FEMALE CONSULATE STAFF PARTICIPATE IN EID CALLS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 RIYADH 000186 SIPDIS DHAHRAN SENDS PARIS FOR ZEYA, LONDON FOR TSOU E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/17/2016 TAGS: PGOV PREL SCUL KWMN SA SUBJECT: FEMALE CONSULATE STAFF PARTICIPATE IN EID CALLS FOR FIRST TIME Classified by Consul General John Kincannon for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). -------------- Summary -------------- ¶1. (C) For the first time in Consulate history, two female Mission staff members participated in most of the Consulate's calls over the recent Eid Al-Adha. Consulate staff traditionally call on the Emir of the Eastern Province (EP), the EP head of the Saudi Arabia National Guard (SANG),and a number of leading EP families. This year the Emirate and SANG "strongly recommended that the Consulate not bring female staff members," a change from the outright "no" we received from the Emirate in the past. All of the families except one agreed to accept a delegation that included female staff, some more enthusiastically than others. We sent a full delegation to these families, while only the Acting CG and PolFSN called on the Emir, the SANG, and the one family that was uncomfortable receiving Eid calls from female staff. The range of responses we received as we asked about bringing female staff reflects the changing nature of the debate in Saudi society over women's roles. End summary. -------------- Background -------------- ¶2. (SBU) The tradition of Eid calls is older than the Consulate, and Consulate staff have joined in the tradition since the Consulate was established in 1944. In the EP and neighboring Gulf states, Eid calls are something of a public institution, at least for males, in that men call on their professional associates as well as a broad spectrum of friends and family. For example, hundreds of EP notables, including businessmen, government officials, and tribal and religious leaders, call on the Emir of the EP following morning prayers on Eid day, after which he hosts a large breakfast for callers. (In the rest of the Kingdom and in other Arab states, on the other hand, people generally restrict their calls to close family and friends.) A Consulate delegation, including the CG, other American staff, and several FSNs generally calls on the Emir, the SANG, and leading business families. ¶3. (SBU) To the best recollection of post's long-serving PolFSN, female Consulate staff members never participated in Eid calls until this year. PolFSN asked the Emir's chief of staff on several occasions if they could, and the answer, until this year, was always "no." Until this year, PolFSN also never asked the families we call on if they would accept female staff members as part of our delegation. -------------- The Responses: From Tortured to Delighted -------------- ¶4. (SBU) As two female Mission staff members, Dhahran and Jeddah PAOs, were in Dhahran on January 10, the day of the Eid calls, and wanted to participate in the Consulate's delegation, we asked each institution and family we intended to call on if they would accept a delegation that included female members. We decided to send only the Acting CG and PolFSN on calls where female staff members were not welcome, thus preserving our relationship with those institutions and families, and to send the full delegation - including Acting CG, PolFSN, Dhahran and Jeddah PAOs, and several male staff members - where female staff members were welcome. ¶5. (C) The responses varied wildly. The Emir's chief of staff, after consulting with, we presume, the Emir, said, "At present, the Emirate has no instructions pertaining to the subject matter and certainly welcomes all visitors. However, a female visitor may well find the situation uncomfortable sitting in a hall with a thousand male visitors. We therefore strongly recommend that the lady visit at a later date. Perhaps a private audience could be arranged with His Royal Highness at a date convenient to all." The chief of staff of the SANG commander in the EP gave a similar response, saying "given that all the visitors will be male, we don't see how we can welcome a female visitor." One other family, the Al-Zamils, with whom we planned to lunch, expressed their regret, saying that, given the sensibilities of some of their expected guests, we should not include females in our delegation on Eid day. ¶6. (C) The eight other families we planned to call on agreed to the inclusion of female staff in our delegation, with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Sulaiman Al-Suhaimi, who, as chairman of the board of Saudi Holland Bank, appointed the first female board member in 2004, expressed his delight. Saud Al-Gosaibi, speaking for his family, began his answer by noting the large number of male visitors, including religious figures, expected to call on his family, as a prelude, we thought, to discouraging the idea. But he then reversed himself mid-stride and said that all visitors, women included, would be welcome. (Note: Al-Gosaibi is a candidate for the upcoming EP Chamber of Commerce & Industry (EPCCI) elections, in which women can vote and run for the first time, and we think his reversal came because he saw the contradiction between having women participate fully in the EPCCI elections and not allowing women in his family's majlis. End note.) The Al-Faraj family reversed itself as well, initially giving the same answer as the Al-Zamils, but then calling PolFSN at midnight before the Eid calls to say that female staff members were welcome both on Eid calls and to the family's weekly majlis. -------------- Saudi Hospitality Rules -------------- ¶7. (SBU) On Eid day itself, the eight families the full Consulate delegation called on received all delegation members, including the two women, with customary Saudi warmth and hospitality, and several of our hosts explicitly remarked how glad they were to receive the women. Out of the hundreds of people we exchanged greetings with over the course of the day, only four guests pointedly refused to look at or greet the female members of our delegation. One of the four was followed by his three young sons. In what we hope is a symbol of the future, he skipped past the women with his eyes averted, but his sons, smiling, gladly shook their hands. -------------- Comment -------------- ¶8. (C) The role of women in Saudi society is changing: women are now able to run and vote in Chamber of Commerce elections, a woman was recently elected to the board of the Engineers' Syndicate, and King Abdullah stated in an interview that women would drive at some point. The answers we received when asking if female staff members would be welcome as part of our Eid delegation reflect these changes, and the friction they are causing. We think it significant that the Emirate, and likely the Emir himself, did not give us an outright "no" as in the past: is a "no" no longer acceptable? The willingness of most of the families we visited to open themselves to potential criticism from their more conservative well-wishers by welcoming female members in our delegation is a sign of progress, but also an indication of how firmly entrenched some influential members of Saudi society are in their objection to the more equal and public participation of women in society. End comment. (APPROVED: KINCANNON) OBERWETTER