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Lynda Balloni
Dr. Zvan-Elliot
PSC 3312: Middle East Politics
10 October 2014
Women’s Rights Organizations and Reforms in the Gulf States
Despite the fact that every Arab state adopted the United Nations’ eight Millennium
Development Goals, which include the objective to “promote gender equality and empower
women”, the Arab Gulf states have held strong in their stance on women accepting their limited
role in society (mostly emphasizing their duties within their family) as based on each states’ own
interpretation of Shari’a law (Metcalfe 92-93). The development and function of women’s rights
organizations within the Arab Gulf states has been contingent upon the approval and control of
each given state’s government, thus allowing said organizations to “prosper” but only under the
terms set by their authoritarian regimes, partially defeating the purpose of the groups’ existence
as they do not have the power or authority to even attempt improve women’s rights beyond what
their governments consider appropriate.
People seeking increased rights for women in the Gulf states not only have to face the
challenge presented by the states’ control over women’s rights organizations, but the backlash
from the public against any sort of progress commissioned by the government. As stated in
Political Change in the Arab Gulf States:
The paradox of the Gulf experience with democratizing initiatives, however, is that
reform efforts bring women into the political arena only when nondemocratic,
authoritarian regimes open the door for them. At the same time, whenever reform
initiatives on behalf of women are implemented, these reforms are exposed to political

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opposition from a conservative public given new political voice by the same democratic
processes through which women seek inclusion and empowerment. (193)
Those people in the Gulf states who contest the progression of equality for women could not
only use religious backing for their argument, but point out that those people from the Western
world calling for reforms in their women’s rights policies focus so much on human rights while
they spend less time on pressing issues such as starvation and forgo the implementation of
economic rights within impoverished states (Dalpino 46). In her article on human rights and
democracy, Dalpino goes on to assert that such advocates against the implementation of Western
ideals in Arab countries would claim that “promoting democracy and human rights is merely the
manifestation of Western Evangelism or even of imperialism” (46). This combination of
resentment towards the West with the “paradox of the Gulf experience with democratization”
further impedes the progress of women’s rights as beyond its obstructions due to the
authoritarian grip over its organizations.
Women’s organizations throughout the Gulf states generally had a very narrow focus of
their goals due to their requirement to work under the government’s close watch. The United
Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar do not allow any independent women’s groups within
their borders, while Bahrain and Oman hold a tight control over who may join any of their
organizations. Women’s groups tend to emphasize the importance of a woman’s duty to her
family rather than furthering the importance of women in the workplace or political and
economic sectors, with few exceptions. Despite the fact that most women’s organizations were
born from transnational feminist movements, they still tend to place their emphasis on
“traditional” women’s roles, i.e., childcare, healthcare, and religious education. The lack of
progress in the sphere of women’s rights can also be seen within the legal sector of these states,

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as domestic violence is still yet to be considered a criminal offence in any Arab state. The
government also does not work to promote knowledge of the organizations available for women,
so many Gulf women are unaware of even the limited services that are available to them
(Metcalfe 87-95). Islamic scholars have assisted in promoting the view that women should stick
to their familial roles and that the state should remain to be the main agent in instigating gender
equalization (Hatem 44). With the combination of the necessity for governmental approval or
full control, backlash fostered by democratization, and lack of knowledge about the roles and
availability of women’s organizations in the Gulf states, it is difficult to imagine any progress
being made to improve their rights for women.
Despite the barriers facing women’s rights, the Gulf states have made some very
significant progress over the past couple decades. Although voting rights even for men tend to
be very limited, particularly in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, women technically have
the right to vote in all the Gulf states, as of 2011 when Saudi Arabia finally made the shift
(“Democracy in the Gulf: Let’s Take It Slowly”). The labor participation rate for women within
Gulf states also greatly improved from 1960-2000; in the Middle East and North Africa overall,
rates increased by 47%, but in Bahrain, Kuwait, and the UAE it increase by 668%, 486%, and
548%, respectively, while in Yemen in only jumped 15%. Certain women’s organizations have
also shifted their goals to work more on women’s role in politics and leadership in general by
increasing awareness of the challenges they face in the workplace and with their personal rights
as well as working to improve literacy rates and job-related skill sets (Metcalfe 87-95). Other
organizations have worked towards improving women’s role in the economic sector by allowing
women to take out loans and gain access to other economic resources (Browers 205). In adition
to these reforms in politics and the workplace, women who work have gained substantial

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assistance during maternity leave and have essentially closed the gap between women and men
in education (Political Change in the Arab Gulf States 193-194). Generally, the Gulf states have
seen an increase gender equality, at least in part thanks to the role of the state controlled
women’s organizations, but examining states individually is key to the understanding of the role
the these organizations.
Bahrain is an interesting case for investigating women’s organizations in the Gulf as its
women’s group as established by their National Charter is headed by the first wife of King
Sheikh Hamad, Sheikha Sebeeka, and has very clear emphasis on maintaining traditional
women’s roles, but it also holds societies which are some of the most productive in the Gulf for
improving women’s participation in politics and economics. Sheikha Sebeeka’s Supreme
Council for Women in Bahrain outlines its goal as to “define and lead the women’s movement to
equip women to take up their rightful role in society, establishing constitutional mechanisms for
the development and power of women in Bahrain.” The phrase “take up their rightful role”
clearly allows the Council room to perpetuate the argument that within an Islamic State, women
have duties to the families to live up to over integrating themselves into the workforce. On the
flip side, Bahrain’s Women’s Society and the Bahrain Businesswomen’s Society actually
promote and assist increased participation of women within politics and the workforce (Metcalfe
92-95). The societies which work outside the government’s direct control have much more
progressive and effective results.
Saudi Arabia still has perhaps the least progressive policies concerning their rights for
women in all of the Gulf countries. Women just gained the right to vote in 2011, still do not
have the right to drive, hold political office, or work with men, and it is also unique in its use of a
religious police force for the sake of making sure that women are covering their faces (Political

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Change in the Arab Gulf States 209). Saudi Arabia also encourages women to work only part-
time as that situation “suits the special circumstances of many women” (Metcalfe 94). Saudi
women have been speaking out against their state’s policies on rape, marriage, divorce, limits on
their access to the workforce, and domestic abuse, but still have made little progress outside of
finally gaining the right to vote (Angrist 408). To contrast these policies more with other Gulf
states, the last of these states to legalize voting for women was the UAE in 2006 (although these
rights were very limited until 2011), and Omani women have been able to participate in politics
since Sultan Qaboos bin Said al-Said allowed so in 1994 (Schlumberger 2, Political Change in
the Gulf States 213). Even compared to all other Gulf states whose women’s organizations must
work under their authoritarian regimes, Saudi Arabia is behind the tide on reforms for greater
gender equality.
Women in the Gulf states have made serious leaps in progress in equalizing their rights
and participation in the workforce, politics, and education and women’s rights organizations
have become abundant and achieve economic support both from their respective states and the
international community. However, as each state’s government maintains control over said
organizations, women are prevented from actually gaining any more rights than their
authoritarian regimes would wish for them to have. In order to make any actual progress beyond
what the ruling families would be willing to concede without a fight, the Gulf states would have
to allow its women’s organizations to function outside the watchful eye of the government, a
prospect which unfortunately seems impossible within the foreseeable future.

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Works Cited
Angrist, Michele Penner. “Saudi Arabia.” Politics & Society in the Contemporary Middle East.
United States of America: Lynne Reinner Publishers, Inc., 2010. Print.
Browers, Michaelle L. "Gender and Its Absence in Arab Debates." Democracy and Civil Society
in Arab Political Thought: Transcultural Possibilities. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse
UP, 2006. 205. Print.
Dalpino, Catharine. "Promoting Democracy and Human Rights: Lessons of the 1990s." The
Brookings Review 18.4 (2000): 46. JSTOR. Web. 7 Oct. 2014. <www.jstor.org>.
"Democracy in the Gulf: Let's Take It Slowly." Economist 1 Oct. 2011. Print.
Hatem, Mervat. "Gender and Islamism in the 1990s." Middle East Report 222 (2002): 46.JSTOR.
Web. 7 Oct. 2014. <www.jstor.org>.
Metcalfe, Beverly Dawn. "Women, Management and Globalization in the Middle East."Journal
of Business Ethics 83.1 (2008). JSTOR. Web. 7 Oct. 2014. <www.jstor.org>.
Schlumberger, Oliver, ed. Debating Arab Authoritarianism: Dynamics and Durability in
Nondemocratic Regimes. Stanford, California: Stanford UP, 2007. 2. Print.
"Women in Civic and Political Life: Reform Under Authoritarian Regimes." Political Change in
the Arab Gulf States: Stuck in Transition. Ed. Mary Ann Tetreault, Gwenn Okruhlik, and
Andrzej Kapiszewski. United States of America: Lynne Rienner, 2011. Print.