Gender Equality in Saudi Arabia

The subrogation of females in Saudi Arabia is a religion based social and gender specific systematic methodology of inequalities permeating across class distinctions of income and wealth, status, sex and gender inequalities. Based upon tenets of the Muslim faith, this patriarchal system of dominance is viewed as adherence to the teachings of Allah, and considered a special accommodation for the uniqueness of the female gender. The religious justification that fuels the extremely disadvantage position of Saudi Arabian females has ingrained controls designed to systematically maintain and create boundaries and obstacles, precluding females from gaining, exercising or controlling power (Henslin 2011). The male execution of power over the female gender is supported by state policy and is precipitated without fear of reprisal. The expectation of male dominance over the lives of Saudi women is mandated with men being held criminally responsible for allowing the females in their families to interact outside of the strict moral code.

Often compared to by westerners as “gender apartheid” (Lichter 2009:277), the restricted lives of Saudi women are inclusive of segregation and exclusion. Saudi women experience segregation in where they may eat work and play, with permission necessary for access to education, employment, and the purchase of any item demonstrating individual selection choice or power, including entertainment items, books, plane, train, and other travel tickets. Saudi Arabian women, despite holding Saudi citizenship, have unequal access to the basic rights of Saudi citizens. They are prohibited from voting in political elections or for running for public office, and are denied equal immigration status opportunities fo...

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...the tenets of the Holy Quran and the mandates of Islamic law enable the Saudi government to propose gender equality, evidence and example reflect an insidious substantiation for an organized and systematic form of gender apartheid. The trinity of participants in the subrogation of Saudi women includes the Saudi Arabian government, who controls women through fear of reprisal and moral condemnation, the Saudi Arabian males who utilize their patriarchal system of dominance to maximize control and to maintain the moral and social status quo, and the Saudi women themselves, who have little in way of comparison and are conditioned as to their value and the expectations of their gender. Much of the subtle as well as the overt gender inequality becomes unmistakable when Saudi women attempt to question and exercise the rights their government so palpably decrees they have.