A bright future for the women of the Arabian peninsula?

Peter Rice looks at women’s rights in the Arabian peninsula.

''Oxfam’s findings in Yemen present a harsher everyday reality in which over half of the female population are married before the age of 18.'' ''The Saudi Arabian government, notorious for its scant regard for women’s rights, is being pushed towards allowing women to vote.'' The wife of the Sheikh of Qatar

The states of the Arabian peninsula appear to be quite keen on the topic of women’s rights at the moment. There is a new generation of rulers in the area who are aware of the international political importance of improving women’s rights. Pressure has also come from inside these countries, where the increased relaxation of laws governing women’s groups has led to several women’s rights movements which place the governments under severe internal pressure.

The external and internal pressure has resulted in the establishment of women’s voting rights in Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the past decade. Even the Saudi Arabian government, notorious for its scant regard for women’s rights, is being pushed towards allowing women to vote.

In Yemen women have been allowed the vote since 1967 and the country signed up to the UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women in 1984. The Yemeni embassy’s website proudly declares that the country was the first in the Arabian peninsula to have women elected as Members of Parliament and the first to appoint a female ambassador.

Yet for all the progress on the political front, Oxfam’s findings in Yemen present a harsher everyday reality in which over half of the female population are married before the age of 18. Such marriages have often resulted in physical and emotional problems for both the girls and their children. They occur even though Yemen signed the UN Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages in 1987.

Decisions that change the lives of the average woman seem harder to come by than a signature or a favourable vote in Parliament. Firstly, the tradition of the maternal, house-bound wife is still extremely prevalent in the region; and second, despite the fact that women are allowed to vote on equal terms with men, there are very few female ministers in the parliaments. In Saudi Arabia, the situation is even more extreme - in addition to being denied the vote, women are not even allowed to hold public meetings by themselves.

This, however, does not stop Arab women from being active in changing their situation for the better. The new generation of women is better-educated than its predecessors; and women all over the Peninsula are setting up groups which provide support for women in overcoming divorce, being married against their will, and domestic violence.

Furthermore, the wife of the Sheikh of Qatar and the wife of the President of the UAE are playing a more prominent role in politics, setting an example for the new generation. Let’s not forget also Al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based TV station infamous for showing the beheadings of western hostages, which is now gaining a reputation for tackling women’s issues head-on.

So the future, to some extent, appears bright: women’s groups, women in government jobs, women’s pressure groups, the media highlighting their situation. As a result, having mostly won the preliminary battle for political rights, the women of the Arabian peninsula appear well equipped for the real fight – the fight for recognition of women’s rights in society – which has only just begun.