In her book, Samar Fatany addresses head on the task of examining the apparent oxymoron of modernizing Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom, undoubtedly an economic world power, struggles to come to terms with reconciling its deeply ingrained social and religious traditions with an increasingly religious and secular world. Ms. Fatany, writer, commentator and broadcaster, has been close to the center of power for many years and is perfectly situated to provide an informed and often surprising analysis from behind the official media veil. “Modernizing Saudi Arabia” describes ambitious government initiatives to implement reforms and reviews progressive attempts to help Saudi Arabia meet the challenges of the 21st century. They are many, not least issues of a burgeoning population, an increasingly youthful demographic profile and the non-integration of the output of the education system with the fast changing needs of an industrial and knowledge-based economy. Looking at social change, a "work in progress", Ms. Fatany produces a sharp-focused picture of the present situation and the progress achieved so far. Ever keen to promote the position of women in the Saudi social structure, Ms. Fatany highlights the roles of both women and the young as engines for change. The book identifies women professionals in leadership roles and projects the participation of the Kingdom's youth in nation building. However, Ms. Fatany is far from being a tub-thumping feminist as she is well aware of and outlines the struggle of the nation's decision makers to deal with new world and local realities and looks at the process of modernizing the vast and both physically and culturally diverse regions of Saudi Arabia. Starting with a brief review of the history of Saudi Arabia, through the attack on the Grand Mosque in Makkah in 1979, through 9/11 to the modern day, she rues the ineffectiveness of the efforts to modernize Islam and reflects, partly as factual analysis and partly with a philosophical sigh, that “extremism, cultural limitations and tribal laws rather than scholarly religious rulings of Islam, continue to influence public opinion and constitute major impediments that are strangling this Kingdom and slowing the modernization process.” Part of that modernization process she feels is to involve women in the development of the new Saudi Arabia. Women are 50 percent of the Saudi population, have more first degrees than men, have a massively high unemployment rate and a new dedicated university – the 25,000 women-only Princess Noura Bint Abdurahman University in Riyadh - to produce yet more graduates. Yet, and in the light of these contradictions, “Women continue to be the main target of religious extremists and the empowerment of women is still a very controversial subject within the society. The same “Ulema” (religious scholars) insist on exerting control over the lives of women and resist King Abdullah's initiatives to recognize their achievements and contributions to the nation's development.” "Modernizing Saudi Arabia" is, however, far from being a negative book. Ms. Fatany discusses the steps to re-work the strict and almost inflexible Shariah legal system that applies in the Kingdom. “The Ministry has promised to appoint women as legal experts in the courts of grievances across several provinces. Positions include researchers in judiciary, researchers in Shariah, legal researchers and administrative assistants,” she observes hopefully. She also highlights the steps that, following disastrous floods in Jeddah in 2010, have been taken for what for Saudi Arabia constitutes radical action against institutionalized corruption – a daring observation as the beast long known to exist in any complex structured society, has been openly named in Saudi Arabia. Ms. Fatany applies the same informed open-eyed and unveiled scrutiny to matters of human rights, youth empowerment, the rise of the “modern Muslim woman” and global dialogue. “Modernizing Saudi Arabia” is a well-written, always honest and sometimes surprisingly trenchant analysis of a state that is grappling with the twin realities of the “real world” and the social mores of the religious one. It is well to remember while reading it that Islam, and never more than in the Muslim holy land, is a way of life – not just, ironically, as the suffragette Maude Royden noted of the Church of England in The Times of London, 17 July 1917, “just the Conservative (ruling) Party at prayer”. Ms. Fatany completely understands that the solution to the stand-off of the behemoths of secular and religious interest is never going to be the victory of one over the other – but an integration of the two. “The real challenge of participants in the national dialogue is to promote political and social stability and achieve national unity through acknowledging and accepting differences, rather than denying or suppressing them.……..In diversity there should be unity” she says – a noble vision. The question hanging in the air after her detailed analysis and series of reasoned suggestions is “How?” This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the complexity of the Kingdom's government and social structure – but seen from a talented and deeply informed insider's point of view.
Roger Harrison, Ras Al Khaimah
(For more information and to buy the book, visit Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1482509989/saudiusrelati-20)
