Comments on: Thoughts about Saudi Women

By: delhi4cats

delhi4cats — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 16:09:27 +0000

I’m happy to share that the Chicago Sun Times chose to publish this post:

http://www.suntimes.com/news/blogentries/index.html?bbPostId=CzCso0daZ4bnXBEZgr4vZTMqJBzvLOjMka1peBEvl9O8oTExZ

By: delhi4cats

delhi4cats — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 03:22:26 +0000

Good to hear from you Gladys!

Yes; King Abdullah is a very strong advocate for woman and also for reforms in the general.

By: Gladys

Gladys — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 19:57:22 +0000

Hi Carol,
Interesting to know that the Saudi king is slowly liberating the Saudi Women from the clutches of their Mahrems where they can have their own bank account and invest their money (atleast financial independence) and travel on their own without their Mahrem. It is a step forward! Bravo!! As long as King Abdullah is alive.. I have a feeling that he will try his best to reform the rights of Saudi women.

I don’t read your blogs regular but when I start reading them Carol… I read them all.

By: delhi4cats

delhi4cats — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 03:17:55 +0000

The educational benefits here in the Kingdom are among the best I have seen. And as an American parent who had a son go through the US University system, how I wish there was some kind of a similar educational program in the USA for citizens!

By: johnhendel

johnhendel — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 23:38:27 +0000

While the potential misogyny in the system is its own beast, what immediately leaped out at me in this post was the mention that the government pays for that entire education with the grades. I’ll never cease to be stunned when I consider that. I live in America now and certainly have to fight much more for funding my education.

By: delhi4cats

delhi4cats — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 19:07:50 +0000

Marianne,

Of course “Girls of Riyadh” has received a lot of acclaim especially as it was written not all that long ago by a young Saudi woman. I did a review of the book in an earlier post. There are the “Princess” series books but I would not recommend them as a realistic portrayal of day-to-day life of a woman in the Kingdom. Gee…maybe I’ll just need to write my own book! (laugh)

Marahm,

Yes; many working Saudi women can be very aggressive. Actually, let me retrack that… I think in general Saudi women can be much aggressive than Western women. I have high respect for the Saudi female doctors whom I’ve had the honor of getting to know.

By: Marahm

Marahm — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 17:00:41 +0000

I had a different impression of Saudi women, probably because I interacted mainly with female Saudi doctors and medical technologists. In fact, I was responsible for training one of them. During the first week of our professional relationship, I noticed that she was very aggressive, and didn’t want to take direction from me. We had words. Our boss sent us “out to the hall,” which meant, “Go walk up and down the hall of the hospital and hash this out. Don’t come back until you fix things.”

So we walked up and down the hall, talking, getting to know each other on another level. We ended up working well together for the next several years, and even became friends of a sort. We earned each other’s respect.

BTW, she never wanted to retire. She already had a husband and a child, and did not want to be too dependent upon the family for either financial or emotional support. And this was fifteen years ago!

By: marianna68

marianna68 — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 16:47:06 +0000

What are some great books to read regarding women in Saudi? I will try to look them up on amazon.

Thanks!

By: delhi4cats

delhi4cats — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 16:34:00 +0000

Kelsey,

I’d be interested in hearing what book you read. You will find that with Saudi women (and the Kingdom in general) the views and feelings will go across the spectrum. I’ve attempted in my post to present how there are multiple views and thoughts on the issue and impacted by outside factors as well.

David,

I also believe that the general trend in regards to womens rights is indeed towards more freedom and this is a subject the King will routinely speak upon as well. However the pace of change will be at Saudi time which basically means changes will indeed occur but perhaps not as fast as most of the world (or women in the Kingdom) would like.

Kelsey and David, thanks for posting your comments and welcome to the blog.

By: davidbroberts

davidbroberts — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 15:26:17 +0000

A very interesting article. It’s nice to get a different perspective on this. One thing that makes it so difficult to judge progress for women’s rights in Saudi, in my opinion, is that there are so many contradictory stories from day to day. I believe that the general trend is towards more freedom, but have no idea of the pace of change. Any thoughts?
David
http://thesinosaudiblog.wordpress.com/