Other side of Saudi women

It was a stunning revelation for many in the world when the education ministry of Saudi Arabia released the statistics two years ago showing more women were studying in the universities than men.

According to the statistics released in May 2015, women constituted 51.8 percent of university students and there were 5,51,000 female undergraduate students compared to 5,13,000 males.

The statistics appeared as a mystery to many as the world commonly perceive Saudi women as a group deprived of many basic rights.

But the changes are now a reality in the Saudi society as described by Hoda Al-Helaissi, one of only 30 women in the Consultative Assembly of Saudi Arabia, also known as Majlis Ash-Shura.

"Saudi women now want career, they want to get back to society, they want to work and they want to be a part of the economy," she said in an exclusive interview with The Daily Star on Sunday. She was attending the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) conference in Dhaka as a member of the Saudi delegation.

"Our focus is on giving women the possibility of having jobs, of being empowered and be independent," she said, adding: "The situation in our country is improving a lot for women."

Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 (the "Vision") and the National Transformation Program set out an ambitious roadmap for education reforms in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which was established in 1932.

Success of the Vision depends largely on reforms in the education system generating a better basis for employment of the young Saudis.

"We find that the main focus of the Vision is on women and young people and how to improve the lives of our citizens," observed Al-Helaissi.

Educating women in Saudi Arabia is a relatively new phenomenon. Women education started in 1962. In 1970, literacy rates for women stood at just two percent.

But the KSA now boasts a female literacy rate of 91 percent and the government has been claiming to have almost completely eradicated illiteracy from the younger generations of women.

"We have managed through over the years to eradicate illiteracy of women. Most of the women graduates have obtained master's degrees and PhDs from the universities. Their level is higher than the men," she said.

"So, as far as education is concerned, we are up there with some of the best countries."

Available records show Saudi women are studying in various fields, including education, social sciences, arts, business, law, engineering, natural sciences, agriculture, medicine and the service sector.

They are also studying in around 60 countries, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the USA and different European countries. The number of Saudi women studying abroad in 2014 was more than 35,000, according to the education ministry's data released in 2015.

Saudi men have long been benefited from the government's study abroad schemes. When King Abdullah came to power in 2005, he implemented an overseas scholarship programme for the first time that included women.

At present, women are said to make up at least 20 percent of the scholarship recipients.

The Saudi MP also spoke about social changes in her country. She said a lot of young women are getting married later than before, so if the average age was 18 before, it is now 25 or 26 and some get married as late as 29 or 30.

"We have smaller families. We do not have anymore 10-12 children in the families. Now we have more three-four. So, the family unit is getting smaller. All these are pushing women to get back to the mainstream of the society," she asserted.

Saudi women who got the right to education four decades ago have recently got their political rights as well.

The KSA became the last country so far to grant women franchise in 2011 and also allowed them to contest local government polls. New Zealand was the first country to give women the legal right to vote in 1893.

For the first time in the history of KSA, women contested municipal elections in 2015 and 12 women also came out successful.

In 2013, King Abdullah took another groundbreaking move by announcing that 30 women would be appointed as members of the 160-members Majlis Ash-Shura to sit together with men there.

The King appointed 30 women and they were sworn in as MPs in February 2013.

Hoda Al-Helaissi was one of them. She has been appointed again on expiry of her four-year tenure. She is now a deputy of the chairperson of the foreign affairs committee in the Shura Council.

For the first time, Saudi Arabia celebrated the International Women's Day this year. Members of the royal family took part in a programme in Riyadh in a bid to fight for women's rights.

Women are still denied many basic rights including freedom of movement, Al-Helaissi said, adding that stereotyping of Saudi Arabia has reached a point and it is very difficult to answer this question.

She, however, claims the reality was very far from the truth everyone knows. "We have a voice. We are very vocal. We are very well respected in our society. That does not mean there are no abuses."

"Obviously, in any country, you will find abuses. But the point is that women do have a voice and they do have the rights mainly because Islam gives us that right before anything else.

"Now the result of the stereotyping, as we are known by the rest of the world, always creates a gap and this gap is filled by unrealities, by fictions. This is how it has been created. I think if anybody comes to Saudi Arabia, they would be very pleasantly surprised to see a different picture," she observed.

In her views, change takes time. It takes time according to the country in question. "Never impose a value system that works in one country because that value will not work in another country. Every country has its own values and cultures."