A WOMAN'S VIEW ON BEING A LAWYER IN SAUDI ARABIA

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 JEDDAH 000454 SIPDIS SIPDIS RIYADH, PLEASE PASS TO DHAHRAN; DEPARTMENT FOR NEA/ARP AND INR/B; PARIS FOR ZEYA; LONDON FOR TSOU E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/27/2031 TAGS: KISL KWMN PGOV PINR PREL SA SCUL SUBJECT: A WOMAN'S VIEW ON BEING A LAWYER IN SAUDI ARABIA Classified By: Consul General Tatiana Gfoeller for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. SUMMARY: Recent press reports that the Saudi Ministry of Justice is considering allowing women to become fully licensed lawyers and judges have raised the hopes of women who are already working as legal consultants in the Kingdom. One female legal consultant in Jeddah told PolOff that she is encouraged by the rumors that women may soon have even greater access to the court system. She said that women can already represent themselves in court, especially in family cases, but there is growing momentum for permitting female lawyers to represent clients. She also highlighted that in some public statements the Ministry has appeared to be augmenting references to the traditional religious framework of shar'ia law to also incorporate nezam, or man-made, legal structures. She credited these possible changes to the positive efforts of King Abdullah but also cautioned that, even if women's access to courts is expanded at the government level, it will probably take much longer for the shift to become accepted among the broader Saudi society. The consultant expressed pride in the fact that her firm is one of the first in Saudi Arabia to create a women's section but wishes that her work could be officially recognized outside of her firm. She said that she hopes to inspire other Saudi women to "demand" more from the legal system, adding that a change in tradition, not religious teachings, is the key to opening more opportunities for women in the kingdom. END SUMMARY. FUTURE LOOKING UP FOR WOMEN LAWYERS ¶2. (U) On June 25, 2006, PolOff met with Mrs. Mais Khalid ((ABU-DALBOUH)),a legal consulant with the women's department at the Jeddah branch of the Ahmed Zaki Yamani law firm. Abu-Dalbouh, who has worked in her current position for three years, began by saying that her firm was one of the first in Saudi Arabia to incorporate a women's section. The section was launched in 2002 with Mrs. Taman Al Anbar (wife of firm founder Sheik Yamani) as the first female lawyer hired to be a legal consultant. According to Abu-Dalbouh, several other women (including Saudi and several other nationalities) have also worked at the firm as part of their legal training. ¶3. (U) Abu-Dalbouh outlined an optimistic view of where women are headed in Saudi legal circles. She stressed the importance of press reports from May and early June 2006 that claimed the Ministry of Justice is considering ways to allow women to be officially licensed as lawyers and to eventually become judges. (NOTE: Arab language daily Al-Watan also said that the Ministry is considering forming a Saudi Lawyers' Association that would conduct a review of the qualifications for men to practice and then offer training programs for young Saudi lawyers. END NOTE) She admitted that allowing women to practice law has been rumored in the press before but the Ministry usually has squashed those stories immediately. Abu-Dalbouh felt that because these recent articles were not refuted right away, a government shift may indeed be happening. SAUDI LEGAL SYSTEM REALIZING NEED FOR LAWS BEYOND SHARIA ¶4. (U) Abu-Dalbouh said that she is encouraged by press and the Ministry's recent increased use of the term "nezam", which refers to the overall modern system of legal administration (man-made law) rather than always using the term "shar'ia" (religious or God-given law). According to Abu-Dalbouh, that change indicates that there is a growing realization among even Ministry officials that the Saudi legal system must increase its attention to new and more complex areas of law, such as e-commerce and intellectual property rights, which fall outside the traditional religious court system. WAYS FEMALE LAWYERS PRACTICE AND WOMEN ARE HEARD IN COURT ¶5. (U) Abu-Dalbouh explained how women with law degrees operate in the current legal system. For the past decade, women have been permitted to be legal consultants and to do the fact-finding and prepartory work (including writing legal JEDDAH 00000454 002 OF 003 briefs) for court cases. They cannot, however, sign official legal documents or represent clients in front of a judge. ¶6. (C) Abu-Dalbouh highlighted the recent allowance that women can represent themselves in court as an important step for all of the justice system. She said that now women who are plaintiffs or defendents can plead their case directly to a judge. (In the past, they were not permitted to speak in any circumstance.) However, female lawyers are still hindered because they cannot act on anyone else's behalf and they cannot represent even family members in a courtroom. Abu-Dalbouh said that she thinks women can have rulings in their favor more often if they learn to present their own cases, adding that she has counseled her female clients to take advantage of the influence and emotional impact that their presence can make, particularly in family cases. She confided that she tells female clients to appear in court dressed nicely, wearing no make-up, and with their faces covered in order to make the best impression. KING CREDITED FOR SUPPORT BUT PUBLIC ATTITUDES BELITTLE ROLE OF WOMEN ¶7. (C) Abu-Dalbouh credited King Abdullah for being the one responsible for initiating the increased opportunities for women lawyers. She added that allowing women to practice law equally with men will take some time to catch on and that many average citizens may resist allowing a woman to try their case in court. Abu-Dalbouh stressed that she is treated well within her firm. She said that the firm has a very team-oriented internal atmosphere and that she works alongside her male colleagues, conducting equal research and legal investigations. She said that while she generally does not mind being prohibited from pleading cases in front of a judge, she would like her work and position to be recognized outside of the firm. For example, she said that although she has a law degree, the firm lists her on correspondence and advertising as a "trainee" or legal consultant in order to avoid trouble with the Ministry of Justice. Similarly, when her work is used in trials and to create formal documents, it is labeled with a male colleague's name so it will be accepted in official channels. EDUCATION IS IMPORTANT ¶8. (SBU) Abu-Dalbouh expressed a strong desire to serve as a trailblazer for female lawyers in Saudi Arabia. After stating her love of politics, she said that she believes in challenging societal restraints but not in openly engaging in a public battle that could jeopardize support. She said that she applied almost two years ago to the Ministry of Justice to become a judge, which she said was a way of letting the Ministry know that a qualified woman was eager for the position. She also took great care to explain that Saudi women need to be well educated and to fine-tune their analytical skills in order to be good lawyers and judges. She added that she hopes her work on the committee developing the legal studies program at Dar Al-Hekma College (a small, private women's college founded in Jeddah in 1999) will empower young Saudi females to pursue law degrees. As an aside, Abu-Dalbouh mentioned that she estimates there are somewhere between 10 to 20 female lawyers currently working in Saudi Arabia. (NOTE: Post cannot confirm that number. END NOTE) ¶9. (SBU) Abu-Dalbouh said that she has used opportunities to lecture at the women's section of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry and to students at Dar Al-Hekma and Effat College (another small private women's school in Jeddah founded in 1999 and run by several prominent members of the royal family) to help encourage women to push for more equal societal participation. In a follow-up email to PolOff several days later, Abu-Dalbouh again stressed that women must pursue legal studies at universities that are recognized by the Ministry of Education in order to be sure their degrees will be acceptable to the Saudi government when the time comes for them to apply for recognition as full-fledged lawyers. TRADITION IS GREATER HURDLE THAN RELIGION FOR WOMEN JEDDAH 00000454 003 OF 003 ¶10. (SBU) Abu-Dalbouh shared a view often heard among progressives here in Jeddah that women have a special place in Islam. She highlighted that it was a woman, Muhammad's first wife Khadija (well known for having been an established businesswoman in her time),who was actually the first person to believe in the Prophet's message. Because of that, Abu-Dalbouh said she sees women, particularly working women, as faithful Muslims who should not feel limited by their faith in terms of wanting to work and calling for broader freedoms, including the right to drive a car. She stressed that man-made tradition, not Islam, has been responsible for limiting a woman's role in Saudi society up to this point, and she thinks that it is up to women to continue "demanding" more equality in order to spur the necessary change. UNCERTAIN FUTURE IN LEGAL CIRCLES ¶11. (C) COMMENT: Abu-Dalbouh came across as very candid and surprisingly upbeat about her views for the future of women in Saudi Arabia. PolOff was particularly surprised when Abu-Dalbouh declared that she thinks the Saudi government will permit women to be full-fledged lawyers "within a year." Abu-Dalbouh's enthusiasm probably serves her well as she fights not only for her own career path but also attempts to inspire others. However, given the slow pace of change in the Saudi legal system, it seems unlikely that such a groundbreaking move will happen in the short timeframe she offered. Likewise, articles in the English-language daily Arab News note that women lawyers would still be greatly hindered by their inability to travel abroad without the permission of a male guardian and that the society still has a stigma about interacting openly with the opposite sex, which are two important hurdles that must be addressed before female lawyers can be fully equal to their male counterparts. BIO NOTE ¶12. (U) Abu-Dalbouh is 37 years old. She speaks good English but occasionally struggles to find the right word. Although she was born in Saudi Arabia and comes from a family with Bedouin roots, she studied law in Jordan where her father was a lawyer. She is planning on earning her LLM degree at a univerisity in the United Kingdom later this year. Abu-Dalbouh said that she had not planned to move back to Saudi Arabia but did so for her husband's job. She added that she has lived in the Washington D.C. area and that her daughter was born there. She also has at least one son who was born in Saudi Arabia. Gfoeller