In 2016, Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin-Salman (MBS) unveiled his grand vision charting Saudi Arabia’s path to the future. The primary aim of the vision, officially known as Vision 2030, is to steer the Kingdom away from its excessive dependence on oil. Since announcing Vision 2030, Riyadh has undertaken several other ambitious initiatives that reflect the goals outlined by the Vision. They include building an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered smart city, constructing a 170-km long linear urban hub along the desert which will have zero cars, and planting 50 billion trees in a bid to make the Middle East green. Aside from its expansive economic, environmental, and infrastructural objectives, however, Vision 2030 also focuses on altering Saudi society by increasing women empowerment and labour force participation.
“Saudi women are yet another great asset,” bin-Salman said while announcing the Vision in 2016. The Crown Prince has promised to boost investment in women’s “productive capabilities and enable them to strengthen their future.” In this respect, Vision 2030 outlines two key goals: reduce the unemployment rate from 11.6% to 7% and increase women’s participation in the labour force from 22% to 30%. It also proposes providing greater opportunities for women in business, education, and entertainment. To this end, Saudi Gazette claims that Vision 2030 has “focused on the full participation of Saudi women at all levels.”
In 2017, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released a report calling Vision 2030 a “catalyst for realising women’s rights.” The statement calls MBS’s Vision a “radically new approach” that will help in bringing about “cultural changes needed to enable women to become both more economically productive and more independent.” In a similar vein, the World Bank said in 2020 that Saudi women “are expected to play a vital role” in realising the objectives of Vision 2030 and highlighted several initiatives undertaken by the Kingdom that would allow women to better realise their capabilities.
Following the announcement of Vision 2030 five years ago, MBS has implemented several key reforms in the country. In 2018, women were permitted to drive and in the same year, women were allowed into sports stadiums for the first time. The Kingdom also appointed Princess Reema bint Bandar bin Sultan al-Saud as the first Saudi female ambassador; she was given the United States (US) as her first posting. Saudi Arabia also passed decrees in 2019 allowing women over 21 years to travel outside the country without the permission of a male guardian. The participation of women in Saudi Arabia’s workforce has also drastically increased. In the first half of 2020, the Saudi female labour force participation rate was estimated at 31.3%, surpassing the 24% target set for the year.
The fact that the Saudi monarchy seems to be actively seeking to empower its female population appears to be a promising sign; however, the ground reality tells a different story altogether. Last year, Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a scathing report of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record. HRW refers to Saudi Arabia’s efforts to promote Vision 2030 as a “deliberate strategy to deflect from the country’s image as a pervasive human rights violator.” The report states that, while the Kingdom has pumped in billions of dollars to host entertainment and sporting events, it has simultaneously led a brutal crackdown on any sort of political dissent.
The most prominent example in this regard is the case of Loujain al-Hathloul, a Saudi women’s rights activist who was detained in 2018 by Saudi authorities for defying the ban on women driving in the Kingdom. It was reported that various forms of torture were inflicted on al-Hathloul, including whippings, electrical shocks, and even waterboarding. She was later charged with destabilising the country’s national security and cooperating with foreign actors against Saudi Arabia. Hathloul was eventually released in February 2021, after 1001 days of detention. Al-Hathloul’s arrest and treatment also reveal the credibility of the Saudi monarchy’s commitment to women’s rights, seeing as the ban on women driving was lifted just one month after her arrest and yet she continued to be held in detention for months.
Hathloul’s arrest and torture also reflect a deeper reality regarding the severe political and domestic repression of women in the country. According to Freedom House’s 2021 report on world freedom, women face “extensive discrimination” in the political and social spheres. The report highlights the fact that women are “largely excluded from leadership positions.” For example, women only managed to secure 1% of the seats in the 2015 municipal council elections. Moreover, most women who had applied to contest the elections were disqualified and not surprisingly, Loujain al-Hathloul was also barred from competing.
The report also states that while there have been improvements in educational and economic rights for women, they are still “subject to extensive legal and societal discrimination.” It pays particular attention to the country’s male guardianship system and its Sharia-based legal system that severely constrains the personal autonomy and individual rights of women. Women do not have complete freedom to choose their spouse, adultery is a crime (in some cases punishable by death), and are severely restricted when it comes to divorce and property rights.
Given these challenges, it is hardly surprising that every year at least 1000 women flee Saudi Arabia in search of a better life. Rahaf Mohammed’s escape from the Gulf country attracted international attention in 2019, when she was detained in Thailand on her way to seek asylum in Australia. Luckily for Rahaf, Canada decided to grant her asylum and provided her with a special protected status as a refugee. However, not all women who try to flee the Kingdom succeed. The many who are caught return home to face further discrimination from both family and the state. Saudi Arabia even launched a mobile application to track the movements of women escaping the country.
Against this backdrop, it must be asked whether achieving the goals set out in Vision 2030 for women empowerment are realistic and whether these goals were ever intended to be achieved in the first place. More importantly, can Saudi Arabia achieve the broader objectives of the Vision without the participation of women? If so, what reason or incentive does it have to change course?
Firstly, it is important to understand the relations between the Saudi royals and the country’s religious leaders. In the 18th century, Mohammed bin Saud (the founder of the Saudi dynasty) and Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab established a pact dividing power between the two. While Wahhab mostly controlled religious matters, Saud looked after military and political matters. This arrangement of religious legitimacy for political protection has stood the test of time and is largely credited with keeping Saudi Arabia stable to this day. However, the downside has been the strict enforcement of the Wahhabi doctrine of Islam, which has resulted in the severe repression of Saudi women.
MBS’s cautious liberalisation has threatened to undo this pact that has kept the Kingdom relatively safe from any major upheavals, including during the Arab Spring revolts that shook the foundations of many Middle Eastern dictatorships. The Crown Prince in 2017 even said that Saudi Arabia seeks to return to a “moderate Islam that is open to all religions [and] eradicate promoters of extremist thoughts." These comments, followed by some of his reforms, are most likely to upset the Kingdom’s conservatives. In this respect, while MBS’s reforms may bring much-needed changes for women, it is also possible that they may result in instability. Therefore, MBS may prefer not to rock the boat too much on this front, especially if he can achieve the economic goals of Vision 2030 without doing so.
However, Saudi Arabia only need look at China to see the rapid economic acceleration that women’s empowerment can bring. When Chinese President Deng Xiaoping opened the country to economic liberalisation in the 1980s, women were given a significant role in transforming the country’s economy. Poverty rates in rural China have drastically reduced following measures to increase women’s labour force participation, improve their access to education and health, and afford them equal rights regarding marriage and divorce. It appears that MBS is cognisant of these benefits, which perhaps explains some of the changes he has brought in. However, the continued influence of religious leader in the country means that such changes cannot be implemented at the same rate as in China.
Ultimately, however, women in Saudi Arabia are only likely to see real change when they are not viewed as economic resources but as equal citizens who deserve the same rights and freedoms as men. While MBS has introduced some promising changes, the Saudi monarchy continues to have a shaky commitment towards removing the hurdles placed in front of women in the country. Although some of this can be attributed to a tense co-existence with the Wahabi clergy, it is clear that many of the underlying conservative principles of Wahabism are also espoused by the royals as well. At this stage, it appears that the monarchy is comfortable with its current economic trajectory, and is thus unlikely to usher in drastic changes to women’s empowerment unless there is an ‘un-ignorable’ financial imperative. Therefore, the societal objectives of Vision 2030 are likely to go unaddressed so long as the economic objectives can be achieved without radically altering the conservative structure of Saudi Arabia.
Can MBS Achieve the Objectives of Vision 2030 Without the Participation of Women?
If Riyadh can achieve the economic objectives of Vision 2030 without the participation of women, it has little reason to introduce major upheavals to Saudi society.
May 5, 2021
SOURCE: SAUDI PRESS AGENCY