Behind Saudi Arabia

The writer Rafia Zakaria is this article wrote about the recent amendment in Suadi Law announced
by the Kingdom, allowing the Saudi women to drive their vehicles. It has recently been announced
as per the kings decree, announced live on Saudi television and also via a live media event in
Washington D.C., this restriction would exist no more. Saudi women could drive cars and drive them
without the presence of one of their guardians in the vehicle.

This amendment in law of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was succeeded by an incident where a
women rights Saudi woman was arrested for driving her car at midnight while her brother
accompanied.

Manal al-Sharif was taken to a womens prison in Saudi Arabia, the prisoners inside crowded around
her in shock. They were not surprised to see a woman there; after all, the prison was for women.
They were, however, shocked to see a Saudi woman there. By the rights activists account, there
were very few, only eight or nine of them, in the facility.

The rest of course were the women who are thrown into Saudi prisons all the time the Indians,
Sri Lankans, Filipinas, all the lesser women who can, often just on the basis of a mere accusation,
find themselves in prison for long periods of time. Sometimes they languish there for months and
years before their families even find out where they are.

This amendment in law was a part of new Saudi vision that emphasized on Saudi First policy where
all important jobs and positions are supposed to be given to Saudi nationals.

As analysts have pointed out, the governing Vision 2030 that is marking the kingdoms transition
requires that foreign workers not be employed in government jobs by 2020. According to this Saudi
first policy, developed to give the Saudis priority in employment, thousands of these expatriate
workers have already left the kingdom as part of the transition to all-Saudi state employees. It is
likely that many more will leave in the days and months to come as the march towards the new
Saudi Arabia continues.

This second internal reality, the fact that Saudi Arabia has identified the elimination of expatriate
workers from its state-employed workforce, is not well known among Western analysts. In the
copious congratulations that poured in for the kingdoms lifting of the ban on driving, hardly any of
these analysts considered how the new directive fits into the new Saudi Arabia led by the new king.
The Saudi law gives priority and importance to Saudi Nationals and this is making the expatriates to
leave the Saudi Kingdom and in the same manner The kingdoms immigration policy has always
been a contrast to its rhetoric: Muslims, it seems, are one polity bound in unity and equality until a
Saudi official decides to ask for a passport and then uses nationality to determine merit or pay.