Ever since I was little my parents told me that I was lucky to live in America and to have the opportunities that I have. I never truly understood the extent to which I was lucky-- lucky compared to many women around the world. Growing up I have always been passionate about women’s rights, and last year, I started the Women's Empowerment club at school. So naturally I was drawn to Saudi Arabian women who are some of the most oppressed in the world. Over the summer it was big news that Saudi women were given the right to drive. This was a big deal to me because before this I didn’t think about women in the middle east at all. My focus was at home. It didn’t even cross my mind how restricted and oppressed these women are and that they are just now finally given the right to drive, in 2018! When I was given this assignment I knew I wanted to do something involving women because that is a very important subject to me and I decided on these women, who are just now getting minor rights. I had to investigate the extent to which they are oppressed.
What was surprising about what I learned?
What most surprised me while researching Saudi women was that they had even fewer rights than I originally thought. The guardianship system is what stood out to me the most. I figured women were indeed controlled by their husbands but I didn’t realize it applied in the government too. I also did not realize that Saudi Arabia is gender segregated and this was probably the biggest shock for me. Women are truly lower society and they must not mix with single men. I thought there were some restrictions on whether women could talk to other men, or whether they had choices on what they could do; but I thought these things were just a part of their individual families and societal norms, not taken to a governmental level.
My Research Question Development
My original research question was, “How will recent rights being granted to women in Saudi Arabia affect societal norms in their culture?”. After researching I realized this question couldn’t really be answered. Instead I focused my research on gender norms instead of societal norms, and the LACK of affect these new rights had on Saudi women. I originally expected to see great accounts of progressiveness with the new crown prince and a bright future ahead for Saudi Arabian women. But instead I found more of the same with a totalitarian leader with no tolerance for activism.