Three hundred women at sessions around Saudi Arabia wrote their names on maplewood balls for Al-Dowayan’s “Esmi (My Name),” which challenges the Saudi taboo that prevents men from saying the names of women in their lives (modern days taboo)
(Source: fuckyeahsaudiarabia, via theuncolonizedmind)
‘One day it will rain cars and i will have my won key.’ - Khawla al-Marri
(via azaadi)
The Bold Pursuits of Saudi Women Activists (artwork by Saffaa)
Saudi Arabia is seeing a significant rise in the number of female activists who are vigorously working on changing laws that contribute to the marginalization of women. Samar Badawi and Manal Al-Sharif are two of the women whose names have been circulating in the Western media for their brave attempts in challenging Saudi law. On March 8th, 2012, the U.S. Department of State awarded Badawi an “International Women of Courage Award” for being the first Saudi female to file suit against the Saudi government and win. Subsequently Manal Al-Sharif made Time Magazine’s list of “The 100 Most Influential People in the World” for inspiring a movement that encourages women to drive.
While Badawi and Al-Sharif are seen as heroes in the United States, their international recognition has ironically caused their efforts to be dismissed and devalued in Saudi Arabia because of their U.S. connections. In this body of work, my aim as a Saudi artist is to acknowledge the efforts and bravery of the many female activists in Saudi, while simultaneously highlighting the limitations present in the dialogue taking place between the East and the West.
(via kawrage)
| Manal Al-Dowayan’s series I AM | on women in the Saudi workforce |
What jobs suit my nature as a woman? This is a question that haunts me when I meet successful working women in my home country of Saudi Arabia. In this context, politicians, businessmen, society and the local community surrounding the Saudi woman continue to ask these questions: Where can women work? And what can they do?
Many politicians and religious figures in Saudi Arabia have hijacked the dialogue of women and employment and turned it into an issue that threatens our Saudi identity and may lead to the loss of our Islamic faith. Women leaving the home, earning money (something that might lead to her independence), mixing with men are the main pillars of the argument. Some who try to appease both sides argued that women can work in jobs that “suit their nature”. That statement was the basis of the “I AM” collection.
In this collection I examine my nature and I wonder, is my nature as a woman another limitation on my potential that I need to overcome or accept?
In my search for answers I found inspiration from the history of Arabian women who have, for thousands of years, worked for their families while the men were away in the desert. Women have traditionally been the wage earners in the family and only with the recent events of the oil boom and urban transformations in the region did women abandon this role. But things have now changed with “women making up 55% of undergraduates, but only 15% of the labor force”(Chu&Radwan, TIME)
The 2003 Arab Human Development Report identified the “deficit in women’s empowerment” as one of three key impediments to “progress in the Arab world”… So it is no longer an issue of whether a woman should work, but rather, when can women become involved in the development of their country.
Women are increasingly joining the workforce and contributing their intelligence, energy and motivation to improve their lives and those of their families. They have also become contributors to their country’s economy and active participants in the decision-making process.
The collection “I am” hosts a variety of Saudi Arabian women who perform important roles in Saudi society through their careers. At the same time each photograph has a piece of traditional jewelry placed in an obstructive and unnatural way, questioning cultural traditions that prevent Saudi women from expanding their roles in society.
Although the history of the Arab woman inspires me, it is the modern Arab woman that motivates and gives me courage. I hope that women with education and financial independence will become fully and actively involved in shaping the decisions that affect their future and the futures of their daughters.
Today less than 3% of Saudi Arabian women work will this change? When?
In Saudi Arabia, the number of women in the workforce has nearly tripled since 1992, according to a study by consulting firm Booz & Company. But the number is still low for the region: The female participation rate in the Saudi workforce is 14 percent, compared with 59 percent in the United Arab Emirates. Saudi culture doesn’t make it easy for women to work. A male guardian must give permission if a woman wants to get a job. Hayat Sindi (Saudi innovator) hopes she can help change that.
(Source: mehreenkasana, via azaadi)
Images of a Changing Society: Contemporary Art in Saudi Arabia (x)
Saudi school girls in Jeddah in 1980 photographed by the National Geographic
via @algergawi @NouraAlKaabi
Saudi Arabia’s Freedom Riders
(via thoumbreath)
( in this video )
Saudi woman says she was detained for driving
(That’s Manal)
A 32-year-old Saudi Arabian who has crusaded for women to drive in her country said she was stopped Saturday for driving a car, even though there is no law against it.
Manal al Sharif, a mother of a 5-month-old boy, told CNN that authorities released her and then tried to detain her again early Sunday.
Al Sharif supports Women2Drive, an initiative endorsing the right of women to drive and travel freely in Saudi Arabia. She said traffic and religious police detained her for six hours Saturday after they spotted her driving in Khobar. She said she was forced to sign a form promising not to drive again, and then was allowed to go home.
She told CNN that lawyers are trying to stop police from detaining her for a second time. A Women2Drive tweet later said that al Sharif and her brother had been taken from their Khobar residence to a police station.
(Source: thoumbreath)
A Saudi mother said Sunday she defied a ban on women drivers in the ultra-conservative kingdom by getting behind the wheel for four days without being stopped.
Najla al-Hariri, a housewife in her mid-30s, said she drove non-stop for four days in the streets of the Red Sea city of Jeddah “to defend her belief that Saudi women should be allowed to drive.”
“I don’t fear being arrested because I am setting an example that my daughter and her friends are proud of,” Hariri told AFP, adding she was offering driving lessons for women.
Hariri said she was an experienced motorist as she had driven for five years in Egypt and another five years in Lebanon, while she could not drive in her own country.
In addition to being banned from driving, Saudi women cannot travel without authorisation from their male guardians, and are also not allowed to vote in the municipal elections, the only public polls in the absolute monarchy.
When in public, they are obliged to cover from head to toe.
Hariri ridiculed the social belief that Saudi women are treated “like queens” as they are driven around by their male relatives or drivers, saying “this is a big lie.”
“We are always under their mercy to give us a lift,” she said.
Meanwhile, a group of Saudi women have launched a Internet-based campaign calling for a nationwide protest drive on June 17 in a bid to get rid of the ban once and for all.
“On Friday June 17th, we women in Saudi will start driving our cars by ourselves,” says the Women2Drive page on Twitter.
The page for the event on Facebook is entitled “I will drive starting June 17” and has 1,998 supporters.
