Women Life in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is religiously important place for Muslim as it is considered as the birth place of Islam.The two holy cities Mecca & Medina are located here. So, here Islamic laws are so strictly followed. Here, women’s rights are defined by Islamic sharia. Sharia is based on holy Quran and hadith (teaching of Muhammad). 

Females must have a male guardian in Saudi Arabia. This guardian may be her husband or her father or brother or even her son. A female in Saudi cannot travel without the permission of her guardian. Not only travel, she should have permission from guardian for marriage, for opening bank account, for elective surgery, for education, for employment also. There no written law for guardianship. This is a custom in Saudi society. 

There is the most important thing in Saudi society is Purdah which means women to avoid men and to cover most of their bodies. This should be applied when a chance to meet opposite sex who are not Mahram. Mahram is defined as the kind of kinship. There are 14 types of Mahram. 

Female should cover her body except eyes and hands in Saudi Arabia among non relative people, especially opposite sex. This type of dress is called in Arabic ‘awarah’. One kind of police who are strictly concerned about breaking of Islamic laws, are so active in Saudi Arabia. They are most of the time very busy to ensure Purdah of women. 

Sexual segregation is also highly occupied in Saudi Arabia. Most of the houses have two doors. One is for men outside from the house and another is for going to harem. Second one is used by the women. This is a serious social dishonor to enter an outside man in harem. Most of the restaurants have two doors, one for bachelor and another for family. There is a strong divider between two sides also. Most of the theme parks have two different times for bachelor and family. Some parks are especially for family also. 

In Saudi Arabia there is little scope for women to do work outside now a day. This is discouraged here by their guardians. Generally women are taught here to raise their children and to take care of household work. This is Saudi culture that men’s place is outside and women’s place is home. Though, some women work as doctor, as nurse or as teacher in school. 

In this internet era women may have some opportunity to know outside world in Saudi Arabia though some Saudi people want to ban social media such as face book, twitter etc.