Sex segregation in Saudi Arabia

Since the public sphere of life is the domain of men, women are expected to be veiled outside the secluded areas of their homes. Non-mahram women and men must minimize social interaction. Companies traditionally have been expected to create all-female areas if they hire women. Public transportation is segregated all over the country. Public places such as beaches and amusement parks are also segregated, sometimes by time, so that boys and men, and girls and women attend at different hours.[6] Special amusement parks for women, so-called "women parks" have been created. Violation of the principles of sex segregation is known as khalwa. Western companies often enforce Saudi religious regulations, which has prompted some Western activists to criticise those companies. McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, and other US firms, for instance, maintain segregated eating zones in their restaurants. The facilities in the families' section are usually lower in quality.[7][8] Men and women may, sometimes, mix in restaurants of Western luxury hotels that cater primarily to noncitizens.[9]

Segregation was particularly strict in restaurants, since eating requires removal of the veil. Most restaurants in Saudi Arabia used to have "family" and "bachelor" sections, the latter for unmarried men or men without a family to accompany. Women or men with their families have to sit in the family section. In the families section, diners are usually seated in separate rooms or behind screens and curtains. Waiters are expected to give time for women to cover up before entering, although this practice is not always followed. Restaurants typically bars have an entrance for women who come without their husbands or mahram [casually their brothers], although if they are allowed in, they will be guided to the family section. Women are barred from waitressing, except at a few women-only restaurants.[10][11]

There are many women parks in Saudi Arabia. The first female-only Trampoline park was established in 2018 in country's capital by Bounce.[12]

Typical examples of segregation include:

Sex segregation is practiced since old times in Saudi Arabia. However, on 8 December 2019, a new rule was announced to reduce gender segregation in restaurants and cafes as they will no longer be required to have separate areas for families and bachelors.[13]

Exceptions to segregation rules sometimes include hospitals, medical colleges, and banks. The number of mixed-gender workplaces has increased since King Abdullah was crowned, although they are still not common.[14][15] Several newspaper publishers have desegregated their offices.[16]

As a practical matter, gender mixing is going to become fairly common in parts of daily life. Nowadays, women customarily take taxis driven by men and they can drive by themselves while in the past they were not allowed to drive and were chauffeured by males. Many households have maids, who mix with the unrelated men of the households.[17] Maids, taxi drivers, and waiters tend to be foreigners, which is sometimes used as a reason to be less strict about segregation.[11]

As part of its reform drive, the kingdom lifted the prohibition of women entering sports stadiums.[18] Saudi women were allowed to watch a football match in a stadium for the first time in January 2018. The women were segregated from the male-only sections, and were seated in the "family section".[19]

Gender segregation in the public domain has become a cornerstone of the Saudi interpretation of Islam.[20] This obligation to hide the female form from men who are not family, so perplexing and unsettling to outsiders, can be complicated for Saudis too.[21]

The opening of the first co-educational university in 2009 caused a debate over segregation. A prominent cleric argued that segregation cannot be grounded in Sharia. He suggested those who advocate it are hypocrites:[22]

Mixing was part of normal life for the Ummah (Muslim world) and its societies ... Those who prohibit the mixing of the genders actually live it in their real lives, which is an objectionable contradiction as every fair-minded Muslim should follow Shariah judgments without excess or negligence. In many Muslim houses—even those of Muslims who say mixing is haram (forbidden)—you can find female servants working around unrelated males.

In 2008 Khamisa Mohammad Sawadi, a 75-year-old woman, was sentenced to 40 lashes and imprisonment for allowing a man to deliver bread to her directly in her home, and then, as she was a non-citizen, was deported.[9][23]

In 2010, a clerical adviser to the Royal court and Ministry of Justice issued a fatwa suggesting that women should provide breast milk to their employed drivers thereby making them relatives (a concept known as Rada).[24] The driver could then be trusted to be alone with the woman. The fatwa was ridiculed by women campaigners.[24]

• Women park
• Single-sex education
• Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (Saudi Arabia)
• non-mahram