On November 25 of every year, the world celebrates the International Day for the elimination of violence against women. While women in Saudi Arabia face it in silence in light of the inadequacy of official procedures, the lack of seriousness in promises. Although it is impossible to reach the actual figures of women victims of violence in Saudi Arabia, there are numerous indications that this practice is widespread in absence of the effective measures to curb it.
International reports confirm that all types of violence against women have increased during the Covid-19 pandemic, especially domestic violence, as is the case in Saudi Arabia. Despite the lack of access to accurate figures in the absence of any civil society role and the fact that human rights organizations have been prevented from playing their role, cases published on social media and cases that Saudi authorities say they are considering, show the extent of these violations.
Official Promises:
Since 2015, the Saudi government has promoted what it considers to be the empowerment of women and has launched a major campaign aimed at changing the prevailing view that it deals with women retroactively, especially since Saudi Arabia was the only country in the world that prevents women from their right to drive cars.
Over the past few years, the Saudi government has appointed women to leadership and political positions and removed restrictions on some rights, including driving cars and traveling, as well as rights to work, education, male guardianship and more.
Investigating violence and holding those responsible to account::
In November 2020, years after the Protection from Abuse Act was passed, the public prosecutor's office approved penal sanctions against anyone who physically or psychologically violates or harms women, as part of a ban on all forms of violence against women. According to article 13 of the law, violators can be sentenced to prison terms of at least a month and up to one year.
At a time when Saudi Arabia was promoting a change in dealing with the issue of women's rights, and at a time when Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman said in an interview with the Bloomberg News that there was a tendency to return rights for which women were deprived, the Saudi government launched a wide campaign of arrests that targeted women activists and human rights defenders who were among the most prominent advocates of these rights.
After years of detention, the Saudi government has released a number of them, but despite confirming that they were tortured and lawsuits against them, those responsible have not been investigated or held to account.
In March 2019, the Saudi Public Prosecution office, which reports to the King and Crown Prince that the Human Rights Commission and the National Society for Human Rights had conducted investigations into the torture of activist Loujain Alhathloul and found no evidence to support it. In February 2021, after al-Hathloul was released on parole, the Court of Appeal rejected a case it had filed in which she confirmed in it that she had been tortured. The failure to hold interrogators and officials responsible for torture accountable, justified by the lack of evidence despite that it was three years after the crime, which shows that there is no evidence of the feasibility of any law approved by Saudi Arabia without any mechanisms that guarantee non-selectivity and the independence of the agencies, including the Anti-Torture Act.
Distrust in official bodies::
The Saudi government said in its 2030 vision, published in April 2021, that among its achievements was a high response to reports of domestic violence. "Reports that were initiated according to the degree of danger have risen because the achieved value of the index reached 99.6%," it said.
The high rate of response to reports of violence reacted to by the Saudi government does not necessarily mean an increase in women offenders' access to official bodies concerned with violence, as trust in these bodies remains insufficient and the Saudi government has not taken any steps to reduce women's concerns.
In fact, the National Center for Public Opinion Surveys in Saudi Arabia conducted a public opinion survey on the issue of violence against women and its empowerment programs in 2019, in cooperation with the Family Safety Program. According to the study, half of the members of the community do not know the existence of a system of protection against violence and abuse in the Kingdom, and 61% do not know which authority is competent to receive reports of violence against women. 49% of the sample believe that abused women do not report cases of violence to which they are subjected, and 66% of the women agreed. 83% of the society felt that there were not enough programs to empower women in the Kingdom, and 87% of the women agreed.
In addition, many women activists report on social media that there are a number of concerns that prevent them from reporting violence, harassment, or other violations. Among them is a fear of arrest, ostracism or counter-violence in the face of distrust of official programs. Among them is a fear of arrest, ostracism or counter-violence in the face of distrust of official programs. In light of these concerns, social media is showing violent issues almost daily.
In many cases, the relevant authorities, including the Protection Program, say that they followed up and worked on the case and that the violence is now safe. This raises questions about other cases where the victim has not been able to reach the public's pressure.
In addition, reports confirm that women domestic workers in Saudi Arabia continue to be subjected to numerous abuses including violence. None of the measures promoted by the government showed any basis for women workers to be prosecuted for abuse or violence, nor did they show any mechanisms to protect them. Saudi Arabia has exempted domestic workers from labor law improvements, as domestic workers are still subject to the Kafala law, which denies domestic workers who are victims of violence the right to be held accountable for abusers. This is compounded by the lack of clear and simple mechanisms in different languages that allow female workers to access the official authorities.
Nursing homes::
In November 2019, Saudi Arabia said it had closed the care and hospitality homes that were considered to be prisons for women, especially victims of violence. The Ministry of Labor and Social Development said it is preparing to issue "a new executive regulation list for family protection units to protect against violence and for girls' care homes." The new regulations prohibit forcing women to stay in care homes, whether they are exempted from a court ruling.
Many women activists celebrated the news on social media. Two years later, Saudi Arabia still does not close nursing homes, despite information confirming that girls were subjected to various types of abuse, including violence and torture.
In addition, the judiciary in Saudi Arabia still allows for cases that restrict women's movement and may legitimize violence against women by families, including absenteeism. Saudi women celebrated several times measures that they believe overturned their parents' right to prosecute their daughters if they leave the house for absconding. Among other things, in July 2019, amendments to the civil status law gave women the right to move and travel, but it was later proved that the amendments were insufficient to protect women from prosecution. In June 2021, an amendment was issued on the Law on Procedure, which recognized that "absenteeism cases are only admissible if they are related to a crime." Under the broad and unsystematic definition of crimes in the Saudi regime, it is not possible to ensure that women are not prosecuted for absenteeism, and according to some activists this has not been made public to women currently detained in care homes, and therefore it is not possible to verify the feasibility of these amendments.
ESOHR believes that violence is still part of women's suffering in Saudi Arabia. It also considers that the measures promoted by the Saudi government in recent years to reduce violence have been used as part of political propaganda, and that they still lack practical steps that contribute to the protection of battered women and holding abusers accountable.
ESOHR stresses that violence against women in all its forms - domestic, social, official and other - cannot be curtailed in light of the policy of impunity adopted against violators in Saudi Arabia and the lack of public trust with official bodies promoted by the government. The organization also believes that civil society and human rights bodies are supposed to follow up on victims and connect them to the relevant authorities, thus the blurring of their role prevents the realistic documentation of cases and deprives victims of other options for self-defense.