If you call yourself a ‘feminist’ and are looking for pointers on how we women are ‘oppressed’ here in Saudi, then this article may not be to your taste. On second thought, it might just serve as an eye-opener. Here is an attempt at listing just ten of the many reasons why women in Saudi Arabia feel blessed to be living where they are.

1.Safety and Security

Just look at the numbers. With an index of 0.71, Saudi Arabia features as the eighth safest country and has a murder rate of less than 1 person per 100,000 population (2008-2009, www.mapsofworld.com). Saudi Arabia was ranked last (65th of 65 countries) in the Seventh United Nations Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems, listing ‘Rapes (per capita) by country’ covering the period 1998 – 2000. The survey was conducted by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Centre for International Crime Prevention. Safety and security of a country depends on the number of crimes that take place in any year.

All data and statistical information show that the crime rate in the Kingdom is much lower than that of other countries. Indeed, the society’s upbringing on Islamic teachings and the application of Islamic law (Sharee’ah) in Saudi Arabia has proven efficient in fighting and in lowering the crime rate. Dedicated organizations such as the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice do what’s in their capacity to enforce Islamic morality in society. It is no wonder then that women feel safer in the Islamic atmosphere prevalent here, whether she chooses to stay at home or step out.

2.Prayer in Mosques

Where else in the world can you walk to the Masjid at 1:00 A.M. in the night for Tahajjud prayers and walk back at three in the morning - all by yourself? As part of our Ramadan routine, Mother and I would walk down to a nearby mosque for Taraweeh prayers. I would go alone a few times when Mother was unable to come. These were truly blissful moments to be among the many other women – old and young – who had gathered to worship their Lord in the wee hours of the morning, especially during the ‘Big Nights’. In most of South Asia, the trend of women praying in mosques is either not prevalent or the facilities are just not there. Most women in my homeland (India) have never prayed the Eid prayer in a jamaat. I consider myself truly blessed, Alhumdulillah, to pray the Eid prayer with hundreds of my sisters in a mosque or an Eid Musalla year after year.

3.Work Place

The Kingdom’s labor laws go to great extent to protect working women. In July, Saudi Arabia’s labor ministry issued new laws affecting women at the workplace, according to which jobs at women's accessories and cosmetics shops will be restricted to Saudi women alone; men will be forbidden from entering these types of shops. Offices are required to have separate departments for women. One of the main benefits of segregation is that there are few cases of extra marital affairs to worry about. Otherwise, offices are a hotbed for such activity. Though it protects both men and women, especially husbands and wives, it is a bigger boon for women, wives in particular.

Other highlights of the new labor regulations: A factory owner must provide women with safe and decent uniforms. Women must work in a women-section. Women work hours at factories must be between 6 AM and 5 PM. While at the factory, women must adhere to the Islamic dress code and their work uniforms. They must not work in a factory office if the number of women is less than ten in a single shift.

Under the Saudi labor law, a woman is not allowed to be hired to work in jobs that could be harmful to her health or may expose her to specific hazards. Moreover, when a woman employee gives birth to a child, she is entitled to a paid maternity leave starting four weeks before her due date for delivery, and after the delivery, she is entitled to six weeks paid maternity leave.

Furthermore, companies that employ at least fifty women must hire caretakers (if the number of children that employees have under the age of six reach at least ten), so employees can leave their children under protective care while they work. Employers who have one hundred or more women working for them must set up a childcare center in the surrounding area.

Such laws are ideal to keep women employed, especially in industries that employ many women.

Only recently Labor Minister, Adel Fakeih, warned companies against forcing women to remove the niqab in workplace. He urged niqab-wearing workers to inform the ministry if a company imposes such controls.

4.Separate recreational facilities

A weekend in my home country a few years back would mean a trip to an amusement park, a resort or a garden. I remember with disgust how swimming pools were common for both men and women in the water park. Not wanting to miss out on the ‘fun’, everyone, including female members of the family, would enter the water, and there would be nothing to screen them from men. Alhumdulillah, such a scenario cannot be thought of here, even in our wildest of imaginations. Moreover, by and large one doesn’t even have to worry about being chased by eve-teasers in malls, where single men are restricted from entering during the weekends.

5.Islamic education

The quality of Islamic education for women duly found in a region called the ‘cradle of Islam’ is superb – both at the level of big universities, such as Umm Al-Qura University, and at the level of madrasas, Islamic centers and Dawah centers that are popular among women in several localities in each city. Courses of varying durations cover subjects of Tajweed, Aqeedah, Tafseer, Seerah and the language of the Qur’an – Arabic. Moreover, I feel safe studying in an Islamic center here, which is free from bid’ah and the blind-following of the madhabs. Due to rampant bid’ah in my home country, it becomes a matter of great concern as to where I should take my Deen. The next time someone grumbles about there being “no opportunities of higher education for girls in Saudi Arabia”, you know what to tell her. Many of my friends after studying Class 12 took up these courses, mastered them and are now successful da’iyahs and Qur’an teachers, Masha’Allah. I don’t know of any education better than this!

6.Driven around by ‘chauffeurs’

Call it euphemizing, but that is what we would like to believe. And no, I am not rubbing salt on the wounds of my sisters who are struggling for a Saudi driving license. Until we obtain one, let us take solace in the fact that it is only in Saudi Arabia that women are essentially required to be safely driven around by their fathers, brothers, husbands and/or personal drivers. Moreover, many women who I spoke to for this story stated that they don’t want to drive and that they feel no need to. Some of the quotable quotes they had to say on the matter of driving include: “All this media hype is propaganda; it’s very much obvious, we don’t even need to discuss these things, and “Driving is not everything a woman needs.” Driving and proper public transportation are very much required for women here, and there is no denying that. But it is not as great an issue for women in Saudi Arabia as the media plays it out to be.

7.Halal food

8.Best Hijab clothing

This is possibly the best place to practice Hijab in a manner that is convenient and most suits us. Jeddah has many abaya markets selling a variety of hijab clothing, such as, scarves, veils, headbands, gloves, and abayas. It is not uncommon for Hajj and Umrah pilgrims visiting Jeddah to stock up on abayas for themselves and their families back home. Abayas here are comfortable, affordable and look good. (Note: Modest abayas that fulfill the requirements of hijab and not fitted abayas with flashy colors that awfully reveal the body contours). Such is their demand that every year at the time of our vacation our relatives back home ask us not to get anything except abayas from Jeddah! Alhumdulillah that I do not have to wait for a whole year to get myself a new abaya!

9.Affordability of life here

There is very little price rise here, thanks to government subsidies. Among the important daily necessities of life, the Saudi government subsidizes food, water, petrol and electricity, which is why almost every house here is air-conditioned. According to a recent Financial Times report, the Saudi government spends SR76bn (20 billion US dollars) on water subsidies every year and at least SR50bn on electricity prices. In February, when the King returned from medical treatment in the US, a massive SR135bn economic package was announced soon followed by another one covering wage bonuses, and unemployment and housing benefits, both totaling SR350bn. Poor people can afford families here. In its “Worldwide Cost of Living 2011” report released in July 2011, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) listed Jeddah as one of the cheapest cities to live in. The city featured among the top ten cities with the lowest cost of living out of the 140 cities examined.

10.Charity work

Women have a choice to work or be involved in community activities, learn and do what they can choose from. In most places, this is not an option except for the rich because of the high cost of living. Here you can choose your activities rather than the activities choosing you.

•  •  •

These are things generally unspoken about in the media. Both inside and outside the Kingdom, stories on how women are 'oppressed' and discriminated abound. Perhaps, someone who has lived here as well as elsewhere can give us a better picture.

An Islamic Studies and Arabic teacher in Jeddah, who wished not to be named, said: “I have tried life both here and in the West and found it difficult in both for women. I was the only responsible parent for the family in Canada, so I found it hard, tiresome, and abnormal for women's nature. The mental and spiritual element in you disappears. Life over there is material and void of any kind of emotions. Everything goes according to the law. They fear the law the way Muslims fear Allah, and when they can break it, they do it with no remorse. It's more hypocritical life than real. So you feel a sense of unrest in you and you don't know the reason. …. They also do not have the financial security due to interest [riba] dealings at a high level. Things like these you either don't see them here or they are limited to certain areas.”

Saudi Arabia like other countries is not a utopian society. But the existence of all the above good factors makes it quite a wonderful place to live.