Ossana 1

Sally Ossana
Mrs. Jackie Burr, Instructor
English 1010, Section 5
21, November 2016
Saudi Arabian Women: The Restrictions They Face Everyday
Leila Khazen continues to be one of the most successful women in all of
Saudi Arabia. She remains wealthy and powerful, and even controls a Saudi
industrial conglomerate that is worth billions of dollars (Saudi women A11).
Leila Khazen remains an inspiration to all the women in Saudi Arabia and provides
as an example of what Saudi women are really capable of (Saudi women A11).
However, because of Saudi law she cannot drive, cannot have business meetings in
public and must have written permission from her husband in order to be able to
leave the country (Saudi Arabia: Violations 49, Saudi Women A11). Even then,
she is still forced to be escorted especially if traveling abroad. Women have to be
escorted everywhere. For example, A woman in a car or shopping in a market can
be questioned by religious police on being unescorted. (Saudi Arabia:
Violations 49). Unescorted women can be questioned or even detained for any
length of time. (Saudi Arabia: Violations49).
There are many reasons that Saudi Arabian women face so many
restrictions. Most say that the regulations on women are strictly because of religion

Ossana 2

(ODonnell and Williams). However others assert that this mostly comes from
Saudi Arabian tradition and culture (Saudi Arabia 46). Others address that
women have limitations mostly out of male domination, because men think they
are better than women, a mindset that has existed in this country for centuries. The
women in Saudi Arabia face multiple restrictions every day, but slowly
improvements have been made over the years.
The women in Saudi Arabia are restricted from doing the most mundane
things because of the laws in their country (Saudi women A11). According to
the Koran, women are required to avoid all contact with men other than their
fathers, brothers, husbands, or sons (Saudi women A11). The result of this
means women are not allowed to work where men work. They usually have to
work in women wards in hospitals as a nurse, work as tellers in women only banks,
or teach at all girl schools or universities (Saudi women A11). Because of these
factors it can make it really hard for women to obtain jobs at all:
Only six percent of women in the overall population are categorized
as workers, many [are] absorbed into teaching, nursing, medicine or
charity work. Although many women do not work from choice, there
are also restrictions on their participation in various professions. In
some cases, the constraints on women are not enshrined by law, but in
practice. (Saudi Arabia 46)

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Some women cannot get certain jobs because they do not get any education or
training for jobs. For example in Saudi Arabia, no education programs for
engineering or law exist. Saudi women also find it hard to get jobs because they
are taking jobs away from men. In traditional culture, men work over women so
the job will always be given to a man over a woman (Saudi Arabia 46). Because
of limited jobs, women are forced travel for hours to get to and from their job and
women are often assigned jobs which have nothing to do with their fields or are
below their qualifications because that is the only job that they can get. Plus, a
women college graduate may still wait for years before obtaining a job because of
their limitability.
One of the simplest rights that are not granted to Saudi women is driving. In
fact, Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that does not allow women to
drive (Sherman). Because of this, women are usually chauffeured to school or
work. Womens chauffeurs can sometimes bring harm to their lives. A young girl
being chauffeured can even be subject to sexual harassment or molestation. This
forces women to dread the thought of having to leave home. The country does have
public transportation but can often be unsafe. In fact [a] woman in Saudi Arabia is
liable to die for lack of finding a male [chauffeur] to a nearby clinic or hospital
during an emergency (Saudi Arabia: Violations 49). Technically they do not
have an official sharia law banning women from driving. However, only men are

Ossana 4

allowed drivers licenses. If a woman got arrested for driving, as they frequently
are, it would be because they are driving without a license (Arneson). According to
clerics, women should not drive because driving undermines womens social
values (Sherman). An important government figure, Sheikh Saleh bin Saad alLohaidan, even said that driving affected Saudi womens health:
According to an interview published on Saudi news site Sabq.org,
Sheikh Saleh bin Saad al-Lohaidan, a judicial adviser to a Gulf
psychologists' association, said if a [woman] drives a car for a reason
other than "pure necessity," it would mess up her ovaries and cause
problems with future children. (qtd. in Arneson)
Bin Saad al-Lohaidan continued to claim that driving brought negative
physiological impacts. . . [such that] it automatically affects the ovaries and pushes
the pelvis upwards (qtd. in Arneson). He said women who drive regularly have
varying degrees of clinical problems (Arneson).
Many Saudi Arabian females fight back, and fight for their right to be able to
drive. A group of 40 Saudi women protested against their lack of the right to drive
by ordering their drivers out of their cars and drove down the streets toward the
center of town. All the women who participated in the protest got fired from their
jobs and arrested (Saudi women A11). In addition, [t]hey [faced detainment and
interrogation] by police for eleven hours (Saudi Arabia: Violations 49). The

Ossana 5

women even endured public harassment, and some of the womens husbands got
banned from leaving the kingdom for two years. The names of all the protestors
were read at every mosque in the country, denounced as whores (Saudi women
A11).
As shown in Figure 1, there is a Women2Drive online campaign on social
media with more than 18,000 likes on facebook to help Saudi Arabian women help
to gain awareness and be able to get the right to drive (Sherman). They revolted by
driving on city streets, filming themselves and then uploading the videos to
YouTube. In 2013, an online movement launched called The October 26 Womens
Driving Campaign.

Figure 1: The Women2Drive Campaign uses YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook to

help gain awareness for Saudi Arabian women obtaining the right to drive. Arneson

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The movement, backed by Saudi women obtained lots of supporters, with over
16,000 signatures on the online petition. It urged the women in Saudi Arabia to get
behind the wheel and drive. Many of women who drove have been spotted by
traffic police, and the police have not even stopped them (Jamjoom). Saudi blogger
and opinion writer Tamador Alyami, said she drove her car . . . to her parents
house and passed two traffic policemen, and did not get stopped. (qtd. in
Jamjoom).
Other women cannot stand it anymore, and moved out of Saudi Arabia
because they were not allowed to drive. These women still fought for the women in
Saudi Arabia for them to be able to gain this right. One woman, kept her Saudi
Arabian license plates on her car, because she dreamed of going back home to
Saudi Arabia and being able to drive in her home country legally.
There are some advances being made in women restrictions in Saudi Arabia.
In the 2012 Olympics, three Muslim countries including Saudi Arabia admitted
women athletes to the Olympics for the first time. Accepting these women into the
Olympics will hopefully create a systematic change to reduce discrimination in
these countries. However, Saudi Arabia provides no physical education for girls in
school. They closed gyms for women and forced them to play in underground
leagues. As a result many of the women athletes find it nearly impossible to even
qualify for the Olympics (Longman and Pilon). Ultimately bringing these women

Ossana 7

to the Olympics will help to gain awareness to the world about womens rights in
Saudi Arabia.
Other advancements include, women making up the predominant gender in
universities more than men in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Arabian government now
encourages women to join the workforce. Because of this students at Effat
university plan careers that their mothers could only dream of. The Saudi King
himself even advocates for womens rights in Saudi Arabia. The king also recently
made twenty percent of his Shura Council women (ODonnell and Williams).
Slowly improvements are being made in Saudi Arabia. However it will be a
slow process, because most of the limitations women face is strictly because of the
culture in their country. Culture does not change quickly, so the small
improvements made mean a lot to all the women in Saudi Arabia.

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Works Cited
Arneson, Krystin. Saudi Cleric Says Driving Hurts Women's Ovaries Ahead of
Protest. Bustle Bustle.com, 30 Sep. 2013. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.
Jamjoom, Mohammed. Saudi government says laws will be fully enforced on
'female driving' day. CNN.com. CNN.com, 23 Oct. 2013. Web. 1 Nov.
2016.
Longman, Jere, and Mary Pilon. "Women from all nations expected at Olympics; 3
Muslim countries set to field female athletes, including Saudi Arabia."
International Herald Tribune 22 Mar. 2012. Global Issues in Context. Web.
26 Oct. 2016.
Norah, O'Donnell, and Williams Holly. "Saudi Arabian Women Do Not Have the
Same Rights As Men and Many Say They're Not Even Treated As Full
Citizens of Their Own Country." CBS This Morning (n.d.): Newspaper
Source Plus. Web. 26 Oct. 2016.
"Saudi Arabia: Violations of Women's Human Rights." Women's International
Network News 20.4 (1994): 49. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Oct.
2016.
"Saudi Arabia: Women Face Unemployment And Complex Choices." Women's
International Network News 29.3 (2003): 46. Academic Search Premier.
Web. 26 Oct. 2016.

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"Saudi women denied keys to the kingdom Islamic barriers. Even powerful women
must abide by the rules: no driving, no mixing with associates and no travel
without a husband's permission." Globe & Mail [Toronto, Canada] 11 Jan.
1995: A11. Global Issues in Context. Web. 26 Oct. 2016.
Shannon, Kelly J. "I'm Glad I'm Not a Saudi Woman: The First Gulf War and US
Encounters with Saudi Gender Relations." Cambridge Review of
International Affairs 27.3 (2014): 553-573. Academic Search Premier. Web.
14 Nov. 2016.
Sherman, Erik. This Is How Oppressed Women Are in Saudi Arabia Fortune.
Fortune.com, 17 Mar. 2016. Web. 2 Nov. 2016