Are Conservative Saudi Women Naïve?

Are conservative Saudi women politically naïve or clever? Do they have reasons and justifications behind their conservatism and behind their support to current traditional practices that seem to the outside world to repress women? Do they lose or gain by acting conservative? This piece addresses these questions.

Are Conservative Saudi Women Naïve?

There have been many writings by non-Saudi journalists showing Saudi conservative women to be weak and politically naïve. But, is it true? People from outside the Saudi context wonder if Saudi conservative women are aware that many traditional practices are not in favour of their gender. Yet, based on 46 interviews with Saudi conservative women, I have found that Saudi women do realise these traditional practices are not in favour of their gender. However, these women have their own agendas and political views which non-Saudis cannot understand. Many Saudi (normal) women (beyond those Saudi activists) want to sustain many traditional practices, as these women believe that these practices actually benefit them indirectly. For example, many interviewees state that they want women to cover their face in public because they feel they are not that good looking and therefore want to prevent their husband from comparing them to others. This is an example of how some women may want to restrict their fellow women even if they know that the veil would repress themselves. These female interviewees support the implementation of gender separation everywhere in social life (with men having their male-only space, and women having their female-only space), so they could dress up, and there would be no harassment from the other gender given the absence of men – 'I can be myself without any sexual tension' (interviewee). The interviewees report not wanting women to drive, as 'we are now using men as our driver and servant ha-ha'. They also do not want to have a job and do not mind that employment is mainly for men – 'who wants to wake up in the morning to go to work? And who wants the hectic of professional life if one could just not work and get money from someone else without doing any work?' Saudi men, under jealousy, limit the mobility of their wife and discourage her from going outside the house - some interviewees like this practice of their husband as it is a reflection of their jealousy, and many Saudi women like it when their husband act jealous for them. So, are Saudi conservative women politically naïve or evil? Do they have reasons and justification behind their conservatism and behind their support to current traditional practices that seem to the outside world to repress women? Are they losing or gaining by acting conservative? Normal Saudi conservative women may not actually be conservative, but they choose to act conservative, because they lose more if they show their liberalism whereas their husband will gain more if their wives are liberal. To illustrate the point, some Saudi women act conservative by showing their husband that they do not want to travel abroad. Moreover, they do not allow their husband to travel abroad in return. Yet, deep inside them, these conservative women would love to travel abroad especially when listening to their female friends talking about their travels abroad. However, these conservative women are concerned that, if they show liberalism by agreeing that they and their husband travel together abroad, 'this time, he will go with me abroad, but next time, he will go abroad with his friends and will act as a bad boy there – so, it is better that none of us is allowed to travel abroad at all'.