In another attempt to falsely praise the reforms in women's situation, Saudi Arabia published the 2022 Women's Report. The absence of an independent civil society results in a lack of validation to confirm the effectiveness of these reforms. The report primarily reflects the government's perspective and does not have access to external information sources.
The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights indicates that women in Saudi Arabia face various forms of official and domestic violence. ESOHR has documented several cases where women rights defenders have faced abuse, arbitrary arrests, and unprecedentedly unfair treatment and sentences.
Empowerment vs. Suppression of Activists:
The Saudi government arrested at least 121 women since 2015 and issued harsh sentences against them. Among those sentences was a 27-year prison sentence against PhD student Salma al-Shehab, 45-year imprisonment for Noura al-Qahtani, and 30-year imprisonment for Fatima al-Shawareb because of their activism on Twitter. Recently, Saudi Arabia, transferred Manahel Al-Otaibi, a social media activist, to the Specialized Criminal Court for Terrorism because of tweets and clips on Snapchat.
These cases challenge the notion that Saudi Arabia is fully committed to empowering women, revealing a darker side that contradicts the report's narrative.
Personal Status Law (PSL) and Gender Equality:
Although the report highlights the passing of the Personal Status Law (PSL) as a significant achievement, it conveniently omits crucial details about the law's limitations. The PSL is framed as a step toward modernization, yet it perpetuates discriminatory aspects of the male guardianship system, which continues to exert control over women's personal lives. The reported successes of the PSL are overshadowed by its shortcomings, such as the lack of true agency for women in marriage and child custody matters.
Violence Against Women:
Monitoring by the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights confirms the alarming trend of online violence against women activists and influencers. Individuals like Loujain al-Hathloul, a prominent figure advocating for women's rights, have faced harassment, threats, and false information campaigns aimed at silencing them. The government's use of "electronic flies" to monitor, threaten, and discourage women from expressing their views online contradicts the narrative of empowerment and open discourse, revealing a significant gap between reported progress and actual realities.
In addition to the digital violence, the 2022 official report lauds change in handling violence against women and the establishment of women's shelters. This praise comes in light of information confirming the abused women's lack of confidence in the official mechanisms for confronting violence against women, in addition to documenting the failure of these bodies to take action until after the cases receive media coverage. In addition, official authorities beat and assaulted girls from the Social Education Home in the Khamees Mushait in August 2022. Instead of investigating this information, the girls who documented the abuse were arrested and harassed.
Gender Wage Gap and Discrimination:
The persistent gender wage gap contradicts the report's claims of empowering women economically. Despite the global efforts to achieve gender equality and Saudi Arabia's commitment to international conventions, women continue to earn less than men. ESOHR asserts that the Saudi government's approach revolves around superficial gestures, such as appointing women to specific roles, in an attempt to create an illusion of gender equality. However, these actions divert attention from the government's fundamental responsibilities and obligations to combat discrimination. Instead of addressing the issue, the focus seems to be on tokenistic displays that fail to address the systemic challenges at hand.
ESOHR believes that The Saudi government's 2022 report on women's rights, despite its positive portrayal of the situation of women, is full of contradictions when compared to their actual experiences in the country. ESOHR stresses that lack of transparency, intimidation and concealment of facts constitute an obstacle to accessing information. Despite these obstacles, the cases monitored highlight the seriousness of the violations committed against women, and the fact that the report, like most allegations of change, is an attempt to whitewash the image and falsify the reality.