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).

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Summary
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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.

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Background
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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.

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The Responses: From Tortured to Delighted
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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.

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Saudi Hospitality Rules
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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.

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Comment
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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