By Sarah Adham
Are women in the Gulf really oppressed? Unfortunately this widely-held opinion is based on ignorance and prejudice by people in the West. Women in the Gulf are just as intelligent, articulate, capable and ambitious as their Western counter-parts. They just haven’t been given the opportunities by their governments to exercise all that ‘drive’ until recent times – meaning in the last two decades.
Nowadays, there are many universities, colleges and learning centres in the Gulf region specially geared towards women. Many women work as teachers, business women, psychologists, gynaecologists and in many other professions.
Women in the UAE and certain other Gulf states are free to drive their cars, anywhere and at any time, and although Saudi Arabia has banned women drivers up until now – many observers say it’ll only be a matter of time before the law changes. Certainly from my experience as an English Teacher in Saudi Arabia, the young adult women I taught were far from being oppressed. They were well-clued up about all the latest catwalk fashions, even more so than women in the West and the latest in make-up trends and hairstyles. They were happy to be driven around by their chauffeurs to any amount of exclusive shopping malls within the capital, Riyadh. Many of them, I found, were thoroughly spoilt and ‘pampered’, had their own maids, cooks and baby-sitters and therefore had the ‘freedom’ to meet up at a branch of ‘Starbucks’ for an afternoon coffee! The girls I taught, many of them, had access to swimming-pools (for women only, of course), work-out gyms and liked to go bowling in the new bowling-alley that exists in the women’s section of the Kingdom Mall in Riyadh. They also informed me that they liked to play ‘Pool’, more popularly known as, ‘Billiardo’ in Saudi Arabia.
Some students were into American sit-coms such as ‘Friends’ and others liked to watch ‘So you think you can dance?’ – I’m sure they weren’t watching those semi-clad dancers while their parents were around! A friend phoned me from Saudi while I was holidaying in the UK and informed me as part of the conversation we were having that roughly a third of all the Porsches and Lambourghini’s in the world are purchased by Saudi women who then like to ‘Tailor-design’ them with diamond studs, as well as other ‘stuff’. Many Saudi women as well as women from the UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait are heavy smokers. Strange how they might see that as ‘liberating’?
All in all, the West needs to wake up to the fact that these ‘Veiled women’ are not all Quran reading, husband-loving, ‘paragons of virtue’ as they would have us believe. There are some wild women around, for sure. Neither are they all oppressed, walking ten feet behind their husbands, and imprisoned in their houses on a twenty-four-seven basis! Many women in the Gulf are conversant in English more so than at any other time in the past and the arrival of the Internet has flung open wide all the doors to the outside world that were previously closed. So shame on those in the West who ‘spin’ untrue reports about Gulf women. I say, get your facts right!
About the Author
Sarah has been living in the Arabian Gulf for the last five years. My family and I moved to Saudi Arabia after a brief stint in the United Arab Emirates. We came over to the region from the United Kingdom in 2003. Living in the Gulf has its own challenges as well as limitations but there have been plenty of fun and inspiring moments as well. Visit http://www.thegulfhealth.blogspot.com
It sounds interesting but I am not sure that I agree with you completely.
What do you disagree with in particular, Jim?
Maybe you are familiar with the expression “bird in a gilded cage”
You know, if I can’t drive, I expect someone to do it for me. If I can’t work, I expect someone to provide for me. These are foolish ‘expectations’ to have. These are the piviledges of the rich, who can obviously afford to ‘be kept’ (see ‘bird in a gilded cage’ comment). There are many who can neither drive nor be driven, keep nor be kept. What then?
And what if my interests in life extend beyond being driven around in a personally decorated porche or similar? What if my interests extend beyond playing games and working out in the gym? What if I believe my voice is worthy of being heard, that I have something to contribute to the wider world? What if I have convictions? What if I disagree with my husband or his colleagues? What if I KNOW I can do as well or better? What if I want to drive off into the sunset alone to follow my dreams?
What if I were a man?
You know I am not.
Should I therefore not want these things?
Did god write in my DNA that I was not to have such convictions?
Did he fail?
Or did some mam somewhere decide this thing?
Or is it really the case that women who are kept in such a manner have no other desires or meaning in their lives…through choice…?
Yours curiously
Thinking cap on
You know sometimes I blame the media for spreading this kind of ignorance. I’ve seen powerful women in the Middle East who have reached tremendous achievements. Women are being respected as much as women from all around the world are being recognized by their works.
I just hope they could gain more exposure and influence from all over the globe.
Thinking Cap made a lot of good points.
We hear a lot in the West about oppressed rich Saudi women not being allowed to drive cars, but I fell more sympathy for their maids, cooks and baby-sitters. Their male chauffeurs don’t have lifestyles I would envy either.
Surely there’s more to freedom than a privileged minority owning Porsches, Lambourghinis and all the latest catwalk fashions.
That said, there are now a lot of very well-educated Saudi women. It’s possible that they will demand freedoms that will then begin to trickle down. Then again perhaps they won’t.
Knowing about make-up and fashion, being driven to a mall to consume products, and having domestic servants are not the hallmarks of freedom from oppression.
A pedestal is as restrictive as a cage.
I’m sorry, I have more to say. I was really expecting a better article based on the introduction, and I’m incredibly disappointed. To suggest that women’s freedom means the ability to shop and dress up is just as offensive as the suggestion that all Gulf women are subservient, housebound “paragons of virtue”. And let’s not forget that not _everyone_ in the gulf is rich; how enjoyable is that driving ban for Saudi women who can’t afford a chauffer?