Saudi society has a strict system of social and religious laws

News Center - Saudi society lives within a strict system of laws and social systems related to religion and tribe, transforming customs, traditions, Islamic teachings ( Salafism) and parental into strict application of laws.

These laws are based on the ideas of the Wahhabi movement and the Awakening movement, and work extensively to strengthen the parental system in the kingdom and the domination of men over women, and give them the right to control all the details of women’s lives.

 Reboot

To shed light on the issue of Saudi women and to know the degree of success of their attempts to change their reality and position in their society, it is necessary to know and understand the environment in which they live, and the direct fundamental impact of the religious institution on the structure of society and the position of women in it since the foundation of the state.

Religious practices are mixed with tribalism in Saudi Arabia, so that one can hardly differentiate among religious teachings, tribal customs and traditions.

Radical thought ... Wahhabism since the foundation of the kingdom

The history of the strictness in matters of life and the application of Islamic law in Saudi Arabia dates back to the foundation  of the first Saudi state, that is, more than 235 years before the emergence of the Awakening Movement, which began when Prince Muhammad bin Saud Al-Muqrin, the founder of the first Saudi state, announced it in 1792, accepting the ideas of Muhammad bin Abdul Wahab ( The founder of the strictness Wahhabi thought), in Najd, and they agreed to establish a state bearing the character of religious nationalism guided by the thought of Muhammad bin Abdul Wahab.

Wahhabism is a political movement named after its founder, Muhammad bin Abdul Wahab, who sought to eliminate all manifestations of polytheism, such as blessing the Prophet and the righteous saints and building shrines, which was widespread in the Arabian Peninsula, at the beginning of its founding, and then issued many fatwas that shackled women, and focused on separating gender.

With that alliance, the Saudi state sought to preserve the tribal spirit of the state, which kept women under the authority of male, and that strict religious affiliation caused women, the center of the developed society, not to rise.

Women singled out the state (religious nationalist) thought, such as national and secular currents focused on them as a basic pillar of society despite the differences in vision, solutions and aspirations among the three currents.

Despite the great influence of the tribal and clan mentality in Arab societies, this is not a sufficient reason for the Saudi women’s role to cease when compared to their counterparts in Kuwait or Oman and all Gulf countries whose societies are similar and clans relate to a cross-border relationship among the Arab Gulf states.

Despite the low level of women's freedoms and gender issues in the Gulf States, they are more liberal when compared to Saudi Arabia, because they don't build their legitimacy on the basis of religious nationalism, while Saudi Arabia does, so women are subjected to religious national political requirements, and they bear responsibility for the survival of the pious complex, planting. The idea of confronting the "Western conspiracy", which seeks to eliminate religion, is in their minds, considering that the emancipation of women is an essential part of this alleged conspiracy.

In all neutrality, and in fairness to the Saudi women and society, we must say that Wahhabi thought isn't the customs and traditions of all Saudi regions, and establishes a fertile environment for the contempt of women and raises the profile of the narratives to establish their inferiority against women by saying women are lack of intellect, religion and emphasizes that the stewardship of men as founders of the guardianship system even if the women are owner of a house or have money 

The Saudi opposition and Professor of Religious Anthropology at the University of London Madawi Al-Rashid says in her book "The Most Masculine State, Wahhabism helps to besiege women and gender discrimination in light of the prevalence of tribal customs,” and adds that "the limits of exclusion isn’t only related to Wahhabi revival; the interaction between the Religious nationalism state and the cultural and but social forms of parenthood also create the harsh forms of marginalization".

The religious foundation considers that women are far from religiosity due to the spread of religious practices that involve polytheism and sorcery, such as evoking the spirits and spreading witchcraft, so the religious foundation considers empowering the Commission to Promote Virtue

The religious foundation gives the right to the tribesmen to punish women who are wrong to defend themselves and they punish them in their own way

It wasn't easy for tribesmen to accept the idea of abandoning the protection of their women and entrusting the state with the help of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, actually transferring the subordination of women and parental from the tribe to the state.

A fatwa prohibiting the women’s voice was issued, so women were put under the authority of village scholars after they composed songs and chanted loudly to encourage men before the invasions when they were common until 1930, and they restricted women after they made contributions to the economy, grazing, textile, and commercial exchange among villages.

Two English women who visited the oases of Hail in the nineteenth century described the lives of notables and public women at the time and wrote in their book "A Journey in North Arabia" 

After the year 1932 and until recently, the exclusion of women is the main feature under the name “refuse excuses”, a preemptive belief that prohibits actions that cause spoilers and moral chaos, works should be monitored the women's decentness, morals, and religious compliance, and in general the religious state increases secret monitoring of public life in markets and streets and universities and all places, even in their family.

Accidental emergence and education challenges

The first educated feminist generation in Saudi Arabia dates back to 1960, and has benefited from education in the Arab countries. Educated women got job opportunities in the fields of teaching and administration and then in the press, they could write for the local newspapers under pseudonyms, and they also worked in medical services, although their voices weren't effective, but they represented the nucleus of a feminist intellectual society.

Between 1932 and 1960, a small group of girls was able to learn letters (literacy), numeracy, and taught lessons in memorizing the Qur’an, knowing that during that period male education wasn't better, and there were no specialized teachers there was only mosque elders’ supervised teaching.

The first female school was Al-Solitia, established by an Indian immigrant, in 1874, the girls learned the Qur’an only by listening without learning the letters and writing in that school.

King Saud bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, who ruled the country between 1952-1962 and after Faisal bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud until his assassination in 1975, had an important role in promoting women's rights, even in a simple way, but on the basis that women were weak and in need of protection and always mentioned as our mothers, sisters, daughters, wives, without being truly and really empowered, briefly that can be described as parental care.

Female education flourished remarkably during the rule of King Faisal, who was convinced of the importance of girls ’education, so he sent his daughters to have education  in Switzerland, and his wife was considered as “Effat bin Thanian bin Saud ", the mastermind for expanding the scope of girls' education, due to her studies in Turkey, and after her marriage to King Faisal she founded the first Saudi school for girls ’education in the twentieth century in the name of Dar Al Hanan in 1955, and the school provided cultural, media’s education and other activities, despite strong opposition from the religious foundation , especially in Najd, the stronghold of militancy, which is a wide area in central Saudi Arabia and includes areas of the capital, Qasim, Sudair, Shaqra, and Zulfi.

The education of girls wasn't compulsory because of the strong opposition of the male community. Faisal told a delegation of clerics who visited him for the purpose of discouraging his design that "the state will establish schools for girl's education, but it will not force anyone to do." 

In general, the girls of the royal family received education at home, as teachers from neighboring countries were recruited to teach them Arabic, science and history.

Some female writers, such as Sarah Bin Hamid, who got education in Lebanon and Samira Khashokji urged the families to send their daughters to protect the science because of the important role of women in the nation’s renaissance through articles written by them in the local newspapers, and until 1970 the literacy rate among women didn't exceed 2%.

The public discourse calling for the education of girls had one aim,; make girls ideal wives and better mothers. And society was forced to accept that after the increase number of Saudi men marrying non-Saudi educated women. The aim of replacing female teachers from neighboring countries with Saudi female teachers was practicedto save society from the change by bringing women teachers having relatively open culture, and for that reason the first college was established in Riyad in 1970 for this purpose, and was followed by the opening of several institutions in Makah, Jeddah Dammam, and others.

Saudi television was opened in 1962, and the first female broadcaster, Nawal Bakhsh, appeared on television but she was subsequently banned due to widespread community rejection.