To be or not to be visible

Lack of female participants in the recently-held Girls Council meeting in Saudi Arabia draws flak from across the globe

his past week news headlines about Saudi Arabia in the world’s press focused on three main events. In the first it was King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz’s visit to Japan and China. He was there as part of a month-long state visit to several Asian countries. The next event concerning the kingdom that captured headlines was the visit to Washington by the Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, the king’s son, who is also the country’s minister of defence. He was in America on an invitation from United States President Donald Trump, who has often been castigated for his executive ban on citizens of six Muslimmajority countries (who would be denied entry into the US). Saudi Arabia, though, is not among those countries.

But it was the third event that unquestionably demanded the most headlines and along with it a fair share of ridicule as well. Saudi Arabia held its first ever Girls Council in the Qasim region to discuss issues faced by women and girls.

Women participate on the council and they were present at the launch too, but were in a separate enclosed area and streamed in on video link due to strict Saudi laws on gender segregation between unrelated men and women. The head of the Girls Council is Princess Abeer Bint Salman, but it was her husband and governor of Al Qasim, Prince Faisal Bin Mishal Bin Saud, who launched the event.

While Saudi Arabia’s lack of gender diversity is hardly a surprise in a country where women must seek a male guardian’s permission to work, study or travel, the irony of a girl’s council being entirely void of women was not lost on the internet.

Publicity photos from the launch of Saudi Arabia’s new Girls Council have gone viral for all the wrong reasons — namely, the lack of women in attendance on stage. In the picture proudly posted online, only men are seen on stage, giving the impression that the Council dedicated towards the cause of females in the kingdom appeared to be run entirely by men! Princess Abeer, who chairs the council, was neither seen in the photograph nor was it reported that she had any say in the proceedings.

The story was immediately picked up by news services from Adelaide to Alaska, and they had a field day deriding the photograph showing 13 men seated proudly on stage determining the fate and future of the fledgling Girls Council in the kingdom. One paper surmised: “For a country that’s known for its lack of women’s rights, the launch of Saudi Arabia’s first ever Girls Council, to discuss the welfare and empowerment of girls, was a promising initiative. But that’s all it is. All talk.” A Canadian release said: “Feminists would have likely given full marks for theory, but zero for practice. When the Qasim Girls Council was launched on Saturday in ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia there would have been enthusiastic murmurings. But any optimism would have quickly evaporated when they saw pictures from the event: Thirteen men on stage and not a single female!”

A female called Rana uploaded the official picture with a caption, ‘This is not a joke, I repeat, not a joke. The first meeting of the Girls Council of Saudi Arabia.’ Another woman called Sarah had this to say: “Satire? Comedy? No. This is actually happening. The first meeting of the Saudi Girls Council ... with ZERO girls.”

Will Saudi Arabia be forever embroiled in the triviality of appearances at the cost of progress? That is a question that all Saudis must ask themselves.