Saudi women not in the driver’s seat

Elation turned to tears this week in Saudi Arabia as women’s rights took a small step forward and a giant leap back.

Just 48 hours after King Abdullah announced to his Shura Council of advisers on Sunday that, henceforth, women would have the right to stand for office and to nominate candidates in future municipal elections, a court convicted a Saudi woman of driving without government permission. It sentenced her to 10 lashes with a whip, the most serious punishment ever given for the offence.

Shaima Ghassaniya, who is in her 30s, was found guilty of driving without permission in Jeddah in July. Inspired by “Arab Spring” uprisings against autocratic rulers, Saudi women began this summer to challenge the driving restrictions, getting behind the wheel in the capital, Riyadh, and other cities.

Since then, women have been appearing in the streets driving their cars once or twice a week. Until Tuesday, none had been sentenced by the courts.

“The verdict is shocking to me, but we were expecting this kind of reaction.” Sohila Zein el-Abydeen, a prominent female member of the governmental National Society for Human Rights, told Associated Press, bursting into tears as she spoke.

Philip Luther, deputy director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa division, confirmed the court ruling, and called it a step back. “If they are still going to face being flogged for trying to exercise their right to freedom of movement then the king’s much-trumpeted ‘reforms’ actually amount to very little,” he said.

Indeed, King Abdullah’s vaunted political reforms appear to have amounted to less than initially thought. Women are not being allowed to participate in municipal elections being held this Thursday, but only in future elections. Since this week’s election is only the second election held in the country since 1963, it’s not at all clear when those future elections will be.

(The previous election was held in 2005, but the government extended the existing councils’ term for two more years.) “It wouldn’t have been a problem to postpone this election for a month and have women participate in this round,” said Wajeha Al-Huwaider, a Saudi women’s activist.

King Abdullah had also announced that women would be appointed to his advisory Shura Council. That, too, however, would only take place in the future, a delay that also worries Saudi women.

“For the Shura Council, it’s another year and a half; for the municipal election, it’s another four years – anything could happen during that time,” Ms. Al-Huwaider said. “That will give time for extremists to reverse the decision,” she said.

Despite some modest measures to establish women’s civil rights, Saudi women continue to face substantial discrimination under the law.

A system known as “guardianship” requires that every women have a close male relative to serve as her guardian, one who would give her authority to travel and permission to work if her choice of employment is one not normally deemed appropriate for a woman.

In addition, women in public are required to be fully covered, usually by a black robe known as an abaya, and are required to be accompanied by an employee or a close male relative when riding in a car. Women are not permitted to drive themselves.

The freedom to drive has been a rallying cry for women in the past two decades.

In 1990, 40 prominent women staged an unusual protest in Riyadh: Ordering their chauffeurs out of their cars, the women drove slowly to the centre of the capital. The reaction was harsh.

The women were arrested, and those with jobs (many were university professors) were dismissed from their positions. In several cases, the women and their husbands were barred for more than two years from leaving the kingdom, and the names of the protesters were read from the pulpit of every mosque in the country, denounced as whores.

In 20 years, not a lot has changed. Even the king’s modest reforms this week came as a surprise. While there have been marginal protests and modest calls for liberal reforms in the country, the louder, more religious voice in Saudi Arabia calls for maintaining the subservient role for women in society.

In making his announcement, King Abdullah may be serving notice that he intends to buck the religious tide.

Indeed, he took the trouble Sunday to emphasize the religious authority for making his move. But as long as the religious establishment controls Saudi courts, it may be a long time before women can be sure of their rights.