The right to education for women in Saudi Arabia

Alghamdi, Wael Ahmed

Abstract

This thesis offers an analysis of the rights of women in Saudi Arabia to access and obtain education on an equal footing with their male counterparts. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is undergoing a profound moment of social and legal transformation. The Saudi leadership has reformed various laws and practice to support its agenda of economic modernisation, including removing many barriers that prevented women from exercising their rights and freedoms. In this regard, the Saudi leadership has taken various measures aimed at bringing the country’s laws and policies into greater alignment with international human rights norms. As this thesis shows, however, while women have achieved formal equality under the law, at least in the sphere of education, certain barriers continue to impede their ability to achieve full equality. The question posed by this thesis is the extent to which this impairs not simply the human dignity of women but the broader economic outlook of the Kingdom. At the conceptual level of analysis, the thesis also considers whether continuing obstacles to gender equality can be said to be rooted in religion rather than custom. In conventional thinking, economic (and social) modernisation reform is perceived to stand in tension with the Islamic laws and traditions in which Saudi Arabia legal system is deeply rooted and its social traditions enmeshed. This thesis seeks to challenge and contest the assumption that Islamic law and international law are entirely opposed as a false dichotomy. The thesis contextualises the debate on education rights in Saudi Arabia by drawing on broader aspects of Islamic law and thought. Islamic law is rooted in moral philosophy that is distinct from the liberal and secular origins of contemporary human rights discourses. However, while Islamic legal thought may conceivably be understood to view the relation between the genders as ‘equal and different’, there are now various attempts to reinterpret Quranic verses to support the further development of women’s rights of education, alongside its clear endorsement of education as both a right and religious duty. It is by drawing on this more emancipatory ethic of Islamic law and thought that this thesis analyses the strengths and limitations of Saudi law and policy in respect of women’s right to education. This thesis therefore seeks to identify the structures that are in place to protect and promote a women’s right to education, and doing so by arguing that gender equality is not merely necessary as a moral (and religious) imperative but has also become necessary on pragmatic, i.e. economic grounds. If Saudi Arabia is to compete with other developed economies, the argument for further integration of women in public and private life will become more and more pressing. In this way, Saudi Arabia can more fully comply with its obligations in international law and its religious traditions, while furthering it economic modernisation agenda.

Citation

Alghamdi, W. A. (2020). The right to education for women in Saudi Arabia. (Thesis). University of Hull. https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4922224

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Nov 22, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 2, 2025
• Keywords: Law
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4922224
• Additional Information: Law School; University of Hull
• Award Date: May 1, 2020