Over 300 female students from the Law Department at King Abdulaziz University have called for women to be given greater opportunities to work in the legal profession, saying there is nothing in the law or Shariah prohibiting it and describing reasons given for the lack of appointments as “flimsy excuses.” “Despite the right of women to work in the legal profession there are a variety of complications put in place by employers which are stopping women doing it, even though it has been recently permitted by the authorities concerned,” says Nouran Al-Jifri. “Male hegemony, reinforced by a lack of awareness of women's role in public life, is largely to blame,” she says. Al-Jifri said that she and her fellow students were aware that they had chosen to embark on a profession in which they might find the employment market to be closed to them. She adds that until recently many girls were joining the Law Department in the belief that job opportunities would be available, but that now that dream was receding. Jawharah Al-Houti, another student of law, says certain fears on the part of society prevent women working in many areas of the legal field, with females currently only employed at the Board of Grievances, the Commission for Investigation and Prosecution, the General Auditing Bureau, security agencies and arbitration and advocacy commissions. “I've seen a lot of female colleagues who graduated before me join the unemployment line due to bureaucratic restrictions,” Al-Houti says. “I and my fellow students joined the Law Department with the full conviction that the society sorely needed Saudi women specialists in the area of law and regulations. Many Saudi women involved in legal cases prefer to consult female specialists as they have a better understanding of cases involving women. Women are less embarrassed to talk to female lawyers about private matters.” Al-Houti says that problems really start when female law students reach the stage when practical work should in theory begin, continuing into the stage of looking for employment. “Female students of law usually find training places unavailable and can't apply what they have learnt,” she said. Law student Uhood Fodah says she and others were most annoyed by the decision to cancel practical training. “The need for practical experience for female graduates cannot be underestimated,” Fodah says. “The cancellation is only one of many flimsy excuses. Sometimes they say they do not have training places, other times they claim they cannot allow females to mix with men even though at the College of Medicine female students are given the necessary practical training in similar circumstances.” “Things get even worse when you try and look for a job,” Fodah added. “It's virtually impossible, as women are still classified as incapable of performing certain roles.” Fawzia Al-Uyouni is a female legal activist. “When women are educated in law and study the same curricula as their male colleagues, why, in the absence of any objections in laws and regulations or in Shariah, are they then deprived of this right?” Al-Uyouni asks. “If society does not want to benefit from female graduates of the Law Department, then why have they opened the doors for the admission of hundreds of female students hoping to find work after graduation?” Lawyer Yassin Ghazzawi says that nothing in the regulations prevents women from practicing law in so far as that work does not contradict Shariah. Ghazzawi says the work of women lawyers would be restricted to contact with female clients, adding that many legal cases involve women and require consultation with females specialized in law. Dr. Abdel Ilah Sa'aty, Dean of Community Service and Continued Education, says the fundamental objective when the Department of Law was opened in 1975 was to improve education and provide highly qualified male and female legal specialists to all areas of legal practice, including the Board of Grievances, the Commission for Investigation and Prosecution, the General Auditing Bureau, the diplomatic corps, security agencies, local administration, the banking sector, and arbitration commissions. “We look forward to broadening horizons and engaging in long term ventures to convert the department to a fully-fledged faculty on a par with law faculties in renowned Arab and foreign universities,” Sa'aty says.
