Results of the September 11

News Center - The state has regained its authority and replaced religious scholars in determining gender roles, as a result of internal and external pressures imposed on the kingdom after the events of September 11, 2001. Saudi Arabia was forced to open its doors to foreign organizations and journalists, to avoid itself from the suspicion of terrorism and Western media flocked to search the roots of terrorism, and foreign organizations designed projects to involve Saudi women as they are the basis of society.

Presence of women after 2001

The attacks on September 11 are the beginning of the spread of terrorism in the world and it was an important step in the path of the emancipation of Saudi women.

The Saudi authority rushed to employ women in the media sector and they appeared on television, and celebrated the achievements of many women who distinguished themselves in several fields, including Dr. Ghada Al-Mutairi for her excellence in the field of innovation, plastic artist Huda Al-Omar and poet Fatima Al-Qarni, and others.

Women of the royal family participated in economic, educational, and international forums, and through their writings in local newspapers supported the new social change.

Stories about successful and independent women appeared in the international and local newspapers, and Saudi-funded channels discussed issues of unemployment, education, marriage, divorce, violence against women, and youth problems.

The educated women, one of them is a journalist Hasnaa Abdul Aziz,  appeared openly, criticizing the gender discrimination, marginalization of women, leadership, work, travel, and called on the states to change reality.

Women have been very active in the field of economics and they have wealth, such as Rania Salama, owner of an enterprise for commercial and marketing services, Lama Abdul-Aziz Alsuliman, and many others.

In 2004, the first women's economic center called "Khadija Bent Khuwailid Economic Center" was opened.

In the field of political rights, women were excluded from voting municipal elections in 2005 because the state had the difficulty of securing women's voting centers.

In 2009, Nora Al-Fayez was appointed as the first woman Deputy Minister of Education with a master’s degree in education from Utah State University and a BA in sociology from King Saud University.

In 2015, women were granted the right to participate in municipal elections and 30 women were appointed to the Shura Council in 2013 and made up one-fifth of the members of the council. The decision also included that women make up 20% of the members of the council and enabling review and audit decisions concerning Saudi women.

Saudi Arabia's position of international and regional agreements for women

There is no written law in Saudi Arabia and it depend on Islamic law to resolve cases, issue penalties, and obtain rights.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia signed several international agreements regarding women's rights. In 2000, Saudi Arabia signed the CEDAW Convention calling for the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and the second paragraph of Article IX related to granting citizenship Children of Saudi women married to a non-Saudi and on the first paragraph of Article 29, it stipulates that any dispute between two or more of countries parties on the interpretation or application of the agreement.

In April 2019, Saudi Arabia became a member of the Executive Board of the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, and is a member of the Organization for Women Development in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

Education

Saudi Arabia opened female schools significantly, especially in 2002, after the religious police caused the death of fourteen students at a girls ’school fire accident in Mecca when the girls prevented from survived themselves because they did not wear modest dresses.

The State expanded the university education for girls, but they were prevented from studying many professions that society deemed exclusive to men and not suitable for women, and even their entry to the library was very limited on specific days of the week.

The establishment of Nora University was announced in 2008, at the initiative of King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, and it opened two years after the announcement. Girls studied medicine, computing, administration, and pharmacy. In 2010, Scholarships for girls to study abroad re-granted, and the percentage of scholarships for girls was 25%.

Female students are monitored and harassed by the entire education system run by the supervisor "a woman like them", it is forbidden to take mobile phones and photographs, cut hair, wear an embroidered gown, exhibit homosexual behavior, leave the university with a friend, in addition, the student must fill out a form containing the driver's name and approval of the guardian and presenting the card to the guard after the end of the working hours, to allow the exit.

State system

Women have been subjected to most prominent human rights violations in the world, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. From their birth to their death, the Saudi women are subjected to the guardianship of men, meaning that the women in Saudi Arabia are treated as a minor and the men control the smallest details of their lives, even a boy can control an adult woman's life.

The system of guardianship was implemented more after the incident of Princess Mashael Bent Saud, which was executed in mid-July 1977, after an attempt to escape her failure.

The education of women in recent years and the technology revolution and the opportunity to communicate with the world easily "social media" have contributed to increasing the awareness of Saudi women of their rights, and calling for the overthrow of the state system.

The first campaigns started since the beginning of the Arab spring was limited to Twitter and Facebook accounts, because demonstrations and protests are completely prohibited.

In 2011, the first clear-cut campaign was launched through Facebook accounts called "Saudi Women Wanting to Abolish Male Guardianship", in 2018, human rights lawyer Aisha Al-Mana, was arrested and she has been still held in prison for writing an article.

In 2012, Saudi women launched a camping on Twitter with the hashtag, "I am the guardian of myself", in May 2013, a group of activists held a women's symposium called "Women, Commercial Inheritance and Family Provisions".

In 2016, Saudi women launched a campaign demanding to drop the guardianship of men over women.

After escaping of Rahaf Al-Qunun to Canada at the beginning of 2019, Saudi women launched a hashtag" full of the state or migrant".

The Human Rights Watch published two reports, one of them was published in 2008 and called “Forever Minors,” and The second one published in 2016, under the name of “Like a person living in a box.” On August 2, 2019, the state gave women over 21 years of age the right to obtain a passport and travel without the guardian’s consent.

Gender Separation

Women were granted the right to work, but the condition was the approval of the guardian with the implementation of the gender separation system

After the opening of Aramco to King Abdullah University, which started to accept both men and women in 2009, has greatly aroused the ire of Islamic preachers and women, and some preachers have reached the expiation of students seeking mixing education, and considered the king violating the pledge of allegiance.

The position of the Islamic academies seemed clear against the "Khadija Bent Khuwailid Center", when 36 academics issued a statement against the normalization of accepting mixed students (men and women) and demanded the state to intervene that the situation, and then 700 Islamic women signed a petition condemning the Khadija Bent Khuwailid Center.

Feminist literature

Several Saudi female writers have appeared brave, their novels carry projections on the reality, taking advantage of the absence of restrictions on writing the novel, which is considered less dangerous to the conservative society and many of them published novels outside the Kingdom, some of them under pseudonyms.

The feminist literary activity started in the sixties and was subjected to repression after increasing cooperation between the state and the religious establishment in the eighties, and their writings were considered immoral because they reflected the hopes of Saudi women, and discussed the negative aspects of societal structure and slight change in Saudi society as a result of the influx of foreign workers and the difference between cultures inside the Kingdom.

Saudi feminist literature was at its beginnings a lofty goal, but the literature of the new generation focused on the intimate relationship between the sexes and depicted the lives of girls studying outside the Kingdom and the extent of their immersion in that life, and cases of girls living in the Kingdom practicing their desires in secret, so this type distinguished Saudi female literature from other literature.

Neglecting fatwas

The Saudi authority was neglected the fatwas and continued with the Vision 2005 aiming to create new opportunities for women.

Saudi Arabia set up programs to train divorced and widowed women, and motivate the private sector to employ more women.

After that, the random and contradictory fatwas were set by a royal decree prohibiting the fatwas that are presented in a timely manner without referring to the Supreme Council of Scholars.

On April 25, 2016, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched a plan for absolute dependence on oil, one of the most important pillars of the Saudi economy, and organized a plan strengthening the presence of women in society and increasing women's participation in the labor market from 22% to 30%, by 2030.

The phenomenon of escape girls

Social norms prevail in the country and the family is the main controller of the lives of individuals, whether male or female and most Saudi families having a male mentality treat the girls with cruelly free of containment and understanding, and regulate their social and religious behavior without regard to their personal desire, and the intimidation practiced by the parents against their daughters includes beating and sometimes burning.

In 2018, the results of an opinion poll revealed that psychological violence against women was 46%, neglected by 27%, while the physical violence rate was 12%, and exploitation was 10%.

Domestic violence led the girls to escape from their family and resorting to the state, but soon the girls, whose father accuses them and immerses in a nursing home, become prisoners and they cannot leave them except with the consent of the fathers.

Domestic violence contributed to the phenomenon of girls escaping to foreign countries and seeking asylum, as happened in the case of Rahaf Al-Qunun and other girls who were accused by their families assaulting them and threatening them to kill.

According to statistics prepared by the Saudi Ministry of Labor, the number of people fleeing from Saudi Arabia reached to 1,750.

In the latest study prepared by Saudi researcher Aisha Al-Aswat and issued by Naif University for Security Sciences in the Saudi capital at the beginning of 2019 entitled "Social, economic and cultural factors related to the flight of girls", 40% of fleeing girls have their parents separated, the percentage of female students is 63.3%, housewives 46.2%, married women 66.7%, and women with higher educational attainment 52.8

The study found out that the family disintegration, violence, and gender discrimination, forced married are the most reason for girls to escape.

Feminists’ demands

In 2005, women discussed their views on the status of Saudi women during a session of the National Dialogue Forum and the discussion witnessed conflicting views between those who support the traditional role of women and those who support the change for women.

Women calling for more freedom were arrested and accused of carrying out an external agenda aimed at destroying society and threatening its originality and religion, and their cases were ended without taking important or serious steps, but the participants presented a list of recommendations for Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, and discussed their demands during a special forum on the role of  Women in a society with a conservative traditionalist tendency at which time religious scholars were not able to regain their control and influence, and they were required to provide religious interpretations appropriate to the change taking place.

Developments

Some reforms were carried out such as giving women the right to drive their own car on June 24, 2018. After decades of deprivation, on August 2, 2019 women were allowed to travel without taking any permission from guardians and the new amendments included giving women a space of civil rights such as registering contracts marriage, divorce, newborns and family records were also granted, and women were also granted guardianship of their underage children.

In 2019, at the Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the authorities decided to close the care homes, which is a prison for the girls.

But despite these reforms, Amnesty International says that these social reforms cannot cover up human rights violations and the brutal repression of human rights activists as described, the Human Rights Watch also issued a report at beginning of November 2019, titled "The Huge Price of Change" and said that openness is "alleged" because it is associated with a major crackdown and accordingly

The truth of the reforms

It is necessary to ask about the seriousness of these reforms, especially in the field of women's rights, while many women activists in prisons are still subjected to grave violations due to their peaceful and legitimate demands for the advancement of Saudi women.

But in order for the state to become a true sponsor of women's rights, it must enact legislation that gives all women, without exception, educated and uneducated, equal rights and respect for different women regardless of their origins, affiliation and clothing. Reform should not be limited to appointing several women to high positions without having a real role in decision-making and improving society and changing the status of women for the better.