by Linda Pappas Funsch
Special to The Frederick News-Post
During the course of my recent Arabian adventure, our delegation of U.S. educators, led by John Duke Anthony, president of the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations, had the unique opportunity to meet with citizens at the highest levels... in government, industry, education and the media. Although my study of the region, spanning more than three decades, had familiarized me with many countries of the Middle East, the cumulative effect of these discussions, both candid and far-reaching, deepened my insights as never before.
Saudi Arabia on the world stage
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, established in 1932, dominates the global petroleum market, with 25 percent of the world’s proven oil reserves as well as significant natural gas deposits. Situated at the crossroads of three continents and several strategic waterways, it ranks internationally as the third largest producer of petrochemicals and fertilizers.
The vitality of the Saudi economy can be measured in myriad ways. Over the past four years, the value of the Saudi Stock Exchange has increased at an annual rate of 100 percent. With the largest economy in the Arab world, its citizens enjoy a per capita income of $12,000. Its population is estimated at 22 million people, one-fourth of which are expatriate workers. This imbalance, resulting from the unprecedented demand forskilled and unskilled labor in recent decades, remains a critical challenge for the government as it seeks to integrate Saudi nationals into every level of the national labor force.
On the world stage, Saudi Arabia plays a significant role in the International Monetary Fund. It is recognized as a major donor of foreign grants, far exceeding the percentage of comparable U.S. aid to Gross Domestic Product. Its preeminent role in OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) is a matter of record. In December 2005, the Kingdom gained admission to the World Trade Organization, paving the way for globalization and greater transparency.
Modernization and reform
Throughout our travels in Saudi Arabia, the following mantra was heard repeatedly:
"In only 70 years, we have grown from tribal to post-industrial life."
Indeed, it may safely be said that two factors have shaped the course of this country in recent decades.
The first event was the unification of a loose confederation of bedouin tribes during the interwar years, by Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, founder of the current ruling dynasty, which, since 1932, bears his name.
The second event was the discovery of oil in 1938, propelling the Kingdom on a course which few could have imagined at that time. That discovery suddenly catapulted Saudi Arabia onto the world stage.
Historically, there is considerable irony to this tale of unimaginable treasure hidden under the sands of a sparsely-populated and seemingly unimportant land; for, while Britain and France eagerly divided the spoils of other Arab lands of the former Ottoman Empire among themselves in 1920, these former colonial powers magnanimously, and perhaps dismissively, conferred upon the Arabian heartland its independence... ignorant of the incalculable wealth that it contained.
Oil, we were reminded by more that one Saudi citizen, has been a mixed blessing.
While it has conferred upon the country economic influence disproportionate to its numbers, it also threatens to undermine the culture and traditions to which its citizens hold fast.
Which brings us to another mantra:
"Future modernization must take place within the framework of 'social cohesion' to avoid shattering the essence of Saudi culture."
And herein, as the saying goes, lies the rub: how to reconcile modernization and reform with history and tradition? Without question, a national dialogue is currently under way with advocates on all sides vigorously debating the future course of Saudi Arabia. From our observations, however, one thing is certain: the forces of "modernization," driven by King Abdullah and the nation's top policy-makers, are unrelenting.
The proverbial genie, if you will, is out of the bottle.
Education
Nowhere is Saudi Arabia's commitment to development more apparent than in the field of education. Recognizing that an educated populace, male and female, is critical to development, the government, since 1970, has begun construction, on average, of one elementary school a day, a middle school every two days and a high school every four days. Apart from its ambitious building program, the Kingdom has embarked on a comprehensive program of review of antiquated curricula and pedagogy in its schools.
With 250,000 graduating from high schools each year, more than half of the Kingdom's students are female... quite remarkable, it seems, given the fact that the first public school for girls in the country did not open until 1960.
During our travels in the Eastern Province, we were invited to the Dhahran Alliyah School, where we visited with administration, faculty and students. Among the most enduring memories of our trip was a visit to a class of 12th-grade girls who, defying all stereotypes, spoke with confidence and conviction about their plans for university education and career opportunities beyond. Responding to our inquires with quiet eloquence, senior students listed their choices for institutions of higher learning, including several elite U.S. colleges and universities, as they spoke of their career goals, ranging from chemical and electrical engineering, medicine and dentistry, to international relations, business and finance.
Culturally, the most durable link between Saudi Arabia and the U.S. is in the area of education. More than 600,000 Saudis have been educated in the United States at the expense of their government. The vast majority of the Kingdom’s ruling elite have been graduated from American universities. While visiting the highly-competitive King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals ("the MIT of Saudi Arabia"), we spoke at length with both administrators and professors as they recalled with great nostalgia their college and post-graduate days at some of the finest institutions in our country.
The importance of cross-cultural education, for both Arabs and Americans, is embraced by many on both sides of the equation. This was exemplified recently by headlines which announced that a Saudi "royal," Prince Alwaleed bin Taweel, had donated $20 million dollars each to Georgetown and Harvard universities to fund Islamic studies in the U.S.
In addition, this grandson of the Kingdom's founder, Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, gave $15 million dollars each to the American universities in Beirut and Cairo for the purpose of establishing the Middle East’s first centers of "American studies."
Social services and healthcare
In Saudi Arabia, a country with no income taxes, social service provisions have been taken to a new level. Both religious prescriptions and traditional mores regarding those in need have had an enormous influence on Saudi views of governmental responsibility.
In this context, our delegation’s appointment with the charismatic Minister of Social Affairs in Riyadh was particularly revealing. Apologizing for his late arrival to our meeting, His Excellency explained that he was detained as a group of disabled citizens, lobbying for better public facilities for the handicapped, intercepted him en route. He explained that in the context of the traditional Saudi majlis (council) system, any citizen has an inherent right to direct access to any government official, even to the King himself. Giving new meaning to the term "public servant," our host apologized for the delay in the start of our meeting that morning, explaining his obligation to hear the citizens' petitions for their "legitimate rights."
As social responsibility is integral to the Islamic ethos, this ministry, we were told, delivers a wide range of social services for widows, orphans and the disabled. With a population growth rate of 2.8 percent, family planning initiatives, within the context of the Kingdom’s religiously conservative society, are being introduced, if cautiously.
On the outskirts of the sprawling capital city of Riyadh lies the bucolic campus of the Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Humanitarian City, the only comprehensive healthcare center of its kind in the Middle East. Founded by the Crown Prince as a charitable, philanthropic institution, this "state-of-the-art" medical rehabilitation facility treats amputees, stroke victims, patients with spinal cord and traumatic brain injuries, and children with genetic disorders.
Designed in cooperation with HealthSouth of Birmingham, Ala., to be on the "cutting edge" of medical technology, the center is open to patients throughout the region. During a recent visit to the Humanitarian City, U.S. Ambassador James Oberwetter described it as "an oasis of love and hope."
Challenges
Despite the determination of the governing elite, the path to modernization in Saudi Arabia is not without its challenges. Within the country, there are potent domestic forces dedicated to preserving the status quo. The role that religion plays in the lives of Saudis is inescapable.
In this country, the relatively austere Hanbali school of Islamic jurisprudence (often erroneously referred to as Wahhabi) reflects a particular interpretation of the Muslim faith, regulating many facets of daily life and transcending the purely "sacred" sphere. We were reminded that, by tradition, there is no division between church and state in a purely Islamic community.
Particularly where societal change is concerned, our delegation came to appreciate just how far the Kingdom has progressed in 50 short years... initially, in the areas of infrastructure, education, technology and, more recently, in the realm of participation and policy-making. Economic, political and social reforms are, we were assured, national priorities.
Underemployment continues to be a potentially destabilizing concern in Saudi Arabia, fueling potentially radical forces within the Kingdom. While high schools graduate some 250,000 students annually, there are only 50,000 seats available in national universities. In a program known as Saudiization, efforts are under way to increase technical and vocational opportunities for young Saudis and to encourage them to consider careers in the service sectors, thereby lessening the country's dependence on foreign workers, who currently constitute 25 percent of the labor force.
For a culture as deeply rooted in tradition as this one, radical change, when perceived as being imposed from the outside, is doomed to failure. Saudis insist that they be allowed to proceed at their own pace, without recrimination from abroad. In the current era of national reform and modernization, a healthy debate is under way in Arabia and elsewhere in the region concerning the most appropriate, and culturally authentic, way to reconcile competing forces in today's world.
In the words of one professor at Jeddah's Effat College, "...reform is not an event: it is a process."
The feminine mystique
Perhaps no subject so captivates the Western imagination as that of women in Saudi Arabia and their perceived plight. Painting with a very broad brush an almost singular image of the "average" Saudi/Arab/Middle Eastern/Islamic woman, few in the West seem inclined to examine the considerable diversity which applies to "Oriental" women of these many and varied traditions.
All too often, the casual observer in the West perceives this complex and highly nuanced culture in overly-simplistic terms. Borne of ignorance and fueled largely by the popular media, stereotypical images of the land and people of the Middle East are perpetuated without relief.
While my travels throughout this region over many years had revealed striking variations with regard to women’s roles in society, naturally I was curious to view the Saudi case for myself. A revelation awaited.
Women with whom we spoke asserted, with not a little pride that, since its inception, 1,400 years ago, their Islamic faith has given them rights and privileges that would likely be considered quite progressive by any standard.
Under Islam, women have the right to assign conditions to their marriage contract, including conditions under which they may initiate divorce. Women may retain their maiden name after marriage, write their own wills, and dispose of personal income without interference. The Qur'an (Islamic book of divine revelation) guarantees Muslim women a share of inheritance. Polygamy, while permitted under the strictest conditions in Islam, accounts for fewer than 5 percent of all marriages in Saudi Arabia.
The public and the private spheres
And while Saudi women are enjoined to dress conservatively in public and, indeed, may not apply for driver’s licenses, these restrictions were explained within a cultural framework which places great value on modesty and family honor. In the privacy of their own homes and those of friends and family, Saudi women, freely abandon their abayas, revealing amazing diversity in individual taste and personal preference.
On the issue of driving, women in the Kingdom were ambivalent. Recent challenges posed to Saudis, both by U.S. emissary Karen Hughes and television journalist Barbara Walters, attest to the fact that this is an issue which seems to preoccupy those in the West, as an indisputable prerequisite for progress. Based on our many discussions, this is not a problem that looms quite as large in the collective Saudi psyche. Changes are coming, we were reminded again and again; and on this issue, change also is inevitable.
As one Saudi, clearly tired of the subject, asserted, "...the issue of women driving is not a measure of development."
Women in the workforce
While the full potential for the integration of women in Saudi society has not yet been realized, there is no denying that educational and career opportunities for women have grown substantially in recent decades. Females comprise more than one half of all high school graduates in the Kingdom. Traditional areas of employment, such as education and healthcare, are rapidly expanding into the fields of information technology, marketing, and small businesses, encouraged by grants from the government.
Who would have imagined that women represent 34 percent of the Saudi civil service; or that one-fourth of all current bank accounts, valued in the billions of dollars, is controlled by women?
During our visit, the headlines of the English language daily, Saudi Gazette, loudly proclaimed: "Men Vote for Women," as two local businesswomen were elected to two seats on the board of directors of the prestigious Jeddah Chamber of Commerce for the first time in its 60-year history.
"The times," it would appear, "...are a-changing."
Copyright ©2006 by Linda Pappas Funsch |
