Women in the Gulf
The Economist, September 25th, 2004
Riding ahead
Dubai
Some Arab royal families are giving their women a longer leash
The royal families of the Gulf are not renowned for empowering women. But
Dubai’s ruling Maktoum family has taken some notable strides sown that path. No
fewer than three of its women have recently made once-unthinkable public
appearances in international sports events.
Princess Haya of Jordan, the beautiful new wife of Dubai’s crown prince, Sheikh
Mohammad, led the way with pictures of herself in Dubai’s newspapers after
winning a horse race in Britain. The 30-year-old Oxford graduate was pictured in
full riding gear receiving the trophy for the 160 km (100 mile) Thetford Forest
endurance ride. This was a telling break from tradition: there is no known
public image of the sheikh’s first official wife, Sheikha Hind.
Princess Haya is no stranger to publicity: she rode for Jordan in the Olympics
in 2000. More interestingly, this new openness is being extended to blood
members of the Maktoum family. A few days before Princess Haya’s victory,
Sheikha Madiya bint Hasher al-Maktoum became the first woman from the United
Arab Emirates (of which Dubai is one of seven) to compete in an endurance horse
race when she finished 25th in an event in the American state of Idaho. In the
same week, Sheikha Maitha bint Mohammad bin Rashid al –Maktoum (the ruling
sheikh’s daughter by Sheikha Hind) won four gold medals at the Gulf karate
championships.
Such appearances highlight the emergency of women in society, business and even
politics in the long-conservative Gulf states. In the more liberal-such as
Dubai, Bahrain and Kuwait-local and foreign women have been landing, big
corporate jobs for several years. Female Arab executive from such companies as
Hewlett-Packard and, significantly, Saudi Aramco, the kingdom’s state oil
company, are soon to attend a “Women in Leadership” conference in Dubai.
Arab women have won limited political rights in Qatar, Bahrain and Oman. Sheikha
Moza, wife of Qatar’s emir, is a much-praised standard bearer of women’s rights.
She is the force behind, among other projects, Qatar’s Carnegie Mellon
University, which opened this month, unprecedentedly with mixed male and female
classes. Three-quarters of the new intake are female.
But female emancipation still has its limits. Dubai newspapers published no
pictures of Sheikhas Maitha and Madiya, despite their courage in the public
arena. Women still cannot drive in neighboring Saudi Arabia, and are unlikely to
be able to vote in the forth-coming local elections. The vote in Kuwait is also
restricted to men. The United Arab Emirates steadfastly resists all moves
towards democracy, and royal succession remains, so far, an entirely male
affair. |
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