Saudi Arabian Women Dispel Myths and Stereotypes

By Delinda C. Hanley

As I sped through the streets of Riyadh, on my first trip to Saudi Arabia since I lived there 16 years ago, I was amazed by the many changes. The city has been transformed into a glowing metropolis with downtown streets filled with fabulous stores and visually stunning buildings.

I wore my black silk abaya, the same covering I’d worn each day to teach at the Riyadh School or shop at night. I had cherished my abaya and the fond memories it still conjured up, but it was raising some eyebrows now. Some of the women I met gently teased me because it was so out of fashion.

Every woman I met in Riyadh this trip made me want to write a story with the title, “Brilliant Saudi Woman Breaks the Stereotype.” It soon dawned on me, however, that it’s the Western stereotype of the veiled Saudi woman hidden away from modern-day opportunities that needs to change. No one I met felt oppressed or excluded. On the contrary, every woman I interviewed personified the fact that many Saudi women have received excellent educations and now are working hard to build their nation.

Despite the recent achievements of Saudi women like Dr. Thoraya Ahmed, the first Saudi Arabian woman to head a major U.N. organization, or Hayat Sindi, inventor of a multipurpose probe called Mars, “there is the widely known stereotype of Saudi women being ‘invisible’ members of society, having restricted mobility or dealings with men outside the family,”Asra Wa’il Islam recently wrote in Saudi Arabia’s Arab News newspaper. “It has been taken for granted that Islam and traditional Saudi society have inhibited women’s progress. No matter who is giving this impression, the main responsibility for breaking this myth lies on the shoulders of Saudi women.”

Dr. Thoraya Ahmed, executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), doesn’t believe there is a stereotype of Saudi Arabian women. “We are as varied as our families are varied,” she told the Saudi Gazette in a March interview. “One goal I hope to achieve through my position is to show that Islam is a very progressive force. Islam is a force that can bring progress to society. Islam is pro-women and we have to show how it is pro-women. I think that the West has not seen the real Saudi Arabia and maybe part of our responsibility is to open up and show that Saudi Arabian women have made a great deal of progress.”

I met very ambitious, highly educated, confident and mature women, including Khayriyya Ibrahim al-Saqqaf. The former dean of King Saud University, Dr. Saqqaf was the first Saudi woman to write for a Riyadh newspaper.

She started writing her newspaper column at the age of 10. When she was only 13 a co-worker came to her home to deliver some papers. When he saw the girl, too young to wear the veil, he asked her to pass on the package to her big sister. Little did he know he was speaking to the popular columnist. Dr. Saqqaf’s husband still jokes about the reaction of his friends when he announced he was to marry the popular newspaper columnist. “But she is so old!” they all said, because they had been reading her stories since they were boys. Dr. Saqqaf gave me some of her short stories to read. The gripping tales of marriage, divorce, ruin and adventure made me understand why her students love taking her writing classes.

Dr. Hend M. Ben Khuthaila,voted one of the top influential women in the Arab world, would be an asset to any diplomatic corps. Shehosted a luncheon for me at the Al Manahil Center, a combination restaurant and recreation center for Saudi women and their children. There women can swim, play tennis, exercise and take classes in self-defense, computers, painting, English (taught by the British Council), and many other subjects. Dr. Hend, the first Saudi Arabian woman to become a full professor in King Saud University as well at the first Saudi woman dean, introduced me to Saudi women who are practicing doctors, professors and bankers, as well as diplomatic wives from the Tunisian and Lebanese Embassies.

Dr. Sara Al-Oraini, Dr. Munaira Eid and Dr. Wafa M. Own teach at the College of Education in King Saud University. They took time out of a busy conference on higher education to attend the luncheon.

Our conversations were similar to those held by professional women around the world when they meet. Everyone was trying to manage busy careers, families, and their volunteer and social commitments. The single women had filled every moment with work, social activities with friends or travel with their extended families. The married women were juggling everyone’s needs and careers. The divorced women seemed to be less affected by the financial devastation of divorce than women in the West, thanks to more equitable protections they receive under Saudi Arabia’s Islamic laws. Even they, however, were still dealing with child-rearing complications. Just as it is in the West, divorce is becoming more prevalent in Saudi Arabia. Nowadays if a Saudi man takes a second wife, the first wife often opts for divorce. I wondered to myself if this may make more men remain with one wife to avoid complications, or if it results in an increase in serial marriages, on the Western model.

In addition to her professional responsibilities, Professor Hend is very active in the National Charitable Institute for Home Health Care. The institute provides home-care services as well as devices (wheelchairs, ventilators, and hospital beds) to help families provide for handicapped, incapacitated, or elderly family members at home.

Saudi women’s devotion to community action was also apparent at a spirited fund-raising auction for the institute I attended. The private home of Mrs. Fatimah Mhat was transformed with a tent in the garden into a desert oasis full of crafts, jewelry and ceramics donated by local artists.

The wife of Crown Prince Abdullah, Princess Hussa bint Trad Al Shaalan, was the good-humored and very personable guest of honor, and the highest bidder for a painting donated by popular artist Aida Hamouie Kawakibi. The crown prince’s wife, who arrived without an entourage or security, is the founder and chief benefactor of the National Charitable Institute for Home Health Care, the only organization of its kind in the Middle East. I was impressed by her accessibility to all the guests as she sat and chatted with them.

Dr. Hend demonstrated some deft auctioneering skills as her 17-year-old daughter, Noura Al Shehail, tried to outbid every competitor. Hend’s American-born sister-in-law, Helen Al-Shehail, told me about the productive life she lives in Riyadh and the close-knit active family that wholeheartedly welcomed her upon her marriage .

A visit to two schools helped explain why the Saudi women I kept meeting were able to attain any goal they set out to reach. I visited Riyadh’s Institute of Public Administration, where Dr. Hanan Al-Ahmadi is general director of the women’s section. The IPA’s women’s branch, which opened in 1983, shares an auditorium with the men’s IPA, which has been open for 30 years. The IPA gets high marks in the business community for graduating students who become capable managers, and there is a waiting list for IPA workshops and seminars for business executives. IPA sends its consultants to government agencies and private businesses alike to improve and update their operations. The majority of its staff of 120, including 50 faculty members, are Saudi Arabian nationals.

Dr. Hanan said that Saudi Arabian families now depend on two incomes. A man looking for a wife seeks a well-educated, successfully employed woman. The steadily increasing role of women in society may not be highly publicized, Dr. Hanan concluded, but it has the support of the Saudi Arabian people and its leaders. Mona Y. Al-Zaid, English-language coordinator, and Elham Al-Nasir, educational coordinator, showed me around the institute, which was alive with energetic young women. I saw a film studio used for self-evaluations, and libraries full of books, videos and periodicals.

Dr. Norah Al-Faiz is the girls’ school principal of the Kingdom Schools, which just opened in Riyadh in September 2000 and teaches students in grades kindergarten through high school. The school began its first year with 800 students, but has the capacity for teaching 4,000 students in both the boys’ and girls’ sections (boys and girls are taught together until the third grade). For a yearly tuition of $6,400 (with scholarships available), each student is provided one meal a day, a uniform, a laptop computer and superb classes taught by highly trained and motivated teachers. Fifty percent of the instructors are Saudi Arabian, with others from Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

The Kingdom School’s 23 English teachers all are native speakers of English, with the exception of one Saudi Arabian, who was brought up in the U.S. and, when I met her, was surrounded by enthusiastic 5-year-olds covered in smiles and play-doh. The school’s goal is for all its graduates to be completely bilingual in English and Arabic and able to succeed in any university in the world. During my tour of the school with Dr. Norah I saw relaxed and happy students engaged in learning via computers, classroom skits, and hands-on math and science lessons.

The school concentrates on technology and on teaching children how to find information for themselves. “If a girl is well-educated she can depend upon herself,” Dr. Norah says. “She can stand anywhere and work anywhere. Twenty years ago Saudi Arabian women didn’t work after they finished school. Some families didn’t want women to work. Now it is the opposite. Every husband wants his wife to work. Most of my students want to be special and do extraordinary work when they grow up.”

At the Al Manahil Center I met Princess Moodi bint Abdul Aziz bin Musaad Bin Jelawi Al-Saud. She graciously invited me to her table and asked if I’d like to attend a royal wedding with her family. When I regretfully declined, explaining that I hadn’t packed wedding finery, she asked her children’s Palestinian tutor, Mrs. Hanan, to take me shopping for an evening dress and then accompany me to the wedding.

Feeling like Cinderella I attended the wedding festivities with 1,000 of the bride’s closest women friends (the men were at another celebration—which I heard was not quite as much fun). Elegant women visited and danced to an all-woman band. We feasted on a marvelous dinner, with chocolates, desserts, and fragrant cardamom coffee served before the main meal, which, of course, I found very agreeable.

I was captivated by a little Saudi Arabian Shirley Temple, whose long ringlets were sprinkled with baby’s breath flowers. She wore a flouncing taffeta dress tipped with rosebuds—highly suitable for a little princess. As I watched her admiringly, she placed her dainty fingers to her rosy lips and let out a shrill whistle. Soon she was teaching the art of whistling to a flock of admiring little boys gathered around her.

Princess Moodi invited me back on my last evening for a large family dinner. Women of all ages filled two dining room tables. The princess graciously served the elderly ladies and made sure each guest felt welcome and at ease. I especially enjoyed talking to her two teenaged daughters, Anood and Jawaher bint Bader bin Fahed Al-Saud, who chatted about school, homework, trips to their farm, and college plans.

After dinner the ladies retired to an outside gazebo to talk. Kariman Al Hilaise, a school inspector, told me about being in the first generation of Saudi women encouraged to use their education to work outside the home. Princess Moodi told me how important her family has always been to her. She also said that, although in the past it was difficult for girls to get a good education, it had always been important to have a good religious upbringing.

As Saudi Arabia becomes more complex, she stressed, it is still vital for women to be religiously active. As far as women’s rights are concerned, Princess Moodi said, mothers are often the real decision-makers in the family. The princess asked me to “tell Americans that each Saudi Arabian woman has her own freedom. She is happy to live her life within her religion.”

On my last day in Saudi Arabia, I was given an armful of presents. Among them was a glamorous modern abaya that will see me through the next 16 years and bring back memories of the new friends I made in Riyadh.

Delinda C. Hanley is the news editor of the Washington Report.