the Kingdom’s Olympic authority would “only help in ensuring that their participation does not violate the Shariah law.”
Welcoming the decision, Razan Baker, a sports journalist and a PhD researcher, said it would slowly open the door for society to accept women participation in sports.
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Last week, Saudi Arabia’s government gave permission to young, single males to enter shopping malls. Previously, they had been banned because they caused too much disruption and discomfort by harassing women and girls trying to shop. Banning them did not really resolve the problem of harassment, though, as the men would just hang around the entrances to the malls and do their harassing there.
To get at the issue, there’s going to be more attention paid to the bad behavior, rather than just assuming that all youths will act badly. Saudi Gazette reports that the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice will be heightening their patrols and intercede when they see the lads acting up. The paper also runs a letter from a member of the Shoura Council who states that a comprehensive law on harassment is making its way through government channels. The new laws, based on the severity of the infraction, will offer a range of penalties from fine and floggings to jail terms.
Eve teasers in malls to be referred to court
RIYADH – Single men have been granted permission to enter malls and shopping centers but anyone found harassing women shoppers will be referred to the Shariah Court, according to a recent directive issued by Dr. Abdullatif Aal Al-Sheikh, General President of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (the Hai’a).
“I gave instructions to the field members of the Hai’a to closely monitor markets and not to be lenient with anyone who harasses families and women. I instructed them to hand those guilty of harassment over to the Shariah Court immediately,” Dr. Aal Al-Sheikh was quoted as saying in a section of the Arabic press Thursday.
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The Saudi English-language media has imported the term ‘Eve teasing’ from South Asia. Many of the editors of these media come from India and Pakistan where the term is common. It amuses me to no end.
The new head of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice is taking the reins of control into hand. Saudi Arabian media report that he is pulling the religious police back from some of the powers they had exerted in the past, including car chases over petty offenses, hectoring women about their makeup, and generally harassing the public over behaviors the individual muttawa believed sinful. Undercover patrols out looking for bad behavior (as opposed to actual crimes) are also being stopped.
This is all a good step. The next step is to get rid of the Haia entirely, allowing citizens to lead their own lives by their own moral guidance. That’s not likely to happen soon, however, as a majority of the Saudi public still believe the religious police have a valid role to play.
Haia will stop undercover patrols and car chases
ARAB NEWSThe Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice intends to stop its undercover patrols, said President Abdullatif Aal Al-Sheikh on Monday.
At the opening of a training program for the commission’s field staff in Riyadh, Aal Al-Sheikh said that commission’s agents practice to chase cars in the streets “is a matter that is coming to an end”. He called on citizens to complain to the commission’s branch director if they were harassed by agents. “If the matter is not solved, the complaint can be filed with the commission’s president,” he said. Asked about the issue of banning young bachelors from malls, he said, “The ban is wrong and it created a problem out of nothing.” The commission has no right to prevent anyone from entering malls, he added.
Saudi Gazette reports a bit more extensively.
Saudi Arabia may just be the Kingdom of Contradiction. Saudi Gazette reports on the noteworthy efforts of a Saudi woman in Abha who broke through cultural barriers and opened a bakery. Hurrah! She, through her individual efforts, spread wider the range of jobs for Saudi women.
Her motivation to open the shop was her perception that bakeries were all run by foreign workers. Her effort was one that would put more Saudis into employment.
She hired young Saudi women to help. For whatever reason – hours, pay, working conditions… being a commercial baker is hard work – her Saudi employees quit.
To solve her labor problem, she’s seeking permission to hire foreign workers to staff her bakery.
Woman breaks taboo, opens bakery
ABHA – A woman from Asir, has opened a bakery shop which is the first of its kind in the Kingdom after noticing that the market of organizing banquets for weddings was dominated by foreign labor.
Jamila and her husband rented a shop last year and opened the bakery after fulfilling all the municipal requirements. She said many people supported her and to top them all, Prince Faisal Bin Khaled, Emir of Asir Region, in addition to her relatives encouraged her to launch the bakery.
Jamila didn’t go for a big advertisement as her project took off humbly. “I didn’t distribute pamphlets for fear of being flooded with orders at this time when I don’t have enough labor,” she said.
Within less than a year, she said she achieved half the success and won the support of government agencies such as the Municipality, Civil Defense, Hai’a and the Human Resources Fund.
Jamila is shocked by the lack of interest in business on the part of Saudi women. “I hired some Saudi girls but they quit two months later despite the fact that the work was physically not too demanding,” she said. “I wish the Minister of Labor help would me in issuing visas for female workers so that I can expand my project.”
While Saudi Arabia is a very developed country, it is not developed in the same way as, say, Germany or the US. In addition to shopping malls and supermarkets, souks – the traditional marketplaces – continue to exist and even thrive. I suppose that the souks are the grandfathers of malls. Merchants of various goods would set up stalls from which they would vend their products, whether food, spices, rugs, fabrics, consumer goods, or jewelry. Over time, the open air markets frequently became enclosed shopping areas like the Al-Hamadiyah Souk in Damascus or the Kapalçarshi in Istanbul or Khan Al-Khalili in Cairo.
Saudi Arabia’s souks are similar, though on a smaller scale. They also continue older traditions in which merchants – often women – simply throw down a carpet along the side of a street, spread their goods on them, and sell to passersby. This is a route frequently taken by Bedouin women who come in from the countryside with their food or handmade products. This is viewed as a bit unseemly, though. It can congest the streets, impede traffic, and seems somewhat disrespectful of the female merchants.
As a result, various municipalities have tried to ‘up-grade the selling experience’. They’ve built stalls, complete with running water, air conditioning, and electricity and sought to move the women into them, off the pavements. That’s very nice. The municipalities have also sought to rent those spaces, though, to recover both construction costs and ongoing utility bills. That’s not so nice. The women in Hail, Saudi Gazette reports, are pretty unhappy with the scheme. The monthly rents charged, SR 400 (US $107) are simply too high. Now, that’s not a lot of money to charge for an attractive and comfortable stall. But it is more than these women can afford to pay. They are selling goods on the street because they need the money. They would need to sell an awful lot of henna, pastries, or hand-made scarves to cover the rent.
Now, I’m sure that the government is subsidizing a lot of the costs associated with these stalls. Should they do more? Pay the entire cost? I think that depends on the goal intended. If it is to get women literally off the street without knocking them out of business, then it probably should pay the whole cost. That does introduce a question of fairness – why pay for the women, but not men? – but I think an argument can be made that those on the lowest rung of the economy need a different level of support.
Women’s souk in Ha’il comes with a high price
Amal Al-Sibai | Saudi GazetteThe municipality of Ha’il has constructed a large complex of small shops to rent out to women who have been running their businesses on the sidewalks of shopping areas, schools, and mosques.
The objective of founding this souk by the municipality and reserving it for women was to ease the plight of the women who opened and operated stalls under the scorching sun in the summer and merciless cold winds in the winter.
However, some of these simple businesswomen are complaining that the souk has missed its purpose and that it has failed to help them because the store rental fees that the municipality has demanded are too high.
Under the roof of this shopping complex, that is similar to the traditional Saudi souks,there are a total of 104 stores to be leased at a fee of SR400 per month. Many women who have been asked to transfer their sidewalk stalls to stores in the souk claim that they cannot afford to pay the monthly rent.
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Adulateef Al-Mulhim offers his thoughts in Arab News on the announcement that Saudi women will be taking part in the next Olympic Summer Games, being held in London this July and August.
I know there are capable female Saudi athletes, but I suspect a lot of Saudis aren’t aware. Sports for women – athletic of any kind – are viewed with skepticism, particularly from cultural and religious traditionalists. Some women, with supportive families, are able to ignore the social issues. Some schools, private for the most part, ignore them as well in realizing that healthy bodies help produce healthy minds, not to mention even healthier bodies. Still, it is only now that state schools are considering formal programs of girls sports and athletics. As a result, it’s mostly privileged Saudi women who are competent in sport; they or their families had to pay for everything from the most basic training onward.
Saudi Arabia has been blackmailed, essentially, by the International Olympics Committee. It was told that if no women participated, no men would be permitted to participate either. That would be an embarrassment too far for the Saudi self-image.
Even a token participation, though, is worthwhile. Millions of Saudis will see one or more Saudi women taking part in international competition. Perhaps no Saudi woman will win a medal… that’s okay, as no Saudi male has either. It will be a major step in demonstrating for international audiences, but most importantly for Saudi audiences, that Saudi women are competent, competitive, and able to be Muslim, female, and athletic at the same time without bringing about the end of the world. That’s a lesson many Saudis need to learn at a visceral level.
Saudi women and the Olympics
Abdulateef Al-MulhimThe world is getting smaller by the day. People and societies have to adapt to the changes. And it is better to have the initiative from within rather than having outside elements and voices direct the changes.
Just a few months ago, there was talk about the participation of the Saudi women in the next Summer Olympics in London. But, did the talks start few months ago or was it discussed earlier? As far as I know, it was discussed on very low level as side conversations during the past Olympic games four years earlier. Thus my article will not reflect what I think should be done, but I know that some International Olympic Committee members are thinking seriously about banning Saudi Arabia from participating in future Olympics if there are no women in our team. I am a great fan of the Olympics, summer or winter games. And I have been to few of them. However I also am not the one who is authorized to say yes or no to the participation of Saudi women. This is about my personal experience with questions, which were asked regarding Saudi women’s lack of participation during these games.
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Young, unattached Saudi males are no longer to be banned from shopping malls, Saudi Gazette reports. The bans, instituted by mall owners according to the article, had prevented young males from entering the malls because they had a tendency – or were perceived to have a tendency – toward harassing women. The harassing is still out, but the men are not to be categorically excluded.
It’s interesting to see that the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice says it has never had a policy banning young men. Fear of them, however, has absolutely colored the thoughts of the mall owners/operators.
It’s now up to the young men to show that they can behave like adults, not assuming that everything female needs their personal attention. Whether they can do that is open to question. In the meantime, the whole will not be punished for the behavior of some subset of them. Perhaps, if they wish to keep the privilege, they might do some policing of their own.
Riyadh malls open to single men
RIYADH – Single men can now enter shopping centers and malls in the capital on the condition that they do not misbehave with women shoppers and follow security regulations.
A directive to this effect was issued by Prince Sattam Bin Abdul Aziz, Emir of Riyadh region, on the recommendation of a tripartite committee comprising the undersecretary at Riyadh Emirate for Security Affairs, the Hai’a Branch Director in Riyadh and the Riyadh Police Director General.
Previously, single men were only allowed into shopping centers at lunch time on weekdays, a move the authorities said was intended to prevent women being harassed during peak hours.
Managers of shopping centers and malls had banned single men from entering their premises to avoid unruly scenes.
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A reader drew my attention to this paper at CyberOrient, a peer-reviewed journal on the Middle East. I think it worth reading.
The article focuses on the issue of women’s driving in Saudi Arabia. It notes that the ban on their driving is based on cultural fears and a fatwa, one written by Abdel Aziz Bin Baz, when he was Grand Mufti of the Kingdom. The article points out correctly that a) culture is not the same as religion and b) a fatwa is a non-binding opinion: it does not carry legal force anywhere within Islam. People are free to follow or ignore any given fatwa.
Shariah law is interpreted by many different groups throughout the Islamic world and they don’t all agree on everything. Consequently, rather than a single Shariah, there are numerous interpretations on many issues. The illegality of women’s driving is unique to Saudi Arabia, for example. Other Islamic countries find women’s driving banal and unworthy of comment, never mind worry.
Because Sunni Islam has no single, ultimate authority, this is the way things have to be. Each country will interpret Shariah law in ways that best suit it. Interpretations of Shariah are just that, interpretations, until they are structured within laws written by parliaments or palaces. Only law is binding, be it Quranic or secular. This has the downside, though, of permitting certain interpretations to go unchallenged, because there’s no authority with the power to challenge on dogmatic or doctrinal grounds. One result of this is that human rights can go unprotected or ill-protected, with no real handle to get at changing the situations.
The paper suggests a solution: a ‘Best Practices’ analysis of all countries’ interpretation. Here, ‘best’ would be defined as ‘that which maximalizes human rights.’ The Quran and Islam are certainly not against human rights. In fact, the Quran represented a major expansion of the concept in how it approached things like marriage, slavery, and that status of women in 7th C. Arabia.
I think this is an interesting idea. Whether it is practicable, though, is another question. The paper cites the example of Morocco and its 2004 revamping of its Personal and Family Law that greatly expanded the rights of women. It could be done on a region-wide basis. I have doubts, however, that all Islamic countries would cede the power of their parliaments and ulema to a general consensus. I fear, too, that efforts to do so would end up with only lowest common denominator laws. While these might be a step forward for the most restrictive countries, it could also mean a step backwards for the more progressive.
Still, this is an idea worth thinking about.
The King, the Mufti & the Facebook Girl: A Power Play. Who Decides What is Licit in Islam?
Khalid ChraibiCyberOrient, Vol. 5, Iss. 2, 2011
Abstract
Saudi Arabia enforces a ban on woman driving on the grounds that it is prohibited by sharia law. Women’s associations have actively denounced this ban for years, arguing that it was the only Muslim country which had such a peculiar interpretation of Islamic law. A power play is taking place online on this subject between the ulema (who support the ban), the Saudi authorities and feminine associations. This situation raises the question: “Who decides what is licit or illicit in Islam?” Muslim women’s associations merely ask for the implementation in Muslim countries of the “best practices” in Islamic law which exist anywhere, as a substitute for those laws which are unfavorable to women’s rights or do not protect their interests adequately.
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It’s been a year since Saudi Arabia’s government announced that only women would be permitted to sell lingerie and other female-oriented things. That should have been enough warning that males would not be permitted as salesmen in these shops. Apparently, that wasn’t enough time for some.
Saudi Gazette reports that the Ministry of Labor has ordered the closure of 600 shops across the Kingdom. They’ll stay closed until the males are replaced with females.
I’m sure that this shift in hiring presents a serious burden to some shop owners. Particularly small owners will be faced with additional expenses in bringing their shops into compliance with new regulations tailored to provide the security and privacy Saudi society seems to demand for places where women work. The owners will also be stuck with the foreign workers – and their salaries – that they brought in originally to staff the shops. The owners will either need to find useful work for them to do or try to transfer their visas to others who might make use of them. It’s really tough for those workers who, through no fault of their own, now find themselves unemployed, likely unemployable, and perhaps in debt themselves over the expenses incurred in getting the jobs in the first place.
I really dislike the adage about ‘omelettes and broken eggs’; it trivializes the pain of those whose eggs are being broken. But here, a social revolution involving the welfare of thousands of Saudi women directly, and millions indirectly, is more important to Saudi Arabia than the job of one or hundreds of foreign workers.
600 erring lingerie shops shut
JEDDAH — The Ministry of Labor has ordered the closure of 600 erring lingerie shops and has initiated penal action against other women’s accessory and lingerie outlets not complying with the government’s directive to employ only women as sales representatives.
Penalties include fines, suspension of files and closure of the establishment. Shops thus closed will not be allowed to reopen unless they replace all their male workers with females, a Ministry of Labor source was quoted by the Arabic press as saying Wednesday.
The decision to hire female workers will be strictly enforced and by the beginning of July all cosmetics shops which do not replace their male workers with females will be closed, the source pointed out.
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