Progress Amid Resistance

★saudi arabiaby Eleanor Abdella DoumatoPOPULATION: 28,687,000GNI PER CAPITA: US$15,339COUNTRY RATINGS 2004 2009NONDISCRIMINATION AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE: 1.2 1.4AUTONOMY, SECURITY, AND FREEDOM OF THE PERSON: 1.1 1.3ECONOMIC RIGHTS AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY: 1.4 1.7POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIC VOICE: 1.0 1.2SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS: 1.6 1.6(COUNTRY RATINGS ARE BASED ON A SCALE OF 1 TO 5, WITH 1 REPRESENTING THE LOWEST AND 5 THEHIGHEST LEVEL OF FREEDOM WOMEN HAVE TO EXERCISE THEIR RIGHTS)INTRODUCTIONThe Basic Law of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia does not guarantee genderequality. To the contrary, gender inequality is built into Saudi Arabia’sgovernmental and social structures, and is integral to the country’s statesupportedinterpretation of Islam, which is derived from a literal readingof the Koran and Sunna. 1 In issuing religious opinions, state-funded ulema(religious scholars) generally avoid consideration of judicial precedent andevolving social contexts, so that their official posture resists pressure forchange, especially when it comes to controlling women’s behavior.A healthy majority of Saudi citizens agree with the social agenda ofthe ulema, and would not view the inequalities between men and womenas discrimination, but as equivalence—a balance between the rights andduties of men and women as prescribed in Islam and necessary to upholdhonor and family values. 2 A vigorous progressive movement, however,is pushing to improve women’s bargaining power in Islamic family lawcourts and to create parity with men in terms of civil rights, includingthe right to vote, drive, work, and obtain better access to health care andeducational opportunities. Progressive spokespersons are hampered by thekingdom’s limits on political activism and by opposition to legal reformsby religious leaders, but King Abdullah ibn Abd al-Aziz al-Saud has shown425