The Ministry of Civil Service has approved the demands made by women teachers campaigning for equal treatment in terms of salaries and privileges with their male counterparts. Abdul Aziz Bin Abdulrahman Al-Khnain, spokesman of the Ministry of Civil Service, said regulations defining educational jobs do not differentiate between male and female teachers. “All male and female teachers are employed on the same salary scale,” he said. He also emphasized that the ministry's employment rules do not discriminate between male and female teachers with the exception in the “Iddah holiday”(a period of three months ordained by Almighty Allah in the Holy Qur'an for any Muslim married woman whose husband dies) and maternity leave. He added that women's rights as defined in the civil service laws exceed men's rights in terms of holidays. The official declined to comment on the campaigners' threat that they would take the matter to the court if the ministries of Education and Civil Service do not respond to their demands. Ghaida'a Al-Hamadi, the campaign's organizer, said she has discovered seven discrepancies in the 14 articles in the law defining educational jobs issued by the Civil Service in 1981. She said Article 10 that defines the end-of-service benefits and Article 11 defining the salary scales discriminate between female and male teachers. Al-Hamadi said their campaign should not be understood as being against male teachers. “We are fighting for our rights,” she said. Male teachers, she said, remain on the salary scale for two years at the most and then their pay scale is revised whereas women teachers remain on the same pay scale for more than six years. “Added to this is the difference in the transport allowance. Male teachers get SR600 a month and their female counterparts get SR400 even though they are employed on the same date and salary scale,” she said.
