The Global Gender Gap report puts Saudi Arabia in 131st position, out of 134 countries. It was only beaten by Syria, Chad, Pakistan and Yemen to the bottom spot. So why’s it so bad in Saudi? The easy answer is religion, and that’s part of it, but it’s definitely not the whole answer. There are plenty of predominantly Muslim countries in the world, but none as fiercely anti-women as Saudi.

The prophet Muhammad wasn’t actually that down on the ladies. One of his wives was a business woman that employed him and another of his wives commanded an army in the Battle of Bassorah. He also ended female infanticide and established rights for women for the first time in Arab culture. Here’s a quote from the man from Mecca: “You have rights over your women, and your women have rights over you.” So it’s not purely an Islamic thing, although it’s certainly not blameless. A big influence on modern Saudi law is actually the old tribal way of thinking; the way women are now expected to cover up in public actually predates Islam. They reckon Muhammad probably put the ‘covering up’ rule in his book to help his new religion gain popularity among the existing tribal structure.

Before 1979 women were allowed to drive, invite unrelated men to their homes (as long as the door was left open of course) and they were not expected to cover all of their bodies. What changed? Well, 1979 saw the Iranian revolution and the Grande Mosque seizure, this was basically the Islamic world shaking off the leaders that had been put in place by the UK and US and reverting back to their roots.

The Saudi people were inspired to become more resolute in their religion and outlook. They began to reject anything remotely Western. This is still happening in the Middle East today, the more we meddle and try to “sort them out”, the more they hate us and the more they tighten up on the freedoms that are left for women.

Many of the laws against ladies do have their beginnings in Islam, although the interpretation of the Koran that is used in Saudi is a very strict form. One of the main problems with religion is that the holy books aren’t written in a simple, easy to understand way, they can be interpreted any way the user fancies. For instance, nowhere in the Koran does it mention that women shouldn’t drive cars. Obviously. Saudi Arabia tends to veer on the side of caution, so if it isn’t mentioned specifically in the sacred texts, they ban it just to be on the safe side. It’s not a great way of setting up the legal system is it? Not unless you’re a bloke anyway.

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