User:Pinkolive21/Women's education in Saudi Arabia

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History
Girls’ education in Saudi Arabia was not formally addressed by the government until 1959. Before public schools for girls were opened, women born into wealthy families could access education via in-home tutoring. In 1941, the first private school for girls was opened by Indonesian and Malawian immigrants, called Madrasat AlBanat AlAhliah. The first girls’ public school was established in 1956 in Riyadh, called Dar Al Hanan. A large portion of the Saudi Arabian population was opposed to the implementation of women’s education policy; in September of 1963, the government had to deploy officials to forcibly restrain citizens in Buraydah who were protesting girls’ education. According to Natana Delong-Bas, the suppression of women's education by contemporary Wahhabi regimes is due to their adherence to a specific interpretation of Wahhabi Islam.

Until 2002, different departments regulated education for men and women. Women's education was controlled through the Department of Religious Guidance, while men's education was overseen by the Ministry of Education. The Department of Religious Guidance retained control of women’s education to ensure that women were educated in accordance with the principles of Islam as interpreted in Saudi Arabia, which traditionally espoused that women take on 'gender appropriate' roles such as motherhood, housewifery, teaching, or nursing: “to bring her up in a proper Islamic way so as to perform her duty in life, be an ideal and successful housewife and a good mother, ready to do things which suit her nature as teaching, nursing, and medical treatment.”

The amalgamation of departments for men’s and women’s education came as the result of a disaster in Mecca in 2002, where a group of 15 elementary schoolgirls died as a result of a fire in their school. The religious police designated by the Department of Religious Guidance discouraged the firemen from entering the school or allowing the girls to flee to safety, as there was the chance their hijabs were not being worn properly. It was discovered that women’s education had received a lower budget than men’s education, and thus girls’ schools were outdated and unsafe which was a factor in the fatal fire. This led to public outrage, and in turn, the combination of men’s and women’s education departments into the Ministry of Education.

The state of women’s education in Saudi Arabia continues to evolve, but not without setbacks. In the Saudi Vision 2030 agenda, the Saudi government pledges to making adjustments that will improve women’s education with plans to “invest in [women’s] productive capabilities and enable them to strengthen their future and contribute to the development of our society and economy.