Saudi Arabia
Abeer Mishkhas
It’s official: Women may work in any job that “suits their nature,” said Abeer Mishkhas in Riyadh’s Web-based Arab View. That, at least, is the promise of a new labor law, passed just last week. The problem is, nobody is quite sure what it means. Women already have “limited choices” for jobs in this country, of course. The most ambitious can choose only from teaching or medicine. Will their options now be curtailed even more, as certain fields are defined as being against the female “nature”? And what about men’s nature? In Saudi Arabia, “no woman would work as a construction worker” or a street cleaner. But—“and this is important—no Saudi man would either.” It seems, then, that we should define just what each sex’s nature is. “Maybe then we could start to understand what our men and women can and cannot do.” And who knows? “Maybe then men will give up certain jobs—and women will take them.”
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Film reviews: ‘Send Help’ and ‘Private Life’Feature An office doormat is stranded alone with her awful boss and a frazzled therapist turns amateur murder investigator
-
Movies to watch in Februarythe week recommends Time travelers, multiverse hoppers and an Iraqi parable highlight this month’s offerings during the depths of winter
-
ICE’s facial scanning is the tip of the surveillance icebergIN THE SPOTLIGHT Federal troops are increasingly turning to high-tech tracking tools that push the boundaries of personal privacy
