Saudi Arabia, a
right winged country through its monarchical regime, means that it values tradition
and conservatism, both of which are expressed in Saudi Arabian society. Saudi
Arabia contains different aspects of its culture and society that can be characterized
as being culturally homologous. Cultural homogeneity, or unity, is reflected in
Saudi Arabian society through its common Arabic language spoken by a majority
of its people, the common political culture derived from Saudi monarchical rule, and the common devotion to Sunni Wahhabi Islam—whose purposes lied
to restore Islam to what they believed “its true state”, which consisted of
regarding the Koran and the Hadith, or the texts including the teachings of
Muhammad, as fundamental texts, interpreting them in severely moral and
religious manners.
Lastly,
the cultural and religious values that brought Saudi Arabian society together
were behaviors that displayed “generosity, selflessness, and hospitality; deference
to those above in the hierarchy of the family; freedom from dependence of
others and mastery over one’s emotions; and a willingness to support other
family members and assume responsibility for their errors as well.” Since
family was the primary basis of status and identity for an individual, it was
important to socially live up the ideals of honor, and by doing so, represent
your family proudly in Saudi Arabian society.
The form of cultural homogeneity that is most prominent in Saudi Arabia is its traditional
values and attitudes that is reflected onto Saudi Arabian society, particularly
the values and attitudes that pertain to the family, and the fit of those family
values into society.
Overall,
the ability for many key points in Saudi Arabian history, culture, and society
to be able to commonly appeal to a majority of its population allows strong
bonds to form between the people, and greatly reduces the tension that can occur
in response to difference in lifestyles, ideologies, or anything else that can
be disputed over in society. This strong unification that is seen amongst the
people lead many to believe that Saudi Arabia has a strong sense of
nationalism, and that very thing can be the reason why Saudi Arabia is emerging
as a global power through its vast wealth, its religiously significant
leadership of the Islamic world, and its prominent role in the global energy
market. These factors, along with strong nationalism, make it hard for Saudi
Arabia to crumble down like other Middle Eastern nations.
Saudi
Arabia’s ideals of tradition and conservatism are expressed in its attitudes pertaining
to the family. For Saudi Arabians, “the family was the primary basis of identity
and status for the individual”. Many families in Saudi Arabia were patrilineal,
meaning that inheritance was determined through the male line of descent. This
is seen as traditional because this attitude of family inheritance being represented
by the father was also seen in Saudi Arabia’s tribal lineage, as a majority of
family structure in Saudi Arabia was based off its tribal lineage, hence, many
values and attitudes towards family structure in Saudi Arabia were traditional.
Unfortunately,
this respect for traditionalism in even modern Saudi Arabian society brings to
light the attitudes towards females in Saudi Arabian culture and society compromising
mainly of women being regarded as objects, constantly being “owned” by the
families and males partners or relatives. This constant action of pushing women
off to the side as being inferior to men reminds us of the times in history
where women were often treated like this in many global empires, but humanity’s
ability to modernize civilization by adjusting society’s values and attitudes
toward women to fit a more equal society also reminds us that change is always
possible, but that Saudi Arabia’s ideal of tradition has prevented it from
taking a giant step forward in a more advanced society, culture, and people.
First
of all, Saudi women’s’ inferior role in Saudi culture and society was seen in marriages,
which seemed to be more like business contracts, full of its signatures from
witnesses and specific sums of money (mehr) being paid by the husband to the
wife. In addition, legally, “women were considered to belong to the family of
their birth”, meaning that a Saudi woman never fully achieve independence in her
life. Also, at its most basic, a Saudi Arabian family can be “defined as compromising
a man, his children, and his children’s children through patrilineal descent”,
again, pushing women off to the side. Finally, according to sharia, or
religious laws, men in Saudi Arabia were able to marry up to four wives, which definitely
expressed the way in which men can “own” multiple wives at a time, demoralizing
enough, as a woman, to be just another one of the husband’s wives, and to also
have their children be in the legal custody of the husband. However, polygyny
was not practiced with Western inspired and educated members of Saudi society,
but more with groups such as “the religiously conservative” and generations of
royal families. Overall, the ideals of tradition and conservatism were
displayed in Saudi Arabia’s attitudes pertaining to the family through the
inferior role of women in society, the family structure of patrilineality being
drawn from ancient tribal lineage, and the practice of polygyny being common
among members of religiously conservative groups in Saudi Arabian society.
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| Saudi Arabian Family in the Desert |
The
other highly valued behaviors in Saudi society that pertained to and depended
upon women were chastity and sexual modesty. The reason that chastity and
sexual modesty was predominately applied to women is because of the ancient
Middle Eastern view that women were responsible for sexual temptation, or
fitna. Therefore, veiling and separating women in Saudi Arabian society were
the only ways to “ensure sexual modesty and avoid fitna.” This constant control
that society acted out onto women was supposed to ensure that the families
females were maintain this traditional and conservative ideal of chastity. This
in turn helped ensure that a woman’s family received honor in society through
the woman’s ability to live up to the ideals of honor. Although women in society
were socially constrained in order to fit their society’s values, and also
ensure that their family was respected in society, their self
sacrifice to serve their families has
maintained the structure of Saudi Arabian society, something that Saudi Arabian women deserve credit for doing all these years.
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