Netherlands Institute of International Relations ‘Clingendael’ SAUDI ARABIA BETWEEN CONSERVATISM, ACCOMMODATION AND REFORM Roel Meijer and Paul Aarts (editors) Joas Wagemakers Mariwan Kanie Annemarie van Geel Netherlands Institute of International Relations ‘Clingendael’ January 2012 Netherlands Institute of International Relations ‘Clingendael’ Clingendael 7 2597 VH The Hague Tel.: +31 (0)70–3245384 Fax: +31 (0)70–3746667 P.O. Box 93080 2509 AB The Hague E-mail: [email protected] Website: http://www.clingendael.nl Netherlands Institute of International Relations ‘Clingendael’ Contents Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................................ 3 Historical Overview ..................................................................................................................................................... 4 The Report ...................................................................................................................................................................... 8 1. Joas Wagemakers, Arguing for Change under Benevolent Oppression: Intellectual Trends and Debates in Saudi Arabia ............................................................................................................................ 13 1.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 13 1.2 Disputes on Gender Segregation ......................................................................................................... 15 1.3 Shi‘a Debates on Saudi Citizenship ..................................................................................................... 19 1.4 Nationwide Debates on Political and Social Reform ................................................................... 24 1.5 Political Reform: Patron vs. Constitution ......................................................................................... 28 1.6 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................................... 31 2. Mariwan Kanie, Civil Society in Saudi Arabia: Different Forms, One Language ......................... 33 2.1 The Research Methodology ................................................................................................................. 34 2.2 Civil Society: Definition and Approach ............................................................................................. 35 2.3 Types of Civil Society ................................................................................................................................ 37 2.4 The Political Context of Saudi Civil Society: New Social and Political Dynamics ........... 39 2.5 The Landscape of Civil Society in Saudi Arabia ............................................................................. 43 2.6 Political Organizations ............................................................................................................................. 52 2.7 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................................... 54 Netherlands Institute of International Relations ‘Clingendael’ 3. Annemarie van Geel, Whither the Saudi Woman? Gender Mixing, Empowerment and Modernity ................................................................................................................................................................. 57 3.1 The History of Women-only Public Spaces and Ikhtilat............................................................. 60 3.2 Women’s Public Participation: From Segregation to ‘Mixing’ to ‘Khilwa’ .......................... 64 3.3 Liberation, Empowerment and the Rise of Women .................................................................... 70 3.4 Towards a ‘Modern Saudi Woman’ ..................................................................................................... 75 3.5 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................................... 78 4. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................................... 79 4.1 Intellectual Debates ............................................................................................................................... 81 4.2 Civil Society .................................................................................................................................................. 79 4.3 The Position of Women ........................................................................................................................... 83 Netherlands Institute of International Relations ‘Clingendael’ Acknowledgements We would like thank the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies (KFCRIS) for its support and facilitation of this project and its unstinting hospitality. We are especially grateful to its secretary-general, Yahyah M. Ibn Junaid, who welcomed us and supported us throughout this project, although he did not always agree with our conclusions. We are grateful to others at the KFCRIS, such as Awadh al-Badi, for giving us his precious time and for frank discussions on political matters. They have been most illuminating. We also owe much to our Saudi junior researchers, who have been able to help us find our way in Saudi Arabia. The Dutch Embassy in Riyadh has been most supportive during the whole project and has given us precious advice. This applies especially to Menno Lenstra, who initiated the project and— during the brief period when he was in charge at the embassy—conveyed his enthusiasm to us. We appreciate the interest that Ambassador Ron Strikker had in our research and the hospitality that he provided us at the embassy. Finally, we would like to mention the keen interest that Willem van Rossem showed in the project and the stimulating discussions that we held with him. Mohammed Cheppih, as representative of our partner RADAR, is thanked for his role as liaison with his many contacts in Saudi Arabia and his intellectual input. Special thanks go also to the Islam Research Programme (IRP) managers, Dennis Janssen and Katrien Bardoel, who have assisted us in this endeavor from the very beginning. Finally, we are grateful to all the Saudis who have given us their time.1 1 The views presented in this report are those of the authors and in no way attributable to the IRP, the Dutch Embassy in Riyadh or the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. … 1 Netherlands Institute of International Relations ‘Clingendael’ Introduction This report falls within the research programme ‘Strengthening Knowledge of and Dialogue with the Islam/Arab world’, in short Islam Research Programme (IRP), initiated by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As part of this larger programme, the Riyadh programme started in April 2010 and ended in December 2011. The project was executed by three junior researchers (Joas Wagemakers, Mariwan Kanie and Annemarie van Geel) and was supervised by three senior researchers (Roel Meijer, Karin van Nieuwkerk and Paul Aarts). It covered three topics on Saudi Arabia: civil society; the position of women; and intellectual debates. During the course of the project, the junior researchers spent at least three periods in Saudi Arabia doing fieldwork; they spent between one and two days a week on the project during this whole project, except for a brief interval during which the project was evaluated. One of the most interesting developments during this research period was, of course, the Arab Spring. Although Saudi Arabia has hardly been affected by the uprisings elsewhere in the Arab world, some of our research has touched upon some of the more sensitive political aspects of Saudi society that can in the end have an impact on the forces pushing for reform. The first is the role of civil society, which in other countries in the Middle East has played a role in bringing about revolt in different countries (its importance is being debated). The other is the role of the Shiite minority in Saudi Arabia, considered by both Mariwan Kanie and Joas Wagemakers, the first as part of civil society and the latter as part of the intellectual debates in Saudi Arabia. In the case of the position of women, feminist activism has re-emerged in the famous women claiming their right to drive actions, which van Geel and Wagemakers touch upon in the important issue of gender segregation (ikhtilat). All in all, we believe that this research project has been a fruitful endeavour. As well as the three sub-reports presented in this final report, the group has published and will publish articles, other reports, perhaps a book, and even a Ph.D. on the material that we have collected. During the research period, Aarts has published an article on state–society relations in Saudi Arabia,1 1 Paul Aarts, ‘Maintaining Authoritarianism: The Jerky Path of Political Reform in Saudi Arabia’, Orient, Vol. 52, No. 1 (2011), pp. 29–42. … 3 Netherlands Institute of International Relations ‘Clingendael’ Meijer an article on reform and gender segregation in Saudi Arabia,2 and Meijer and Wagemakers will soon publish an article on the Shiite minority in Saudi Arabia and civil rights.3 Van Geel will certainly publish several articles in the future, as well as her Ph.D. on gender segregation. In addition, Aarts, Kanie and Meijer participated in the workshop ‘Potential and Limits of Civil Society in the Gulf Region’ at the Gulf Research Meeting 2011, which was held at the University of Cambridge from 6–9 July 2011. Historical Overview Origins Saudi Arabia remains fascinating to many: its huge oil reserves, its strict interpretations of Islam (a religion that was founded on its soil), its political culture of conservatism and patronage, and the fact that fifteen of the nineteen terrorists directly responsible for 9/11 were Saudis have ensured that Saudi Arabia is closely watched by academics, journalists and policy-makers alike. The story of Saudi Arabia began in 1744, when the tribal leader Muhammad b. Sa‘ud (d. 1765) made a pact with the religious reformer Muhammad b. ‘Abd al-Wahhab (1703–1792) to conquer the Arabian Peninsula under the former’s leadership and based upon the latter’s strict interpretation of Islam. Their efforts eventually led to the first Saudi state. Although this state collapsed in 1818 as a result of the Ottoman Empire’s military attacks, the pact between the ruler and the scholar remained valid during the second Saudi state (1824–1891) and the current, third Saudi state (1932–present). The ideology espoused by the scholars abetting the rule of the Sa‘ud family (the Al Sa‘ud) is often labelled ‘Wahhabism’ by outsiders, after its eponymous ‘founder’, Ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab, and is a form of Salafism that originated in the Central Arabian region called Najd. Salafism in general can be described as the Islamic trend whose adherents try to emulate the first three generations of Muslims (al-salaf al-salih, ‘the pious forefathers’) as closely and in as many spheres of life as possible, and adjust their lifestyles, their reading of the sources of Islam and their worship of God along these lines. Although Wahhabism is doctrinally slightly different from Salafism as a whole, the two terms broadly refer to the same religious trend. Wahhabism focuses particularly on the unity of God (tawhid), not just in the sense of believing in one God but also that he alone should be the focus of worship and rituals and is totally unique in every way. Wahhabis therefore categorically reject anything that deviates from this norm, such as religious innovations (bida‘, sing. bid‘a) and particularly polytheism (shirk), a category in which they also include the veneration of saints. There has always been opposition to the strict Wahhabism espoused by Saudi rulers from groups that did not fit easily into this Salafi framework or who simply disagreed with it. Resistance to Saudi rule did not just come from opponents to Wahhabism, however. The constant process of balancing ideological purity and political and economic interests proved difficult for many of Saudi Arabia’s rulers. As a result, protests erupted against what some perceived as the sidelining of ideological purity for reasons of political expediency. The most famous of these is perhaps the revolt of the Ikhwan (brothers), the group of Wahhabi-inspired fighters who had helped ‘Abd al-‘Aziz (1880–1953), the first king of today’s Saudi state, to 2 Roel Meijer, ‘Reform in Saudi Arabia: The Gender Segregation Debate’, Middle East Policy, Vol. 17, No. 4 (winter 2010), pp. 80–100. 3 Roel Meijer and Joas Wagemakers, ‘The Struggle for Citizenship of the Shiites of Saudi Arabia’, in Sami Zemni and Brigitte Maréchal (eds), The Dynamics of Sunni–Shia Relationships: Doctrine, Transnationalism, Intellectuals and the Media (London: Hurst, 2012 forthcoming). … 4