Women: A Benchmark of Saudi and Iranian Reform
By James M. Dorsey
With Saudi Arabia announcing plans for a major restructuring
of the kingdom’s economy and Iran gearing up to become a regional hegemon,
women’s sports is emerging as a benchmark of reform, and one that so far is
less than promising.
Saudia Arabia’s recent outline of plans for large scale
economic reform away from the kingdom’s dependency on oil acknowledges that
women have a role to play but comes nowhere close to assigning them a
full-fledged or unrestricted part to play.
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In a slick document, entitled Vision 2030 that was drafted
by Western consultants, Saudi Arabia identifies sports “as a mainstay of a
healthy and balanced lifestyle and promises “to encourage widespread and
regular participation in sports and athletic activities.” Yet, the document makes
no reference to facilities for women in a country that has so far refrained
from introducing physical education for girls in elementary and secondary
schools.
Similarly, the document, amid leaks that the kingdom’s
powerful Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman favours the lifting of a ban
on women’s driving in due course, promises enhanced educational and job
opportunities for women, who account for more than half of the country’s
university graduates. But it only envisions a mere eight percent increase from
22 to 30 percent in women’s participation in the workforce.
The document lays out a vision of economic reform with no
reference to political reform despite the government’s unilateral rewriting of
the kingdom’s social contract that undermines the surrender of personal and
political freedoms in exchange for cradle-to-grave social welfare. Social
change appears geared towards what is minimally deemed necessary for economic
reform in a bid to postpone for as long as possible potential conflict with the
kingdom’s powerful, ultra-conservative Wahhabi clergy that dictates norms of
social behaviour.
As a result, the document in propagating sports makes no
mention of complying with demands of the International Olympic Committee (IOC)
and human rights groups that women, who under pressure of the IOC participated
for the first time in the kingdom’s history in 2012 in Olympic Games, be
allowed to compete in disciplines that are not mentioned in the Qur’an.
Nor does it acknowledge the economic benefits argued by
Saudi Arabian Football Association president Ahmed al Harbi that the kingdom
could reap from allowing women to attend men’s sporting events. Repeated
suggestions to either build stadiums that would have segregated sections for
women or renovate existing ones to accommodate women have been defeated by the
clergy and an unwillingness of the government to confront the conservatives.
The document’s hesitancy to tackle social and political
reforms that will have to support inevitable economic reform raises questions
about the government’s ability to turn Saudi Arabia into a 21st
century, diversified knowledge economy that will be able to nurture a private
sector and a technocracy capable of playing its part and attract the foreign
investment that will be needed.
Sports may not be a central pillar of economic reform. It
was however important enough to be highlighted in the government’s Vision 2030.
Saudi Arabia’s plans to turn its economy around is driven by perceptions of the
end of oil and tumbling commodity prices that force the government to
restructure its sources of income. Past failed efforts to do so were the result
of a less pressing need and the willingness of the international community to
endorse a regime that refused to adhere to human rights, including those of
women. The result has been the spread of a backward looking, intolerant and
puritan interpretation of Islam that has made its mark globally and at times
has become a breeding ground for Islamist militancy.
International sporting associations have played their part
in this complacency and continue to do so.
The associations’ efforts to further
women’s sporting rights lack resolve and forcefulness not only in their
attitude towards Saudi Arabia but also towards Iran, the world’s only other
country that bans women from attending male sporting events. Yet, both Saudi
Arabia and Iran given their need for international contributions to their
economic turn arounds may be more susceptible to pressure than they have been
in the past.
Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 by implication lays out multiple
areas where foreign investment and know-how will be needed. Iran is embarking
on massive rehabilitation following the recent lifting of punitive economic sanctions
as part of its nuclear agreement with world powers and is seeking to
re-establish itself as a regional hegemon. Saudi Arabia has however yet to
follow Iran and other Middle Eastern and North African nations in seriously seeking
to project itself internationally by hosting major sporting events.
Iranian efforts so far have focussed on soccer and
volleyball. The International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) nonetheless backed
away in recent days from its earlier insistence that Iran allow women to watch
men’s matches if it wants to be awarded hosting rights. It did so after its
efforts failed to persuade Iran to lift the ban for this year’s Kish Island
Open leg of the Beach Volleyball World Tour.
The FIVB backdown is all the more
curious given that the volleyball constitutes a hardening of Iran’s position. In
contrast to the ban on women attending soccer matches that dates back to the
1979 Islamic revolution, women were only barred from volleyball events in 2012.
The FIVB had vowed in 2014 not to award further events to
Iran following the arrest of British-Iranian national Ghoncheh Ghavami on
charges of waging "propaganda against the regime" for attempting to
attend an attending an FIVB World League match in Tehran. Ms. Ghavami spent 151
days in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison before she was released and charges
eventually dropped.
The FIVB has since concluded that Iran’s complex religious
politics make it unlikely that firm pressure will produce results. Like the
IOC, it has opted for an ad-hoc approach with little evidence that there is
greater hope for success. "Volleyball is not relevant enough for the government
to set a precedent and change... At least by allowing Iran to host events, the
conditions for people to express their views and opposition are there… We would
be punishing a whole generation of athletes trying to get into the sport by not
holding any events in Iran,” said an FIVB official.
The FIVB is however unlikely to have any more success as it
seeks to persuade Iran to allow women to attend the attend the FIVB World
League in Iran in July.
Ultimately, achieving women’s rights is a struggle that has
to be waged domestically in Saudi Arabia and Iran. The crackdowns on dissent in
both countries hold out little hope that international sporting events will
spark the kind of debate that leads to change. The battle between recalcitrant
governments and internationals sporting associations is one of who has greater
resolve and the longer breath. That is a battle that for now despite their
vulnerabilities governments in Riyadh and Tehran are winning.
Dr. James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S.
Rajaratnam School of International Studies, co-director of the University of
Würzburg’s Institute for Fan Culture, and the author of The Turbulent World
of Middle East Soccer blog and a just
published book with the same title.
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