The Saudi Capitol, Riyadh
I chose Saudi Arabia not because I know nothing about it, but because what I did know invoked a very unusual reaction from me: one of intense dislike and growing prejudice. Between scraps of knowledge about the place Saudi Arabia has within Islam, most of what I knew came from anguished news articles about yet another Sri Lankan maid being sent home after her Saudi employers forced her to eat glass, cut off her hand, or attempted to stone her to death. Foreign domestic labor can be a quick rout out of poverty – at any one time about 10% of the adult population of Sri Lanka persues higher wages and opportunity outside the country. But the chance comes a huge risk to body and soul, especially in opressive societies which have no legal protections for foreign laborers. This kind of abuse isn't limited to Saudi boarders – a couple months ago the Saudi ambassador to India fled under diplomatic immunity after raping his maid. So my image of Saudi Arabia was that of an exceptionally brutal Qatar or Emirates – a country where citizens live off oil royalties and concentrate frustrated energy on oppressing women and brutalizing the household help.
A Saudi Royal Palace
So when I
read 'On Saudi Arabia' I was surprised to learn that 40% of Saudis
live in poverty, and 60% cannot afford to buy homes. Religion may be the opium of the masses, but foreign labor is the opium of labor is the opium of the Saudi economy, keeping it breathing but sedated and stagnant. Social stigmas prevent Saudis from taking the jobs which are plentiful
in their country – service sector and manual labor are bountiful,
but filled with cheaper and more compliant Philippinos, Ethiopians
and Bangladeshis. Meanwhile a decrepit, memorization based education
system fails to prepare Saudis for skilled jobs, so even doctors are
imported. Coveted government jobs are choked by the leviathan royal
family, as each of the 7,000 Princes need an adequately ostentatious official tittle.
Women meanwhile, are gradually overtaking their male peers on every
level of education, but are prohibited from working almost any job by
the risk of interacting with an unrelated male, a possibility made
dangerous by the vigilance of religious police to seek out and punish
such forbidden fraternization.
A slum in Riyadh
Clearly, with a economy resting on a
limited natural resource and capped by the largess of the vast royal
family, the current state of the Saudi economy is unsustainable.
Saudi Arabia is a welfare state choked by a serpentine bureaucracy
and a royal family of around 30,000 members, who dispense
favors, scholarships, even placement at good hospitals on a case by
case basis. Saudis watch the growing divide between the royal and the
common family with resentment. Karen House presents the country as
wavering on the edge of a deep divide in Saudi society: reformers who
demand a more equitable, modernized society which allows space for
dissent, discussion, and maybe even hints of democracy. The other
side seeks to solve Saudi's problems with an even further retreat
into Islam, though current Saudi society is ironically far more
conservative than it was 1,400 years ago during the Prophet's time.
Fundamentalists conveniently ignore that Mohammed readily interacted
with unrelated women, invited them into the mosques from which they
are currently banned, and respected and consulted his wives.
Change in either direction is likely to
throw the country into full social unrest, as it would enrage the
other side of the political spectrum. The family so far has chosen to
vacillate – making modernizing reforms when confident and falling
back on fundamentalist Wahhabism when spooked. The play to radical
Islam by the royal family is a cynical one, as wealthy Saudis
frequently break the rules they publicly espouse. It has thus far
maintained social cohesion and kept the devout more concerned with
the afterlife than the injustices of this world. But the facade
begins to crack under widening inequality and flagrant flouting of
the religious commandment to live a simple life. Islam has escaped the
control of the Royals – even people on government business can be
harassed by the government employed religious police.
Saudi's future remains uncertain. But
one thing for sure – I have significantly more empathy for the
people trapped in the stagnant milieu of Saudi Arabia. The look into
the country was not a pretty one, but it revealed a very human
quest for agency in an oppressive and unjust society.
For more on Saudi Arabia:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-14702705
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