| A little late, doncha think ladies? |
Arab News spoke to young Saudi women about their thoughts on the future.
"One of our simple rights is to be able to drive to college. I don't understand why it's prohibited for us to be in the driving seat," said 22-year-old Zakeyya Ghulman. "I'm sick and tired of the driver being late and busy with all the work my family is giving him -- dropping my mom off at the doctor, picking up my sister from school. I keep waiting for him for hours."
Traveling without a male guardian and having to wait for his approval creates problems for 20-year-old Kholoud Mamoon. "My parents are divorced. My mother is from Egypt, and she lives there. My problem is that every time I want to visit my mother I face a lot of resistance from my father before I finally get him to take me to see my mom," she said. "I want to just pack my bags and book a flight for the weekend to visit my mom whenever I need to."
Under Saudi law, women require their guardians's permission to leave the country -- either by escorting them to the airport and signing an exit waiver or by obtaining single-use or multiple-use permission forms that women keep with their passports.
Having the freedom to choose her future husband is what 25-year-old Amal Al-Ali really wants. "I come from a family that controls young women and does not give them the option to even choose their future," she said. "Our generation is new and out there, we see and mix with men more than my mother and grandmother did when they were my age," she said.
Amal added that her father decided when she was a baby that she was going to marry her cousin. While Islamic custom grants fathers the right to reject male suitors, it does not permit fathers to arrange marriages against the consent of their daughters. However,
The infamous
However...
going against a father's will can prove to be a formidable challenge for daughters and sons alike.
Some jobs and college studies are prohibited to Saudi women, especially if they're perceived by parents to be inappropriate for women.
"I always wanted to study journalism, but my father was so against it that he controlled my high school certificate study, my college study; and I'm sure he will control my job options," said 19-year-old Nora Al-Harthy. "His argument was that journalists have to mix with men in the office and talk to them by phone or even interview them. This act in our family is taboo."
As for sports, stadiums are no-go zones for women -- something that irks the Kingdom's many female football fanatics. "This is nonsense," said 20-year-old Mona Bokhary. "I have a passion for football and it doesn't make sense that women are not allowed to watch football live and always have to watch it on big screens. I want to attend a football match and hear people cheering for their favorite team and feel the game. What's the harm in that? Why isn't it allowed for women to go there? Why not make women's only sections at local stadiums?"