The BBC reports that large numbers of women are beginning to ignore Saudi Arabia’s strict prohibition against men and women working together.
Under Saudi Arabia’s Islamic laws, it is illegal to have mixed sex workplaces. Many business women, some having spent time abroad in the West, are ignoring the law in order to hire the most qualified worker regardless of sex. The BBC quoted one business woman saying, “I wasn’t brought up in a way or even used to a way in the United States where I would have to be constrained by choosing a female worker if I think a male is more qualified, or is more helpful to me.”
Under Islamic law, it is also frowned upon for women to interact with male customers. Women in Saudi Arabia are getting around that stricture by turning to the Internet where they don’t have to meet their customers face to face.
Women are still forbidden by law to drive cars and can’t leave the country without written permission from their husband or father, but their growing economic clout might force changes in those rules. Where once the number of businesses owned by women was negligible, today an estimated 10 percent of private business are run by women.
Source:
Saudi women defy business curbs. The BBC, January 21, 2001.