A Saudi specialist in Shariah law has said that the post of deputy minister is a public position and therefore permissible for a woman in an Islamic state. Saad Bin Mattar Al-Otaibi of the Higher Judiciary Institute in Riyadh said that three conditions governed a female assuming a post: that it only involves working with other women; that it not be of a “sovereign nature” – a Shariah term designating tasks permissible only for men – and that the woman appointed be “honest and diligent” in performing her tasks. Al-Otaibi, speaking at a weekly social gathering in Jeddah, suggested appointing a female deputy health minister after being asked his views on some Shariah problems experienced at hospitals, saying that the issues would “disappear if a woman were to take up the post.” “The Ministry of Health needs a female deputy minister more than the Ministry of Education,” Al-Otaibi said, in reference to Noura Al-Fayez who was made deputy health minister in 2008. Al-Otaibi was referring to the mixing of the sexes which is common at both public and private hospitals. “This malpractice contravenes the law and Shariah,” he said. “A female deputy minister of health, the feminization of all jobs of a female nature, and women's separation from men would go towards solving several of the Shariah problems, especially in medical and nursing training.” The feminization of all staff under a deputy minister could, Al-Oatibi said, be phased in, with the deputy minister's decisions governing male workers carried out with the consent of the minister. “These would be exceptional circumstances until the current situation is corrected, which will hopefully happen soon,” he said. “The purpose of getting women into employment is for them to take over the subsidiary public administrations of female workers.” Al-Otaibi gave as examples university president, school headmistress, and director of women's supervision department. “Positions such as minister of education, charity chairmen, or imams or judicial posts are ‘sovereign posts' in Islam, and it is not recommended that they be taken by women,” he said. If a woman were to be appointed to the post of deputy minister at the Ministry of Health, one of the first names that would spring to the minds of many might be Dr. Khawla Al-Kirayea, the Senior Cancer Researcher at the King Fahd National Oncology Center who was earlier this month was awarded the King Abdul Aziz Medal (First Class) for her work. Dr. Al-Kirayea said at an event on Monday to honor her for the award, however, that she had no desire to be appointed to the ministry. “Even if I were offered the job of minister of health itself, I wouldn't accept,” she told Al
