Punished For Doing Her Job 

Let us admit that Saudi Arabia would go a long way before it can claim to be a civil society. Saudi society is primarily tribal cum religious. The religious and tribal culture is slowly corroding away but it is too early to expect a kind of gender equality and social freedom that one can find in Europe or elsewhere in secular and liberal societies. For this there should be a mindset that  accepts the imperatives of a new society. Even if today the Saudi government moves  to create a civil society the people for whose benefit such society would come into being would aggressively resist. This resistance would come from the orthodox and clerics whose writ prevails in primitive and theocratic states like Saudi Arabia. Look at Pakistan. Pakistan relatively is a democratic or much liberal society where at least a modicum of civil society exists. But still the religious clergy have a field day there.

The planet earth is slowly but surely advancing towards the era of free and civil societies.But it would take time.The essential catalysts are education and awareness.Mercifully the Internet is a miracle of 20th century. This alone is going to bring the radical change all over the world.This change would be a change for a better world.The time is destined to come when intellectually and materially poor nations would come on a par with the wealthy and technologically superior nations.That would be the time when obscurantism would be replaced by enlightenment and progressiveness.People would be tuned into objective pursuits rather than banking upon subjective and imaginary beliefs.God will make the mankind a rational entity. Then the humanity  would explore the universe and  unravel its mysteries.By doing so humans would  get closer and closer to the creator not by simply believing but through the empirical evidence.

Saeed Qureshi

Aishah Schwartz <aishah.schwartz@muslimahwritersalliance.com> wrote:

By Sabria S Jawhar

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SAUDI ARABIA (Saudi Gazette) February 12, 2008 -  It excites me to no end to think that Saudi Arabia is on the verge of a renaissance as our government invests in huge projects like Petro Rabigh, which is part of a $500 billion investment project that promises us millions of new jobs, new cities and new universities. 

We're moving at lightning speed to diversify our country's economy that promises to rival many Western countries working on similar projects. We certainly have the drive and ambition to successfully accomplish our economic goals.  But our social advances are lagging far behind our successes in the business sector. 

It alarms and saddens me to hear about the businesswoman arrested and jailed by the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice because she was meeting with a man not related to her at a Starbucks in Riyadh. She works for a business in the same building  as the coffee shop. When the power went out she and her colleague went downstairs to Starbucks' family section to continue their meeting. It was not long afterward that commission members arrested her and took her to jail where she was strip-searched and held for several  hours before her husband came to retrieve her.

What does this have to do with pursuing big projects that will boost our economy?

We are relying more and more on a women's professional workforce. Journalism, public relations, marketing, banking and a variety of private sector businesses are seeing increasing numbers of women taking positions of responsibility.  A 2005 government study concluded that women make up 14 percent of the Saudi workforce but it continues to climb at a rapid rate.  

If we continue to depend on professional women to work and contribute to the economy why are we placing obstacles at every turn? We already are hampered by severe transportation problems.

Now we must be careful about where and how we conduct our business.

As professionals, it is not practical for women to conduct business in hotel conference or  meeting rooms and some public buildings. And depending on the policy of a private company, there may be no comfortable place to meet with  male colleagues or clients.  

The alternative, and not unreasonable in the slightest, is to conduct business in a public place in full view of everyone. Hotel  lobbies have been favored for many years as a neutral meeting place, but it's not the most practical place because lobbies usually lack work tables and electrical outlets for computers.  

Saudi  newspapers report that the woman arrested by commission members  at Starbucks was accused of "khalwa," or being in seclusion with an unrelated man, which is a moral offense. I'm not sure how being in a crowded family section at Starbucks qualifies as seclusion, but maybe the commission has its own definition.  

Apparently Al-Jawhara Al-Angari, from the National Society for Human Rights, feels the same way. She said recently that the woman was not  in a state of khalwa because she was in a public place with many  people.

I remember not long ago being interviewed by two women members of a  U.S. think tank. They had talked to Saudi professional women in Riyadh and Jeddah about the progress of women's rights. We agreed to meet in the family section of a Starbucks in Jeddah. I didn't know at the time whether their group would include any men. I didn't think to ask.

It turns out the interviewing team was all-female. But what if a man was part of that team? Would I have committed khalwa? It chills me to the bone that an innocent, but productive and important interview might never have materialized if I knew a male member would be present and I feared being caught.  

The media often tout the accomplishments of Saudi women graduating  from universities with degrees and post-graduate certificates. And we often cite statistical data of the rising numbers of women in the workplace. Yet it's a hollow triumph if we punish them for doing their  jobs.

http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm/sidZAWYA20080212054516/SecMain/pagHomepage/chnAll%20Regional%20News/obj2A17E941-F5E0-11D4-867D00D0B74A0D7C/