Saudi Arabian Women

Westerners often hear of how oppressed women are in Saudi Arabia. As a result, one might expect these women to be vocal about their challenges living in such a country. However, contrary to the assumption that they are unhappy, they are quick to defend their country, saying that their often overbearing abayas are parts of their tradition. These women say that they still enjoy freedoms and that “[i]t is Western women… who have been manipulated into becoming the toys of men” (Kristof 272). Even so, they still receive unequal treatment from men. Saudi women journalists must stay in their own rooms when they work while men do not. Because of these types of segregated and deleterious practices, Nicholas Kristof argues in his essay “Saudis in Bikinis” that the West is not being paternalistic in trying to advocate for women’s rights in Saudi Arabia; they are trying to free women who have never tasted true liberty. It is

One Saudi woman, Lana, criticizes American women for displaying their bodies in public, debating that women in Saudi Arabia are free rather than the women in Western Civilization. Lana disparaged Western culture by asking “Why should I show my legs and breasts to men? Is that really freedom?'' This becomes a trend for the answers Kristof had gathered that Saudi women believe they are the ones “free from sexual harassment, free from pornography, free from seeing their bodies used to market cars and colas. It is Western women, they say, who have been manipulated into becoming the toys of men,” demonstrating how Saudi women defend their traditions and essentially attack what is foreign to their

In order for Saudi Arabian culture to have adopted such a mentality they must have had large amounts of people - particularly males - with the same belief in extreme modesty and male superiority. If at the inception of the Saudi Arabian culture individuals believed females were inferior to males, Saudi Arabian culture must have adopted policies that implied male superiority and misogyny. The means by which cultures create consensus upon shared beliefs such as male superiority and misogyny is to make the shared beliefs into a generally accepted ideology or law. Laws are made of rules; they determined “how the [ideology of gender roles] was formulated, applied and implemented” (Yahyaoui 38). In order to make particular gender roles a generally accepted Saudi Arabian ideology, the ideology must have been supported by laws both directly and indirectly. One form of direct control of women is religious police or vigilante. Women aren’t allowed to socialize, act, or dress in a fashion that isn’t considered appropriate. In order to ensure that no woman is behaving outside of what the culture condones, Saudi Arabian males created

Every Saudi woman irrespective of her age has a male guardian that protect her and he is like a legal representative to her. Therefore, if she wants to travel, go to university or to get a bankcard, she have to get permission from her male guardian first. This is the reason why they are offended, but because that all the woman’s are like that, they look at it as something normal; they feel protected and not abusive, but some of them are fighting against.

Accustomed to stereotypical depictions, Westerners are told that Middle Eastern women are passive, weak, and always veiled. It is often assumed that the severe conditions in Saudi Arabia—where women are not even allowed to drive cars—represent the norm for women throughout the Middle East and in the larger Muslim world. In reality, Saudi Arabia’s versions of both Islam and sexism are rather unique in their severities, although the rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan is now emulating the sexist Saudi model. Women enjoy political and social rights in many Muslim countries, and Egypt has recently granted women the right to divorce their husbands. In Tunisia, abortion is legal, and polygamy is prohibited. Women have served as ministers in the Syrian, Jordanian, Egyptian, Iraqi, and Tunisian governments, and as Vice President in Iran.

Jean P. Sasson wrote a true event story about a Saudi Arabian princess. It was about Sultana’s own life story and the whole book is in her point of view. To protect her identity she had to change names and obviously not explicit hers. It’s a nonfiction story of the outrage that is forced upon women throughout Saudi Arabia even today, a story that leaves readers praying for change before it is too late for the next generation of girls growing up in Saudi Arabia. This story is quite scary and very unbelievable how women around the world are being treated. Even though Arabians have a very different point of view of religion and marriage it’s really all sexist and very sad what women have to go through, no matter rich or poor.

Like many other laws in Saudi Arabia, the law to wear the abaya was picked from a few verses of the Koran – ones that were appealing to the king. The fact is that religious books contradict themselves, and if you want to take one verse about modesty from the Koran, then you must consider them all. The point of the abaya is to protect women from unacceptable male attention and sexual harassment. However, some say that it does exactly the opposite, by adding mystery. Within Saudi society, the abaya often carries with it a certain perception of how the woman wearing it should act: walk politely, avoid eye-contact, talk in a low voice, etc. The ideal honorable and proper Saudi woman would present herself as the perfectly molded, mysterious, religious, and modest woman. Interestingly, the older generation of Saudi women was not required to wear abayas. Although no answer has been found after much research of when the abaya was implemented, I believe it may have been enforced in the 1970s. Presently, it has been viewed in religious terms. Some women have been so brainwashed that they will say they are

“Life is full of unhappiness and most of it caused by women (Harik and Marston 11)”. For women in the Middle East life is faced with great and unequal odds, as their human rights are limited, due to Islamic beliefs and that of patriarchy. From their daily actions at home to their physical appearance, Middle Eastern women are portrayed as quiet, faceless women veiled from head to toe. While this image is just another stereotype, women in the middle do face many obstacles and challenges of creating their own identity as they are frequently denied a voice in their rights. Living in a society dominated by men life is not, but regardless women in the Middle East, predominantly Muslims, continue to fight for

Men and women in the US have equal rights in terms of driving and taking cases to court. As for education, in the US, colleges have a higher enrollment of females than males, this is far from Saudi Arabia where many women remain with minimal levels of education as result of their male dominated society. The one area where the two countries have a slight similarity is in the work force. Women in Saudi Arabia are limited to positions that are suitable to their nature. In the United States women and men generally pursue undergraduate degrees in different fields which results in the majority of men a women commonly working in different professions and fields. This is one of the explanations for the supposed “wage gap” in the United States. Another example gender stratification in the US workforce comes from the “CEO Power Gap” and the “glass ceiling”. Both of these concepts indicate that women have historically had difficulties obtaining the highest levels of management within the corporate world. In spite of all of this, it is clear the conditions for women in the United States are significantly better than those for women in Saudi Arabia. The concept of femininity in Saudi Arabia is one of independence and inferiority to the superior and dominant idea of masculinity within the nation. This is simply not the case, especially to that degree, in the United

( Bridget Johnson). And that’s clearly not acceptable in our Canadian society because women are free to practice their daily rights like everyone in the community. My uncle have visited Saudi Arabia for business purposes in 2009 and he cleared to me that women there do not choose to marry someone because clearly for traditional purposes love stories cannot work it’s the father’s responsibly to find her a husband and that’s something we have never practice in Canada. In our Canadian society a woman should be an adult to get married and she can never be forced to but according to Saudi Arabia’s mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al Asheikh “Grand Mufti described the marriage of girls below that age as “permissible” (Arabian Business 2014). Last but not least as I covered before women in Canada have the full right to drive around but in Saudi Arabia that is a crime because

Living behind the veil may be all the women of Saudi Arabia know, some may be comfortable with it, others afraid of the consequences they will face for not wearing it. Either way they do not have much of a choice since they are constantly chaperoned around by a male guardian know as a “mahram”, according to theweek.co.uk 4 “The guardian is often a male relative and will accompany women on all their errands, including trips and visits to the doctor”. Can you imagine having to go

Arabia are living their life in weird ways. Women are not allowed to wear their type of clothes in

The women of Saudi Arabia have been oppressed by the men of the country for generations due to the ignorance of the people, their Islamic faith, and the government. They have no rights and they must receive permission from their husbands or fathers to work, travel, and receive medical attention. The memoir Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia by Jean Sasson, is an excellent example of the oppression of women in Saudi Arabia and the literary devices of characterization and setting help to bring the oppression to life.

Women in the United States and Saudi Arabia are all trying to maintain society’s dress code as woman, but there are differences in how conservative they are, their laws in their countries, and what society already expects from them as

Most people have seen a woman walking down the street or in a mall clad in what appears to be scarves wrapped around her head, covering her hair, ears, and neck. In some situations these women even have a veil covering up most of their face. This is becoming a common occurrence in the United States as the Islamic population grows. Some may view this as a way to make these women subservient, making it seem like they don’t have an identity or a voice. This leaves many to wonder why they would wear such a thing in modern America where women are treated as equals and do have a voice. The truth behind the headscarf does