Saudi women-only city? Look again
A misreported story sparks debate over employing the Kingdom's women.
- It started when the Saudi Industrial Property Authority published the following press release on August 6, under a somewhat ambiguous headline:
Saudi Industrial Property Authority - "MODON" begins Planning and Development for the first industrial city being readied for women workers in the KingdomSaudi Industrial Property Authority (MODON) is a government agency created by the Government of Saudi Arabia in 2001 through Ministerial ...- The area, called Al-Ahsa 2nd Industrial City, is designed to provide hundreds of work opportunities for women, something not readily accepted in many Saudi businesses and communities. But it appears that news editors - many from highly-regarded organisations - didn't quite read past the headline.
The Guardian was among the first to report the story, which was later cited by other news sites: - A women-only industrial city dedicated to female workers is to be constructed in Saudi Arabia to provide a working environment that is in line with the kingdom's strict customs. The city, to be built in the Eastern Province city of Hofuf, is set to be the first of several planned for the Gulf kingdom.
- However, here's the subhead from the press release:
- And then later, in the second paragraph:
- Yet The Guardian reported that the women-only city was approved by the Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs, and confirmed by a spokesperson:
- Two days later, The Atlantic Cities - an offshoot of The Atlantic - reported on the women-only city, conjuring up images from Hollywood fantasies:
- What would a city made up of only women be like? It’s a question that people have pondered throughout history -- sometimes with high-minded intent, sometimes for cheap thrills. Herodotus wrote of the Amazons, female warriors who were said to enslave men to reproduce; Hollywood gave us the sublimely terrible 1958 science fiction movie Queen of Outer Space, in which Zsa Zsa Gabor plays a Venusian scientist on an all-female planet where some American male astronauts have been forced to crash-land. (The men struggle against their mini-skirted oppressors, prevail, and presumably get lucky.)
- Germany's Deutsche-Welle also examined the issue, but interviewed experts who doubted the initiative would work. The piece even quoted a former Al Jazeera journalist based in Qatar, a neighbouring Gulf country:
- Meanwhile, dozens of other sites posted articles, videos and opinion pieces on the story:
Saudi Arabia builds women only city for female workers
Factories will be built where they will be the bosses and men will be banned from production lines Saudi Arabia is to build a city just f...
Saudis plan to build women-only citySaudi Arabia is planning to build a women-only city to provide its active females with a job environment in line with the kingdom's Shari...- Bloggers questioned the idea of a women-only city, like this post from iwoke2this:
- Um…no words. This is just - baffling. 1) If they still can’t drive, how will they manage to get to work, or will everything be within walking distance to their houses? 2) Will women run *everything* in this city? 3) Only 5,000 jobs to be created? That seems low; I thought the population was much higher. I guess it’s a good start.
- Saudi blogger Eman Al Nafjan said the initiative just isn't feasible:
- From Modon’s website and Al-Rasheed’s interview, it’s apparent that the “women” part comes from the novelty of having women allowed on a manufacturing site and not that it will be completely operated from A to Z by women. In a country where the Highest Islamic Council has on it’s website a fatwa discouraging people from allowing women to specialize in scientific fields and where the number of women who have experience in industry is somewhere around zero, it wouldn’t be business-savvy to open a whole industrial city for women. It would be basically opening a ghost town and burning millions of dollars.
- Netizens shared strong opinions about the alleged Saudi proposal:
Saudi Arabia aims to close wide employment gap between genders by creating city with segregated spaces for women to work #HumanRights #WTF
