Beyond Activism and Patronage: Gender Reforms in Saudi Arabia

• In Event: Gender and Democratic Backsliding in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)

Abstract

How do women transform gender dynamics in monarchies through their everyday actions that transcend conventional forms of opposition and subservience to the regime? Studies on women and gender reforms under monarchies tend to focus on investigating the actions of defiant activists challenging the monarchy, and/or the state-driven reforms by the royal family benefiting privileged elites. While these studies are important in tracing the trajectories of change and reform, this binary framework overlooks a crucial space where women navigate between opposition and subservience, catalyzing change through their everyday actions. Using the case of women recipients of King Abdullah Scholarship Program in Saudi Arabia, the study investigates how women, situated in between the realms of activism and patronage, experienced shifts in their personal and professional spheres following their participation in the program. In 2010, the state reinstated the King Abdullah Scholarship Program for women, allowing them to pursue higher education abroad. While there were still key restrictions on women attending the scholarship—such as the need to have an accompanying male figure, by 2010, twenty-five percent of these scholarships were allocated to women. Building on semi-structured interviews with women recipients of the scholarship, this paper emphasizes the transformative role played by women who operate in these interstitial spaces, neither against nor under the monarchy. I argue that in addition to state policies and activists’ contestations, societal changes in gender dynamics are integral to understanding the evolving landscape of Saudi Arabia. By unpacking these nuanced dynamics, the paper seeks to redefine the narrative surrounding gender reforms and Saudi women and present them not merely as reactive subjects but as active contributors shaping the gender landscape in contemporary Saudi Arabia.

Author

• Nermin Allam, Rutgers University