Cutting Ties: Saudi Arabia Announces Reforms for Migrant Workers

Saudi Arabia has begun lifting up its struggling migrant workers with its most recent initiative. However, what this decision truly means in terms of effective change remains uncertain. 

Saudi women. Mohd Azli Abdul Malek.CC By-NC-SA 2.0.

Saudi Arabia recently kick-started the “Labor Relation Initiative” that will eliminate policies tightly binding migrant workers to their sponsors. It is expected that the changes will begin in March 2021, potentially impacting up to one-third of the nation’s population. This initiative may be the beginning of the end of the notorious “kafala” system that has been under international scrutiny since its conception in the 1950s. 

The kafala sponsorship system, which is currently practiced in most Persian Gulf states, began about 70 years ago to create a beneficial flow in the migrant labor force. Workers are assigned a sponsor, or “kafeel,” for their decided contract period. The sponsor may be a single person or a company. The sponsor has complete control over the worker’s ability to change jobs or enter and exit the country; written permission must be granted for any changes. Thus, the worker must report all related activity to the sponsor, and failure to do so will result in criminal punishment. The sponsor must then report all activity to the immigration authorities, and fund the worker’s entry and exit. 

Essentially, the kafeel is the migrant’s legal tie to the country, leaving the worker no choice but to acquiesce. The kafala system has allowed kafeels to exercise excessive control over their workers, such as taking their travel documents; this is illegal, though, in some of the countries that practice the system. The kafala system has faced much criticism with claims that it is a gateway to modern slavery; there have been many reports of forced work and sexual abuse. However, it appears that the intense exploitation of workers over the years may potentially begin to close with Saudi Arabia’s new Labor Relation Initiative. 

The initiative now allows workers to move their sponsorship to other jobs and to cross the border without permission of their kafeel. The policy is only one aspect of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s “Vision 2030,” in which he aims to increase international economic activity. Many are hopeful that this initiative will bring about substantial change for not only the current 10 million impacted workers, but also future generations who would benefit from the complete abolishment of the kafala system. 

Others are wary of holding out hope, stating that ties to a sponsor would need to be completely cut in order for change to be sustained. At the moment, this limited reform has not clarified whether all migrant workers are shielded, nor whether sponsors can still report their workers for running away. Concerns over this unanswered portion of the policy bring much fear; a worker whose travel documents have been invalidated by their sponsor faces immediate deportation. 

Maybe this initiative will end the process for good, or perhaps it is merely a camouflaged political scheme. Regardless, much hope remains that the injustices of the kafala system will be reduced. 

Ella Nguyen

is an undergraduate student at Vassar College pursuing a degree in Hispanic Studies. She wants to assist in the field of immigration law and hopes to utilize Spanish in her future projects. In her free time she enjoys cooking, writing poetry, and learning about cosmetics.

U.N. Drops Saudi Arabia-Led Coalition From Blacklist Despite Recent Killings of Children 

With no evidence that children are safe, the U.N. decided to remove the Saudi Arabia-led coalition in Yemen off a blacklist for violations of children’s rights. 

Child in Yemen among the rubble. Carl’s eye. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

On June 17, the U.N. made the decision to remove the military coalition led by Saudi Arabia from one of its blacklists. The significance of this specific list, which focuses on children in armed conflict, is to shame groups that are guilty of violating the rights of children. Anyone can be placed on the list for a multitude of violations ranging from killing children to the recruitment of children for war. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated that the coalition’s removal was decided by efforts made to reduce the number of deaths and decrease the airstrikes that caused the killings over the previous three years.

However, there is a discrepancy in the decision. According to data released by the U.N., 222 children were hospitalized or killed as a result of these attacks last year. In addition, several hours after the U.N. announced its decision to remove the coalition, four children were killed in an attack in northwest Yemen.           

The war in Yemen can be traced back to 2011. Following the Arab Spring, there has been unrest due to a failed political transition that led to terrorist attacks, a separatist movement and corruption. However, in 2014 a rebel group known as the Houthis, backed by Iran, ousted the government. What started out as a civil war transitioned into a conflict with neighboring countries as the Saudi Arabia-led coalition stepped in, attempting to help restore the government and defeat the Houthis.  

Child of Yemen. Carl’s eye. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

As of March 2020, it is estimated that 7,700 civilians have died in the war, largely due to airstrikes from the coalition. However, these are only verified deaths. Some statistics estimate it to be as high as 100,000 fatalities. On top of the conflict, Yemen has been experiencing one of the worst famines it has seen in over 100 years. The country is considered the poorest Arab nation, and the war has ruined the economy to the extent that many people, especially children, are considered malnourished.                                                            

There has been backlash over the U.N.’s decision to remove the coalition from the blacklist. From a video posted by Al Jazeera, protests have taken to the streets outside of the U.N. headquarters in Yemen to speak of their disapproval. The main concern is that the removal could leave children vulnerable to future attacks, as voiced by groups like Save the Children. Observers are also questioning the integrity of the blacklist itself, including Iran which said that “the U.N. is giving a free pass.” Iran claims that the Houthis and the Yemeni government have been responsible for the same number of deaths yet only the Houthis remain on the list.

Guterres has said that U.N. would monitor the coalition’s activity over the next year. If there is an increase in children’s casualties, the coalition would be placed back on the list.

Eva Ashbaugh

Eva is a Political Science and Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies double major at the University of Pittsburgh. As a political science major concentrating on International Relations, she is passionate about human rights, foreign policy, and fighting for equality. She hopes to one day travel and help educate people to make the world a better place.

Saudi Women Protesting Driving Ban Remain Jailed, Details of Trial Unclear

In 2017, the driving ban was lifted for Saudi women. However, the women who vocally protested the ban have been jailed, subjected months of torture and unable to communicate with their families.

Lina Al-Hathloul speaking about the imprisonment of her sister, Loujain. POMED. CC BY 2.0

June 24th, 2018 marked the first day women in Saudi Arabia could legally obtain drivers licenses, following an announcement by King Salman in September that women driving would be considered acceptable under sharia law. By March of 2019, more than 70,000 Saudi women had received a license. Under the interpretation of sharia law enforced by the Saudi government, women are effectively minors, subject to guardianship by their fathers, husbands, or even their sons should their husbands pass away or become otherwise unable to fulfill the role of guardian. Women must receive permission to enroll in school, open bank accounts, sign contracts, or acquire a passport, to name a few of the many restrictions women face under guardianship laws.

Regarding the announcement of the end of the driving ban, Eman al-Nafjan writes in her blog, “Initially I was overwhelmed with my own powerlessness as a woman living in a patriarchal absolute monarchy. Were our efforts the reason the ban was lifted? Or was it a decision that had been made regardless of our struggles?” Dr. al-Nafjan is one of eleven women who was detained, subject to torture, solitary confinement, and threats of rape and death—more than once by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman himself—in 2018 as a result of their protests against the ban. The protests against the driving ban began in 1990, and have lead to the arrest, imprisonment, and severe punishment of many individuals. Of the eleven arrested in May-June 2018, some were released on bail. Al-Nafjan, as well as two other women, Loujain al-Hathloul and Nouf Abdulaziz, have borne the brunt of cruelty at the hands of the Saudi government, and as a result have received the most media attention. Their trials began in late March of 2019, however little is known of their current situation.

Nouf Abdulaziz, one of the women held in prison, writes in a letter sent during her detainment: “Hello my name is Nouf, and I am not a provoker, inciter nor a wrecker, nor a terrorist, nor a criminal nor a traitor.” The women imprisoned have sought justice for their fellow women, and we must honor their work by seeking justice on their behalf. There exists a clear duplicity in the West’s reaction to these human rights violations: although outwardly supportive of human rights, the U.S., France, and the U.K. have been complicit in the Saudi regime’s actions by maintaining close economic and security ties with Saudi Arabia. At the end of her letter, Abdulaziz implores her readers: “if what is happening does not please you, help our people to see clearly that our sister in the homeland is mistreated and she does not deserve other than her freedom, to maintain her dignity and to have the warmth in her parents [sic] arms, that has been taken away from her.” Many human rights organizations have spoken up on behalf of these activists, and Abdulzaziz, al-Hathloul, and al-Nafjan were awarded the 2019 PEN Freedom to Write Award for their work. 

In this vein, Amnesty International marked May 2018-May 2019 a “year of shame for Saudi Arabia” due especially to its treatment of women’s rights activists and the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, a dissident Saudi journalist. Although Crown Prince Salman, accepting the position of Crown Prince in 2017, labeled himself a reformer, he immediately launched a campaign to repress dissenters of the regime. In this way, the worries expressed by Nafjan were prescient: the Saudi government lifted the driving ban in an effort to improve international opinion, as well as increase the number of women working in Saudi Arabia’s flagging private sector, not with genuine progressive intent. Those who most vehemently spoke up for the rights of women were made examples of for other dissenters. While ultimately a victory for the greater female Saudi population, the patriarchal regime insisted upon a last word—in the form of human rights violations against the very women who created the momentum for the lifting of the ban. 

HALLIE GRIFFITHS is an undergraduate at the University of Virginia studying Foreign Affairs and Spanish. After graduation, she hopes to apply her passion for travel and social action toward a career in intelligence and policy analysis. Outside of the classroom, she can be found, quite literally, outside: backpacking, rock climbing, or skiing with her friends.

Female Saudi Arabian Activist on Death Row for Peaceful Protest

On August 21, 2018, Saudi Arabian public prosecutors announced that they were considering the death penalty for five Saudi Shia activists. One of the five is Israa al-Ghomgham, a female activist who could become the first woman sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia. Ghomgham, along with four other Saudi Shia activists including her husband, engaged in peaceful demonstrations for Shia rights beginning in 2011 during the rise of the Arab Spring, which led to their 2015 arrests.

Saudi Arabian Flag. Iqbal Osman. Wikimedia Commons

“Any execution is appalling, but seeking the death penalty for activists like Israa al-Ghomgham, who are not even accused of violent behavior, is monstrous,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, who directs the Middle East sector of Human Rights Watch. “Every day, the Saudi monarchy’s unrestrained despotism makes it harder for its public relations teams to spin the fairy tale of ‘reform’ to allies and international business.”

Responding to peaceful protests with the death penalty is compromising both to proponents of human decency and order, and these actions are symptomatic of a larger illness. If Saudi Arabia is to continue to suppress and murder its own citizens, its actions could lead to its internal combustion. To preserve its tenuous position of prosperity, the Saudi Arabian government must honor the voices of its insurgents—or at least allow them to live.

Saudi Arabia, a desert country in the Middle East said to be the birthplace of Islam, holds a complex position at the pinnacle of capital and culture. It has the world’s third highest national total estimated value of natural resources. It is home to the world’s largest oil company, and it has been the proponent of various reform agendas, significant amount of money invested in solar energy. It is also ruled by the ultraconservative Wahhabi religious movement, which is part of Sunni Islam.

It has shown support for counterterrorism and revolutionary liberal and Arab Spring ideals and has supported rebel forces in Syria and Yemen, but internally it has been a breeding ground for violent forms of radical Islam, placing it at a crux between the most progressive and oppressive sides of the ideological spectrum. The nation’s 32-year-old king, Mohammed bin Salman, has been pushing to modernize his country, opening movie theatres and allowing women to drive for the first time—but his actions towards protestors despite his presentation of liberalism rings eerily close to the actions of Bashar al Assad, Syrian president who also began his reign by encouraging Westernization in Syria before cracking down on protestors and unleashing a bloody civil war. Under Salman, critics of the Saudi Arabian regime have been arrested in scores, and 58 people are currently on death row. Many of these prisoners are women, often arrested for protesting the country’s guardianship system, which places Saudi Arabian men in almost complete control of their daughters’ or wives’ lives.


Israa al-Ghomgham and her husband were arrested on December 5, 2015, and are on trial at the Specialized Criminal Court, which Saudi Arabia installed in 2008 and which has drawn expense criticism from human rights activists, sentencing eight protestors to death in 2014 and 14 in 2016. Currently human rights campaigners are working to secure her freedom and life.




EDEN ARIELLE GORDON is a writer, musician, and avid traveler. She attends Barnard College in New York.





Women Take the Mic on Nsawya FM

Saudi feminists are giving voice to obstacles against women’s rights in their new radio show.

Illustration depicting the impact of restricted women’s rights because of male guardianship.

(Source: Human Rights Watch. Saudi Arabia: ‘Unofficial Guardianship Rules Banned. © 2016 by Human Rights Watch

On July 27th, eleven women gave life to Nsawya FM, or Feminism FM, with a simple tweet stating their aim to be the “voice of the silent majority.” Since then, their radio broadcasts have detailed stories of women’s rights abuse with just a laptop, editing software (to disguise the voices of the women sharing the stories), and a microphone. According to Ashtar, a pseudonym for one of the women involved, “the voice of women is revolution.”

And women have been raising their voices. Of the 6.3 million Saudis on Twitter in 2016, 40% were women as found in a study by the Rutgers’s Center for Women’s Global Leadership Report. The same study supported the importance of Twitter in Saudi society by stating that it was the “most effective and influential social network.” This is in part because political leaders monitor Twitter, making political activity more likely to be seen on the social media platform.

Still the potential to be blocked by the government on Twitter—which Nsawya FM states happened temporarily—is why they have chosen the radio: they do not want to risk losing the “archive of [their] thoughts.”

Nsawya FM’s archive consists of submissions by Saudi women of their stories, opinions, and criticisms on women’s rights, such as domestic abuse. The first stories told were of Hanan Shahri and Sara. Both stories highlight the effects of male guardianship: a system where a women’s crucial decisions—including travel, marriage, and studying abroad—are made by a male figure. These guardians can be fathers, husbands, brothers, or sons.

Shahri’s story was widely reported in 2013 after she killed herself following a beating by her brother and uncle and their refusal to allow her to marry her fiancé. Then there is Sara, a university student whose dream to marry her fiancé from Yemen, following approval from her parents, was ended when her brother shot her.

So it is no surprise that women began turning to Twitter to push back against guardianship. In 2016 they coined #AbolishGuardianship to highlight abuse and rally support against it. Within two months, 14,000 signatures had been collected for an online petition against guardianship. Although gradual changes have occurred for women, most notably the ability to drive, male guardianship is grounded in religion and cuts across all socio-economic classes.

But to these 11 women producers and their 2500 audience members there is hope that civilian law might one day replace the Islamic law. They are bringing the stories traditionally protected under male guardianship to light and public criticism.

“Of course [they] are scared,” as Ashtar has also been quoted saying. But their fear is driven by a determination for equal rights. For them it begins with placing the women’s narrative before the public’s eyes: Nsawya FM is making a statement on behalf of Saudi women to the world that they exist.

 

 

TERESA NOWALK is a student at the University of Virginia studying anthropology and history. In her free time she loves traveling, volunteering in the Charlottesville community, and listening to other people’s stories. She does not know where her studies will take her, but is certain writing will be a part of whatever the future has in store.