JoLIE 12:1/2019
Deconstructing Stereotypes: Perception of Women in Higher Education in the KiNgdom of Saudi Arabia – A Realm of EmpowerMent [1]
Agnes Havril
Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary
Abstract
The image of a subservient woman who has no other choice but to comply with the norms and rules dictated by the orthodox male-dominated society is perhaps the most common Western perception of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. An entrenched notion, it is for the most part perpetuated by the standards and norms of Western culture, which in turn define how we interpret and look at others. The benchmark then becomes our own culture against which we compare and contrast the ideas and values of other – often non-Western – societies, as is the case with Saudi Arabia. The result is ultimately a Western-infused interpretation that creates bias and overlooks the uniqueness of a particular culture.
The main rationale of the following paper is to deconstruct these stereotypical notions and to describe Saudi society and culture, which is devoid of such Western apprehension. The focus here is to examine the field of female public education, with a particular focus on higher education, and thus to show that Saudi women can be and in fact are empowered by means of education. Historical accounts – especially the reforms of King Faisal and his wife Iffat Al Thunayan – demonstrate the achievements in the field that have furthered women’s educational and, as a consequence, labour market opportunities. While the high number of female students and graduates exemplify these advancements, such figures are merely one-dimensional and do not give justice to the underlying complexities. For this matter, the heritage of Bedouinism (‘tribalism’) and Wahhabism, the orthodoxy of the Ulema with their monopoly over the interpretation of Islam and its consequences, influence the public discourse about advancing girls’ and women’s situation in the kingdom.
The concept of ijtihad, also used by Islamic feminism, will add another layer to the analysis; it can be seen as a tool that enables Saudi women to move forward on the path of progress by simultaneously balancing tradition and modernity. As a result, a holistic view will be presented in the paper, in which the situation of Saudi women is seen and analysed through the lens of Saudi culture. Then, the unique state of women will not be reduced to the reductive belief that Saudi girls and women are trapped in a parochial, patriarchal system, but can become empowered through education, even in the face the Ulema’s monopoly of Wahhabi Islam, which pervades all aspects of life and, so too, the domain of female higher education.
Keywords: Stereotypes; Deconstruct; Female students; Higher education; Islamic feminism; Realm of empowerment.
References
Al Bakr, F., Bruce, E., Davidson, M., Schlaffer, E., & Ulrich, K. (2017). Empowered but not equal: Challenging the traditional gender roles as seen by university students in Saudi Arabia. Forum for International Research in Education, 4(1), 52-66. Retrieved 2 June 2018, from https://preserve.lehigh.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1083&context=fire
Al Munajjed, M. (1997). Women in Saudi Arabia today. Palgrave Macmillan UK. doi: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230373105
Baki, R. (2004). Gender-segregated education in Saudi Arabia: Its impact on social norms and the Saudi Labor market. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 12(28), 1-15. Retrieved 20 September 2018, from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ852310.pdf
Doumato, E. A. (1999). Women and work in Saudi Arabia: How flexible are Islamic margins? Middle East Journal, 53(4), 568-583. Retrieved 10 June 2004, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4329391?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
Drury, S. (2015). Education: The key to women’s empowerment in Saudi Arabia?. Middle East Institute. Retrieved 30 July 2016, from http://www.mei.edu/content/article/education-key-women%E2%80%99s-empowerment-saudi-arabia
Education in Saudi Arabia – Literacy. (2007). 2018 Unesco Institute of Statistics. Retrieved 04 April 2016, from http://www.liquisearch.com/education_in_saudi_arabia/literacy
Education in Saudi Arabia. (2011). World Education News and Reviews Retrieved 04 April 2016, from http://wenr.wes.org/2001/11/wenr-nov-dec-2001-education-in-saudi-arabia
Hamdan, A. (2005). Women and education in Saudi Arabia: Challenges and achievements. International Educational Journal, 6, 42-64. Shannon Research Press. Retrieved 20 May 2018, from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ854954.pdf
Havril, A. (2015). Improving intercultural competence of female university students in EFL environment within Saudi Arabia. Elsevier LTD Procedia - Social and Behaviour Sciences, 192, 554-566. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.06.091
Havril, A. (2016). Insights into the assessment of intercultural competence of female university students in the KSA. Social Sciences International Research Journal, 2(2), 1-12.
Havril, A. (2018). Academic challenges of Saudi university females and their implications for intercultural competence. Corvinus Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 9(1), 151-176. doi: https://doi.org/10.14267/CJSSP.2018.1.07
Hillenbrand, C. (2015). Islam – A new historical introduction. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd.
House, K. E. (2012). On Saudi Arabia: Its People, Past, Religion, Fault Lines and Future. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Maisel, S. (2017). Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In M. Gasiorowski, & S. L. Yom (Eds.), The Government and Politics of the Middle East and North Africa (pp. 307-336). Colorado: Westview Press.
More Women than Men in Saudi Universities, Says Ministry. (28 May 2015). Saudi Gazette, Riyadh. Retrieved 04 April 2016, from https://english.alarabiya.net/en/perspective/features/2015/05/28/More-women-than-men-in-Saudi-universities-says-ministry.html
How to cite this article: Havril, A. (2019). Deconstructing stereotypes: perception of women in higher education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - A realm of empowerment. Journal of Linguistic and Intercultural Education – JoLIE, 12(1), 99-111. DOI: https://doi.org/10.29302/jolie.2019.12.1.7
For details on subscription, go to: http://jolie.uab.ro/index.php?pagina=-&id=19&l=en
[1] I would like to express special thanks to my Erasmus exchange student, Luca Sára Jánka (BA, University of Passau), the most active participant in my academic course Society and Culture in Saudi Arabia during the Spring semester of 2019, who helped me with the research and finalisation of this paper.