I’m having a headache, called “the Saudi officials’ attitude”

Two weeks ago, a nice Saudi student called me asking if I may help in speaking in the annual Saudi students clubs meeting to improve women involvement and participation in their activities, the Saudi student himself is a firm supporter of women participation and wishes to see more women involved, I said yes of course. The Saudi students Clubs are social students gathering sponsored by the Saudi Cultural attaché to support Saudi students abroad in social and cultural issues. They’re supposed to serve many functions, like gathering Saudi students in religious and national holidays, promoting cultural awareness about Saudi Arabia culture & values, and supporting each others in learning and living abroad.

I received a call on Friday from the cultural office to request my full presentation within few hours, I told the official that I don’t have anything ready and maybe he can wait until Monday to send him a preliminary draft? He said Ok and I have put together some 12 slides on the growing number of Female students in US and their need to be represented and what are the perceived barriers from my perspective. I hinted to lack of standards in organizing clubs activities and the focus on male-only sport activities and lunch for families (Segregated of course). I also hinted to the lack of control from the cultural mission on follow-up on such activities, since members don’t necessarily include all students in the area or share decisions about activities. And there was the issue of harassment, many females try to avoid in dealing with Saudi males. I tried to show that it’s not the lack of initiative of female students that causes their under-representation but rather the lack of supportive environment, quoting a recent UK female student experience in this regard.

Of course, and as expected, the doctor who called me at first referred me to a lower class employee who called me saying that I haven’t given the cultural office its true worth, that they do support active clubs and oblige new clubs to abide by University laws (True, but what’s the relevance?) and that I went political quoting the UK thing, they did expect me to present myself as a proof that Saudi women are greatly supported, they are educated, smart & can talk in public (not necessarily serving the cause they’re talking for) and so on but not bringing obstacles and negativity to the talk….

I missed the whole point of the whole invitation thing, I should’ve said that Cultural mission has supported us and show some evidence of that and some recognition for the government so you guys (The student clubs’ heads) see how great we’ve become…

Regardless of the reprimand on what I’ve written on the draft, I said, OK (some diplomatic approach won’t hurt) and I said I’ll rephrase, then the lower clerk called me up saying there has been a change of plans, we’re not having any presentations afterall and that we’ll call you in the future. I called back the nice Saudi student asking him about his pre-planned presentation and he said yes he’ll present as planned, so it was just me who got cancelled afterall. Now, I’m having a headache since the phone call, that explains why there is a lack of female representaion much better than a thousand words.