Saudia Arabia and Iran: The cold war of Islam
Concluding part
Susanne Koelbl, Samiha Shafy and Bernhard Zand
The New Role of Women. Despite the clerics, princes and moral police, modernity is creeping under cover into both of these antagonistic states. Thats especially clear when it comes to the changing role women play in society.
The woman in Iran who has risen to the top is President Rohanis deputy Shahindokht Molaverdi, 50. A lawyer by training, Molaverdi is an attractive woman, but she is also careful to conceal that in the chador that covers part of her face. She is sitting in the conference room of her official office in Teheran, surrounded by the insignias of the theocracy: flags and photos of the supreme leader.
It took a purposeful provocation for her to secure the post. When the president introduced his government in summer 2013, she criticized him publicly. Why is the womens share in a 33-person-strong list zero? she asked. Why does he not trust women? Two months later, she got appointed as one of several deputies to Rohani.
As vice president for women and family affairs, Molaverdi holds a position equivalent to family minister in Iran, even if the current conservative parliament would never officially confirm her as such. Molaverdi is considered to be a progressive feminist. She would never openly criticize the system but it has been reported that she would like to reform inheritance and penal laws in the country that discriminate against women. Witness testimony by a woman in Iran, for example, officially carries only half the weight of testimony provided by a man. And daughters are only able to inherit a fraction of what sons get. At the same time, 60 percent of university students are female.
Pioneering Women
When women in Saudi Arabia want to rise in society, it can help in some circumstances to keep the men out. At Huda al-Jeraisys company, a sign on the door notes that men arent allowed in. Inside the orange building in central Riyadh, it looks like a normal office, minus the Y chromosomes. Women can be seen sitting at computers wearing jeans and blouses, their hair well-coiffed and makeup applied. They organize training and language courses for other women.
If men were allowed to enter into the office, the women would then be required to stay in separate rooms with separate entrances and wear a black abaya robe and cover their hair. Many would also veil their faces. This, after all, is Saudi Arabia, the country with the worlds strictest gender division.
Feel free to take off the headscarf and the abaya too, al-Jeraisy says, smiling. It is important for us to be able to feel comfortable here. But when the boss leaves the office, the only thing still visible between all the black cloth covering her are her eyes.
This is not to say shes invisible. Far from it. Al-Jeraisy is a pioneer, one of around 20 women in the kingdom who won seats in December elections for local and municipal councils. It was the first time women in Saudi Arabia were allowed to run as candidates for political office. It was also the first time women were allowed to vote in any election in the country.
It was a pinch of democracy, even though city councilors dont have much of a say in a system oriented around the kings absolute rule. Instead of a parliament, the country is only home to a Majlis al-Shura, a consultative council that advises the rulers.
Of the Riyadh city councils 30 members, 10 are appointed -- all men -- and 20 can be elected. In addition to Al-Jeraisy, two other women also landed seats. She says its interesting that the other two also completely veil their faces. I have determined that we, as women, can achieve our goals more easily if we cover ourselves. The men are more likely to listen to us and trust us.
During city council meetings, the women sit in a separate room and are connected to their male colleagues through a loudspeaker system. Al-Jeraisy claims this doesnt bother them. You need time for change. The things that are possible today, she says -- female city councilors, women in the shura, women who work as businesspeople, surgeons or lawyers -- all that, she says, would have led to civil war 20 years ago.
Women in Saudi Arabia are still banned from driving, requiring them to have a chauffeur. Worse yet, they are also required to have a legal guardian, without whose permission they are prohibited from traveling. But as in Iran, they already tend to be better educated than men, advancing today in professional careers from which they were excluded only a short time ago. Only 15 percent of women in the country are currently employed, but that figure is growing rapidly, in part out of economic necessity.
Dependence on Oil
A building is growing into the sky just outside the gates of the Saudi Arabian port city of Jeddah, a skyscraper that will likely be famous in a few years time. The Jeddah Tower will be the worlds first skyscraper that is over 1,000 meters (3,281 feet) tall. The groundbreaking ceremony was held three years ago and the tower already stretches 150 meters into the sky. Freight elevators make gnashing noises, cement mixers hum. The structure is to be completed within four years.
Altitude is pride, says engineer Talal al-Maiman. The skyscraper is a symbol of the kingdoms place in the world. The projects leader and initiator is Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, the kings nephew and the wealthiest man in the Middle East. Al-Maiman is responsible for the princes real estate business. The kingdom has every reason to be to be self-confident, he boasts: We have Mecca and Medina. We have oil. The world envies us.
Saudi Arabia can still live from the billions in oil revenues it earned during the decades-long oil boom. But the boom has ended for now and the price of oil has collapsed. Meanwhile, the country is involved in a costly military intervention in Yemen that is siphoning money away from other areas where it could be used. Saudi Arabia is also deliberately producing excess oil to keep prices low and damage the Iranian economy. This isnt cheap for Saudi Arabia, either: The kingdom had a 2015 budget deficit of around $100 billion. If the situation doesnt change, the country is expected to deplete its currency reserves within five years. Some of the countrys ambitious construction plans -- an Economic City on the Red Sea, for example, and a futuristic financial district in Riyadh -- are only moving forward at a snails pace.
The Next Step: Diversifying Economies
But even if the oil price does start to climb again, Saudi Arabias reserves are just as finite as those of its rival Iran. Both countries are fully aware that their dependence on mineral resources is a problem.
Both countries have very similar problems: unbalanced, ossified economies and young populations that are demanding openness, flexibility, as well as social and political reforms from its aging leadership. The Arab Spring showed that the dissatisfied masses can topple even the most hardline dictatorships in the Middle East -- a recognition that alarmed Saudi and Iranian rulers alike.
In response, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman has announced drastic changes. Oil production is Saudi Arabias life blood, but the goal now is to diversify the countrys economy. Efforts to that end include a modernization program that includes initiatives in the administrative apparatus, the state-run economy and even a partial sale of Saudi oil giant Aramco. Last week, the reform program was introduced under the title Vision 2030. As part of the shakeup, Saudi Arabia announced the ouster of long-serving oil minister Ali al-Naimi on Saturday.
Who builds taller and more quickly? Who is more modern? Even construction in the two countries feels like a competitive race. In northern Tehran, entrepreneur Ebrahim Pourfaraj is currently building Irans biggest hotel on the stone slopes of the Alborz Mountains. To begin construction, workers had to dig a monstrous, almost 75-meter-deep hole in the rock, with their colorful steel-container offices dramatically hanging from the concrete walls, reachable by catwalks.
Some 125 new four- and five-star hotels are currently being planned. For the moment, its still an international pariah state inhabited by bad guys, but Iran, with its mosques, gardens and fire temples is now suddenly considered by many as a romantic adventure destination. The government is estimating 400 percent growth in tourism between now and 2025, at which time 20 million visitors are expected to come each year, spending up to $40 billion in the country annually.
Everything is slated for renewal: the automobile industry, the shipyards, the airports. At least $100 billion in annual investment will be needed for the restoration of natural gas and oil production plants alone.
The years of isolation may be over, but not the long-term consequences. The Revolutionary Guard has built up a massive business empire. They stepped in to fill the gaps when the international companies left the country and it will be difficult to circumvent them in the future.
The unstable economic situation in both countries, their ambition and their courting of international investors will at first provide an opportunity for the West. Countries like Germany, which has maintained business relations with Saudi Arabia and will now commence them with Iran, will have a ready-made lever for exerting influence. Political conditions could be tied to attractive business deals.
It also provides the West with the opportunity to do some things that could help to stop the destruction in the Middle East and the spread of Islamist terror in the world.
Two Difficult Partners
Listening to the radicals on both sides might lead one to believe that the conflict represents an epochal wrestling match between two powers with a sectarian and political wedge driven right through the middle of them -- one in which there can ultimately only be one winner and one loser. But this impression is deceptive. Neither of the two countries represents the caricature of the rogue state that agitators on each opposing side are trying to sketch.
Saudi Arabia is a young, powerful country and, as a commodity giant and ally of the West, also well-networked around the world. With the nuclear deal now in place, Iran, which is a similarly youthful and dynamic, can now become integrated into global markets to the degree Saudi Arabia has long enjoyed.
The West has gotten used to viewing the Middle East as a perpetual crisis zone in global politics, one in which fanaticism and paranoia triumph over compromise and reason. But the conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran isnt just comprised of fanatics: There are, of course, also more critical and level-headed voices, ones the West could strengthen rather than simply retreat from the region.
Der Spigel
