A deeper look into the gender inequality of Saudi Arabia

Isabelle Jabbour

Journalism student  

  Taking effect in June of 2018, women in Saudi Arabia will be one step closer to reaching equality by legally being able to drive. While women being able to drive is a normality in most countries, Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of conservative Islam and Sharia Law, making it illegal for women to drive cars.

  The Sharia Law is the law of Islam and operates as a legal system in Middle Eastern countries such as Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. In Saudi Arabia specifically, the Sharia Law is strictly followed and is able to control the lives of Saudi citizens, especially women.

  Since the Sharia Law is followed so strictly, this means that women have limited opportunities of expression and independency. A specific example of this are the guardianship laws that exist throughout the country. These guardianship laws prevent women from doing certain things, such as traveling abroad or having medical procedures, without the consent of their male guardian who can be a husband, father, or son.

  With the Sharia Law acting as a legal system, protesting or opposing any laws is punishable by detainment or even death. However, over time within the past 20 years, protests have occurred as well as women taking matters into their own hands to oppose this inequality of not being allowed to drive.   

  For a more specific insight, in 2011, Saudi woman, Manal al-Sherif, was able to take part in one of these protests by filming herself driving a car and posting it to social media. However, because driving is against the law for women, she was arrested.

  Now, times are changing and gender inequality will hopefully start to be pushed further away. In September of 2017, the king of Saudi Arabia announced that starting in June of 2018, women will be allowed to drive cars by themselves. This great news spread throughout Saudi Arabia showing a small break in the gender equality barrier.

  While learning about these events through social media and credible news sources, in Freedom High School, students have the opportunity to learn about these issues in classes such as world history and global studies. Mrs. Jennifer Deily teaches global studies at Freedom and is able to cover this material in her class as well as the Middle East as a whole.

  “We don’t specifically go too in depth with Saudi Arabia. However, we do talk about women’s rights within the Middle East specifically when it comes to conservative Islam,” said Mrs. Deily.
  Within her class, Mrs. Deily talks about the middle East and is able to teach her students about the variations of laws and customs across the Middle East. Her lessons show how some countries, like Saudi Arabia, are able to show progress by conquering the gender inequality roles in comparison to other countries.

  “In different countries, women’s rights are very different. In Afghanistan under the Taliban it was very strict where women wouldn’t even get an education. However, I think Saudi Arabia is approaching the other side of that spectrum where women have a wider set of opportunities, and allowing them to drive is a step in the right direction,” said Mrs. Deily.

 In Saudi Arabia, the gender inequality is slowly being tackled and hopefully this will channel across the Middle East causing other countries to follow in their footsteps. To women across Saudi Arabia, this is an accomplishment and the start of something new.

Photo caption: A photo from the “#women2drive” campaign.

Photo credit : Women´s Rights Informative