The instrumentalisation of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia

20.01.2023

Written by: AD.

Translated by: Lou Szabo

“I support Saudi Arabia, women make up half of the Saudi population, so I support women’s rights”^[1]Free translation. This statement is from an interview or The Atlantic with Crown Prince Mohamed Ben Salmane^[2]Godelberg J., (2018), Saudi Crown Prince: Iran’s Supreme Leader “Makes Hitler Look Good”, The Atlantic. … Continue reading, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, published on 2 April 2018. It is a striking comment, coming from a country that has distinguished itself in the past with retrograde laws against women, including a driving ban for women that is unique in the world.

To better understand the stakes in this new dynamic, it is interesting to understand it as international public policy. In other words, we need to understand the logic of this new tendency on the part of the Saudi authorities to grant women’s rights as a “set of action programmes advocated by public authorities with the aim of producing effects that go beyond the framework of a stato-national territory”^[3]Free translation. This approach^[4]Ribémont, T., Bossy, T., Evrard, A., Gourgues, G., Hoeffler, C. (2018). Introduction à la sociologie de l’action publique. De Boeck Supérieur. … Continue reading has the merit of grasping the dual consequences of state action on the instrumentalisation of women’s rights, both domestic and international. The aim remains to understand what is at stake for Saudi Arabia behind this instrumentalisation.

Women’s rights progress nationwide

A great deal of progress in favour of women’s rights has come from the highest levels of government, and diplomacy is also affected by this turnaround. For example, Saudi Arabia’s participation in the UN Commission on the Status of Women in 2017 provoked an outcry among human rights organisations^[5]Benjamin M., Gold A., (2021), Saudi Arabia: A Trailblazer for Women’s Rights?, MS Magazine. https://msmagazine.com/2021/03/23/saudi-arabia-womens-rights-feminism-arab-lobbying/. However, the kingdom has already embarked on a dynamic public policy in favour of Saudi women’s rights, since the same year a decree lifted the ban on women driving. The decree, issued in 2017 and implemented in June 2018, has been hailed as a genuine revolution^[6]Al-Helaissi H., (2018), L’Arabie saoudite autorise les femmes à conduire : pourquoi c’est une révolution, Challenges. … Continue reading.

On 23 February 2019, the sovereign himself appointed the country’s first female ambassador, Princess Reema bint Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, who represents the country to the United States^[7]Webinar Event, (2020), A conversation with her Royal Highness Ambassador Reema bint Bandar bin Sultan bin Adbulaziz Al Saud. https://wacphila.org/events/hrh-ambassador-reema. The international press was quick to notice this appointment.

In the legal sphere, sexual harassment has been officially considered a crime by the Saudi authorities since March 2018, a decision also taken by decree, which fills a legal vacuum in this area^[8]Morris O., (2020), 6 major things Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has changed for Saudi women, EmiratesWomen.com. … Continue reading.

In their daily lives, Saudi women now have the right to use their phones on public university campuses^[9]Day E., (2017), Female Saudi students just won the right to carry phones on campus, EmiratesWomen.com. https://emirateswoman.com/female-saudi-students-just-won-the-right-to-carry-phones-on-campus/, and they no longer need permission from a male relative if they wish to leave the campus before 11p.m.

What do all these measures have in common? Their boldness, which should not obscure the fact that there is something at stake in the manipulation of Saudi women’s rights.

Feminism washing and its effects on the country

The Saudi state’s desire to strengthen its authoritarian grip on society is an internal political issue. As a result, the Saudi state does not support the feminist campaign: if women have been granted the right to drive, its mean it is believed that it is in the country’s best interest, and any activism remains punishable. This is a textbook case of feminism washing. The aim is to apply a policy marked by feminism while pursuing a completely different goal, in this case the strengthening of its political weight in the lives of its citizens. The current Saudi state is using in a literal manner the fourth point of Abdelaziz ben Abderrahmane al Saud’s (1876-1953) speech, in which Saudi citizens are forbidden to carry out activities with a political or social aim^[10]Speech in Arabic by the founder of the Saudi State Abdelaziz ben Abderrahmane al Saoud, (1929). http://www.moqatel.com/openshare/Wthaek/Khotob/Khotub1/AKhotub27_2-1.htm_cvt.htm.

The Saudi state is also extending its hold on people’s consciousness by attempting to develop a new narrative of national construction in which fundamental freedoms are primordial^[11]Al Arabiya, (2016), Full Transcript of Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Al Arabiya … Continue reading.

According to the Crown Prince, “Before 1979, there were social norms referring to the principle of male authority, but no law obliged women to travel with a male guardian in the country. This legislation does not date back to the time of the Prophet Mohamed. In the 1960s, women did not travel with male guardians. They do so today. We want to go back to that without harming families or our culture.”^[12]Free translation. Mohamed Ben Salmane defends the existence of individual freedoms^[13]Godelberg J., (2018), Saudi Crown Prince: Iran’s Supreme Leader “Makes Hitler Look Good”, The Atlantic. … Continue reading, including women’s rights, in Saudi values and society. He considers that the full enjoyment of these rights has been hampered by external elements such as the extremism^[14]Middle East Eye, (2018), Mohamed Ben Salmane on Extremism. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jnf6z3OYgWI that he prides himself on fighting. Behind its biased rewriting of the history of individual freedoms and women’s rights lies, a regime that is trying to legitimise itself.

The maintenance of a male authority system, consistently denounced by NGOs^[15]Equality Now, (2021), A Just World for Women and Girls, Ending Male Guardianship In Saudi Arabia. https://www.equalitynow.org/ending_male_guardianship_in_saudi_arabia/, indicates a clear desire to appease the country’s most conservative tendencies, which take a dim view of the progress of women’s rights, seen as illegitimate foreign interference. This is an important limitation to the extension of women’s rights in the country.

On the international stage, the mixed effects of the recovery of women’s rights

There are signs that the instrumentalisation of women’s rights is having difficulty convincing the international community. Saudi Arabia failed to win election to the United Nations Human Rights Council, receiving only 90 votes, proof that many countries around the world do not seem to give credence to the regime’s attempt to improve its image^[16]France 24, (2020), ONU: l’Arabie saoudite écartée du Conseil des droits de l’Homme, réélection de la Chine et la … Continue reading.

The French press also echoed the disenchantment, with some amplifying the voices of Saudi women citizens who had fled their country because these advances in favour of their rights had done nothing to change their subaltern status^[17]Arbrun C., (2021), “Les Fugitives”, l’enquête captivante sur ces femmes qui fuient l’Arabie saoudite, Vanity Fair. … Continue reading.

International opinion and NGOs are gradually building a consensus around the denunciation of Saudi policy, which is in appearance favourable to women’s rights. Voices are being raised to denounce this policy, which only serves to reinforce authoritarianism within the Saudi kingdom^[18]Ziaï S., (2022), Lina Al-Hathloul : «En Arabie saoudite, les femmes peuvent tout espérer tant qu’elles se taisent», Vanity Fair. … Continue reading.

The superficial nature of these announcements, which are as spectacular as they are symbolic in the long term, lends credence to the idea that they are being exploited. The upkeeping of a patriarchal authoritarian system remains a legal and political principle that has never been challenged by the public authorities who want to present a progressive face. The imprisonment of the feminist activists^[19]Reuters, (2018), L’Arabie saoudite accusée de torture sur des femmes par Amnesty, Challenges. https://www.challenges.fr/monde/l-arabie-saoudite-accusee-de-torture-sur-des-femmes-par-amnesty_627296 who were behind the campaign to lift the ban on women driving is a perfect example. There is therefore a variable geometry towards Saudi women’s rights on the part of the government, which is characterised by illusory measures with no real intention of empowering women on a national scale but claimed to be notable and concrete advances to normalise the kingdom’s presence on the international stage despite its human rights violations.

The stakes in this women’s rights activism is the regime’s image abroad^[20]Benjamin M., Gold A., (2021), Saudi Arabia: A Trailblazer for Women’s Rights?, MS Magazine. https://msmagazine.com/2021/03/23/saudi-arabia-womens-rights-feminism-arab-lobbying/. The aim is to strengthen the country’s legitimacy on the issue of gender equality, which has become an international issue.

The Khashoggi affair of 2 October 2018 has often been described as a trigger in the Saudi desire to restore its image in the eyes of the international community. The murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in a Saudi consulate in Istanbul was an international scandal for the Saudi leadership as evidence seems to link his planning to the leadership itself^[21]MacKay T., (2018), Turkish Paper Claims Evidence of Jamal Khashoggi’s Murder Was Transmitted by His Apple Watch, Gizmodo. … Continue reading. However, Saudi activism for women’s rights internationally predates this affair. Since his ascension to power in 2017, Mohamed Ben Salmane has demonstrated an internationally oriented political activism under the banner of renewal^[22]Hubert-Rodier J., (2020), La fin du mirage saoudien, Les Echos. https://www.lesechos.fr/idees-debats/editos-analyses/la-fin-du-mirage-saoudien-1165707 to distinguish himself from his predecessors.

The embodiment of a paradox: a power that is authoritarian within its borders, but modern internationally

The new government is attempting to build its legitimacy in an international context that is sensitive to respect for human rights. By mobilising an international public policy favourable to women’s rights, while simultaneously appeasing conservative opinions, the Saudi government has secured the support of urban youth eager for modernity and integration into globalisation, and sensitive to discourse on women’s rights^[23]Dazi-Héni F., (2021), Arabie saoudite le pari sur la jeunesse de Mohamed Ben Salmane, https://www.irsem.fr/media/5-publications/etudes/etude-irsem-80-fdz-arabie-saoudite.pdf. The instrumentalisation of women’s rights has become a means of adapting the domination of the Saudi state over a shifting Saudi society^[24]Julien-Laferrière O. ,(2020), La jeunesse et les femmes en Arabie Saoudite: de la transformation économique et identitaire au levier politique d’un pouvoir en … Continue reading.