Running head: SAUDI WOMEN DRIVING

Saudi Women Driving Mixed Method Design Zakia Alhashem Colorado State University

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Introduction:
Womens rights is one of the most controversial and critical issues in Saudi Arabia. Male guardianship, political rights, and women mobility are very significant challenges for Saudi women. Male guardianship is announced as unchangeable issue because its roots are related to the Shariuaa, Islamic law, while womens political rights were guaranteed by King Abdullah, the current King, to be given in 2015. However, the topic of women driving is still a controversial issue. In 1990, Saudi government issued a ban on women driving while women still demanding this right through different approaches. This study investigates Saudi students attitude in U.S.A. toward Saudi women driving in U.S.A. and in Saudi Arabia. In addition, the study will investigate the effect of living in U.S.A. on Saudi students attitude toward Saudi women driving. The literature review will exhibit the history of Saudi women driving Moreover, it will present a background for womens situation and position in Saudi Arabia, and the concerns toward this matter. In conclusion, it will include some reports about human rights in Saudi Arabia, especially womens rights.

Research Questions
1- How living in United States affect Saudi students attitude toward womens driving? 2- How do the place and correlate with Saudi students opinions of Saudi womens driving? Does Saudi support women driving out of Saudi Arabia but they do not support women driving in Saudi Arabia.

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Hypotheses
1- Most of the participants will have positive attitude toward Saudi womens driving according to the length of stay, positive correlation, gender , age , level of education 2- Most of the participants will agree on Saudi womens driving in U.S.A. and disagree to Saudi womens driving in Saudi Arabia.

Literature Review
Background: This background is important to understand the issue of womens driving in Saudi Arabia. The chastity of women in Saudi Arabia is significantly related to their families honor and dignity. Saudi people give great importance to womens virginity, because it means the familys honor or Ird. Ird is very sensitive matter in Saudi Arabia. Due to this sensitivity; Saudi society is designed to keep women within strict clear limitations in order to ensure that women will not lose their sexual virtue. This concern imposed a lot of obstacles on womens mobility, education and employment. So, women are not allowed to drive, they may be arrested if they ride with a male who is not their male relative or chauffeur. In addition, they are not allowed to travel inside or outside the country without the permission of their male guardian. Actually, many Saudi families refuse the idea of their daughters living outside their homes (Baki, 2004). The ideal Islamic women are a gender ideology, which has been adopted by the political culture of Saudi Arabia. Women as mothers, wives, and educators of children are the ideal women. Women are said to be the basic unit of the society and men are their

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protectors. As a result, women became invisible in Saudi society, and they believe that women who work abandoned their role as housewives and a as a part of the Islamic family (Doumato, 1992). Moreover, the education policy in Saudi Arabia follows a segregated system. Males and females are educated according to the context of the social expectations of the both sex. For example, males are taught about male activities and females are taught about nurturing and being mothers and wives (Baki, 2004). Women driving: The first public attempt for Saudi women to drive was on the 6th of November 1990. Fifty Saudi women gathered at supermarket parking. They dismissed their drivers and drove their cars in the streets of Riyadh in a time when there was not a ban on women driving, but it was publicly known that it is not ordinary thing. The women were arrested, and within days, the Ministry of Interior made an official ban on women driving (Middle East Research and Information Project). According to Doumato (2004), the names of these women were posted in public spaces under the title here are the names of the sluts who advocate vice and corruption on the earth. Their names and ages were published, and they were from well-known families. Five of them were had the title doctors. In addition, some of these women were teachers and they were dismissed of their jobs as a punishment. Some of these women received some calls that charge them of sexual immorality. One month after this incident, a television program was produced addressing the behavior of a good Muslim woman (Middle East Research and Information project).

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According to Human Rights Watch (2012), a Saudi woman called Manal al-Sharif was arrested on the 22 of May after she appeared in a video driving her car in Khobar streets accompanied by her brother. She was released on 30 May, after she appealed to King Abdullah. Later, on the 17 of Jun, 40 Saudi women who had international driving licenses lead a campaign called Women2drive. According to al-Hayat, (2013), some young men took it upon themselves to prevent women from driving by crashing into the cars driven by women. In fact, Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world where women are not allowed to drive (human rights watch, 2012). The Saudi justice minister announced that womens driving is a social decision. On the other hand, he issued a decision to whip a girl who was driving in Jeddah to lift a relative of her who was in need for a medical help. Moreover, Saudi women need their guardian permission in order to be allowed to drive in Kuwait (Arabnews, 2012). In addition, the late Saudi Crown Prince Nayef made sure during his 37 years as Interior minister that women do not drive in Saudi Arabia (ABC news, 2012). In conclusion, there is a lack in the literature related to Saudi women driving and position in Saudi Arabia. In addition, there are no clear or significant reasons to prevent women from driving cars in Saudi Arabia

Method and Material:

To conduct this study, the researcher designed a questionnaire to collect qualitative and quantitative data at the same time the researcher designed this questionnaire based on personal experience of the research problem and being a part of the Saudi society. In this questionnaire, the researcher aimed to test the hypothesis through five questions in which

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the participants answers: no, yes, agree; disagree with explanations for their choice. The questionnaire starts with some demographic questions such as age, gender and marital status. The first question is if the participant drives in U.S.A. or not. The second question is if the participant allows a female relative to drive in U.S.A. the third asks the participant if womens driving were allowed in Saudi Arabia, would he or she allow their female relative to drive. The fourth question is about the attitude, and the fifth is if they think womens driving ban would change in the next few years or not. The questions from the second to the fifth are accompanied with an explanations request. This questionnaire was not tested for the reliability measures before used in this research. Finally, this questionnaire was presented to the participants in English language and they were given the choice to answer in Arabic in order to overcome the language barrier. For the analysis, the quantitative data will be presented and charts will be used to apply the correlation analysis. Then, the qualitative data analysis will follow through presenting the themes that occurred in the questionnaire. The interpretation of the both data will be included in the discussion section (Creswell, 2012). Finally, the limitation of this study will be addressed. Participants: The participants in the study are 7 females and 7 males. Three of the participants are in the age from 18-24, eight of them are from 25-30, and three of them are 31-37. Eight of them are married and six are single. The minimum length stay in U.S.A. is 12 years, and the maximum is more than 6 years. The level of education was a half graduate student and the other half was a undergraduate student. Procedure:

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The questionnaire was distributed by the researcher in Fort Collins, CO, at social activities for Saudi students. The participants were told that if they wish to fill a questionnaire that would without financial compensation, but they would be informed about the research findings through e-mails.

Research Design
This study will be conducted through using the convergent parallel design. Using mixed method design will provide a clear understanding for the research problem and the research question. According to (Creswell, 2012), mix method is chosen when neither quantitative nor qualitative designs are enough to answer the research question or problem sufficiently when they are used separately. Quantitative data can lead to measure and describe the importance of a trend about large number of persons. On the other hand; qualitative data provides peoples opinion in the study and different perspective of the topic which lead to complex picture of the research problem. In addition, it is used to give an alternative perspective in a study. A developed complex understanding of a social phenomenon will result through combining quantitative and qualitative designs (Green& Caracelli, 1997). Since this topic concerns a Middle Eastern country and it is presented in a Western country, mixed method is a good choice to conduct this study in order to help the reader to get a full image of the situation. The purpose of the convergent mixed methods design is to gather both quantitative and qualitative data in order to gain a better understanding of the problem because the weaknesses of one of them will be supported by the strength of the other. One advantage of

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this design is that it holds the advantages of the both designs. For example, quantitative data provides generalization whereas qualitative provides detailed information about the setting (Creswell, 2012). In conclusion, the convergent design fits the purpose of this study which is how living in U.S.A affects or correlate with Saudi students attitude toward Saudi womens driving, and what is the affect of the place of womens driving affect their opinion about womens driving. Sampling: Purposeful sampling was the main method in selecting the participants, because this study concerns a specific demographic. The population of this study is Saudi students in Colorado State University and Saudi residents in Fort Collins. In addition, this sampling is a convenience sampling, because the participants were in the reach of the researchers and were ready to participate in the survey.

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Results
Saudi women driving in U.S.A. 2 4
Yes No I will

Figure 1: Do you drive in U.S.A.?

When the researcher controlled the gender, the researcher found that all the males who participated in the study drive. Alternatively, four females out of seven drive, two females say that they will drive, and one does not drive. There is no intercorrelation between gender and Saudi students drive in U.S.A., since more than half of the female are driving and two are willing to drive.

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6 6 5 5 4 3 2 2 1 1 0 0 Undergraduate Graduate 0 0 0 0 0 Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

Figure 2: Would you allow your relative female to drive in U.S.A.?

When the level of education was controlled, the researcher found that six who are graduate students choose strongly agree to this question, and one chooses agree. In addition, five of the undergraduate choose strongly agree and two choose agree. This shows that there is no correlation between the level of education and supporting women driving.

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Allowing women driving in Saudi Arabia 5

Yes

No

Figure 3: If women are allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, will you let your relative female drive?

Nine of the participants say that they would not allow their female relatives to drive in Saudi Arabia, while five said they would allow their female relatives to drive. There is a correlation between Saudi students support for women driving and the place of driving.

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4 4 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 1-2Y 1

Yes No

0 3-4Y 5-6Y

0 More than 6 Y

Figure 4: Did you start supporting women driving after coming to U.S.A.?

The researcher examines the relation between supporting women driving and the length of staying in U.S.A. The researcher found a positive correlation between the two variables. There is a positive correlation between the lengths of stay in U.S.A; and starting to support women driving.

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6 6 5 4 3 3 2 2 1 0 0 18-24 25-30 31-37 Older than 37 0 0 0 3 Yes No

Figure 5: Do you think women driving ban will change in next few years?

Most of the participants think that the ban on womens driving will change in the next few years. The researcher found a correlation between the age and the perspective on changing the ban on Saudi womens driving. The older the participants get, the more perspective of change they have. As they grow up, they gain more experience about change in the ban of women driving. There are some themes that occurred while conducting this study. When participants were asked if they would allow their female relatives to drive in U.S.A., most of them answered strongly agree, because of the good traffic system, roads are safe and life in U.S.A. demands that. For the third question, most of the participants said no relating their answer to the amount of accidents in Saudi Arabia; girls may be filtered by guys which would give them bad interruption, road are already so crowded, and women will spend a lot of time outside and they will not do their duty as mothers and wives. In addition, society would not accept the new situation easily. On the other hand; few of them said yes, in

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order to give women a chance to be independent and to be able to support themselves and do apply their homes need. In the fourth question about the attitude toward womens driving, those who answered yes said that through living in U.S.A., they can seehow driving give women ability to do their task, be independent, and help in take care of themselves and their children, their attitude changed from neutral or refuse to supporting. Finally, in the question about changing the ban of womens driving in Saudi Arabia, some participants said that such a thing will change because women started fighting for their rights; others said that we need first to change the society so the idea becomes acceptable.

Discussion
Through the study, some of the hypotheses were proven to be valid and others invalid. No correlation exists between driving and the gender. Both females and males are driving or willing to drive. This might be an indicator of Saudi women desire to drive though they are not allow to drive in their country, which explains the strength of the campaign in demanding womens driving right. In addition, there is no correlation found between the level of education and supporting womens driving. Both graduates and undergraduates believed driving is womens right, and life in U.S.A demanding women to be independent. Some of them said that the traffic system in U.S.A is very good which does not endanger womens lives. It seems that a relationship exist between supporting womens driving and the place. When the participants were asked if they would allow their female relatives to drive in Saudi Arabia, most of them said no for several reasons. The main reason was that girls might be flirted with by guys or they might make relationship with guys which ashamed their families. This comment is related to what was mentioned in

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the lit review. According to Baki (2004), womens chastity represents her family honor. Saudi society is very sensitive when it comes to womens chastity that is why the construct societys customs and norms to keep their womens purity and good reputation. There is a negative correlation between womens driving in Saudi Arabia and Saudi students supporting for Saudi womens driving. They also mentioned the crowded streets and amount of car accidents in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, a positive correlation exists between the lengths of stay in U.S.A. and starting supporting Saudi womens driving. It seems the more Saudi students stay in U.S.A., the more they start supporting womens driving. The researcher relates this relation to the difference in lifestyle between Saudi Arabia and the United States of America. Life in U.S.A. demands some Saudi women to do what is considered mens job in Saudi Arabia, such as getting the children to their schools and going to the grocery because Saudi men are busy with study. For the last question about changing the ban on womens driving in Saudi Arabia, most of the participants between the ages of 25-37 believed that the ban on womens driving will change in the next few years because there is a movement among women asking and appealing to the king to allow women to drive, especially that king Abdullah promised to give women the right to vote by 2015 (Human Rights Watch, 2012). Participants in this age witnessed many changes in laws and society though they were slow changes. The researcher relates the positive perception of change to the age and experience of how things go on in their country. Since there is no correlation exists between genders, level of education and driving and supporting women driving among the Saudi participants, I believe a qualitative study

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would be more useful in gaining a clear feedback and view of points through interviewing participants in order to recognize factors and backgrounds that affect their opinion in this case. On the other hand, through the quantitative data, the correlation between supporting womens driving and the country of driving was obvious. Finally, this study was conducted in a mix method design in order to gain a better understanding for womens driving in Saudi Arabia topic.

Limitations
While considering the findings of this study, we should take in consideration some of the limitations of this study. The researcher did not conduct a pilot test for the questionnaire due to the limited time. In addition, the sampling was a small one, because it was a purposeful sampling and the target population, Saudi students, was starting to leave U.S.A. for the summer vacation. So, the researcher used the sample that was with her reach. In addition, the correlation analysis needs at least 30 participants to be applied (Creswell, 2012). For future studies, I would indicate having a larger sampling and more time in order to make a pilot test for the questionnaire.

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References
Baki, R. (2004). Gender-segregated education in Saudi Arabia: Its impact on social norms and the Saudi. Education policy analysis archive, 12, 28. Creswell, J. W. (2012). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Education. Doumato, E. A. (1992).Gender, monarchy, and national identity in Saudi Arabia. British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 19(1), 31-47. Doumato, E. A. (1991). Women and the stability of Saudi Arabia. Middle East Report, 171, 34-37.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-06-16/saudi-crown-prince-dies/4074966 http://www.arabnews.com/news/452615 http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/middle-east/2013/05/02/Women-driving-in-Saudiforever-a-thorny-issue.html http://www.hrw.org/world-report-2012/world-report-2012-saudi-arabia

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Appendix Saudi Womens Driving Survey

Age Gender

: :

18-24 Female High school Single

25-30 Male. Undergraduate

31-37

older than 37.

Education level: Marital Status:

Graduate.

Married. 3-4y 5-6y more than 6 years.

Length of staying in U.S.A.: 1-2y 1- Do you drive in U.S.A? Yes No

I will

2- Would you allow your relative female to drive in U.S.A.? Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree Explain: .... 3- If women are allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, will you let your relative female drive? Yes No Explain: ... 4- Did you start supporting women driving after coming to U.S.A.? Yes No Explain: .... 5- Do you think women driving ban will change in the next few years? Yes No Explain: .... Note: You can answer in Arabic