A SCHOLAR’S LIFE
Do you think that the rights of women in the Middle East have improved over recent years, particularly in places like Saudi Arabia?
Yes, definitely, as we do not live in a static world. We see dynamics in the trajectory of the world we live in. Believers try to understand, and recontextualise their religion to suit contemporary realities and challenges.
We can see the long trajectory of Muslim women’s rights consciousness, for example, in many parts of the Middle East. Egyptian women’s activists, in particular, have been an important inspiration for many women’s activists including Muslim and Islamic feminists in other Muslim majority countries, especially evident in the first half of the twentieth century. Their agenda ranges from women’s access to education and work, and preventing polygamy, forced, and child marriages.
The development of this awareness in Saudi Arabia is interesting and needs to be analysed very carefully. This can answer those who tend to see Islam through a geographical essentialist approach - that the Arab world, especially Saudi Arabia, is the true home of Islam. Let’s see some examples of changes in Saudi pertaining to women’s rights. After a long struggle, in 2018, the Saudi women’s driving ban was finally lifted. The news went viral, because before it was lifted on 24 June, Saudi Arabia was the only country in the world that did not allow women to drive. Following this, in 2019, the government appointed a female ambassador to the United States for the first time - Princess Reem. This was echoed as another sign of women’s empowerment. However, the story behind the scenes is more complicated. Some analysts and scholars believe that these changes, unfortunately, serve political elites and their interests in rebranding themselves
