By Yousuf Al-Mohaimeed
DECADES have passed while we try to solve some of our social problems without any success. We think our problems are so complicated that they cannot be solved easily. At the same time we see other societies including in those in our neighboring GCC countries have overcome them without much difficulty.
We share the culture, traditions, history and heritage of our Gulf neighbors. If they were successful in overcoming those “difficult” problems, which we consider as complicated, why don’t we make a try like them in order to save our nation from becoming a laughing stock in front of others?
We should know that commentators on social media networks have tarnished our image citing our incapability to resolve certain social issues such as our women’s inability to work in mixed environments, ban on women driving and sports or whether women can be allowed to travel alone to foreign countries for education and other purposes.
These issues show that our main problem is women and we don’t know how to deal with them. The lack of courage to take a radical decision on these issues during the past several decades has contributed to obstructing the Kingdom’s economic and social progress. I am afraid this policy would paralyze our institutions at times of crises and wars. Although this article cannot discuss any of these social issues in detail due to space constraints, I would like to mention only one issue – women’s work at health institutions.
Our approach on this issue has been shameful as opponents of women’s employment not only prevent their women from working in the field but also accuse parents and husbands who allow their women to work in health institutions of lacking manliness and self-respect.
The opponents want our hospitals and medical centers to be run by foreign doctors, nurses and paramedics and leave us under the mercy of certain nationals. We will be in trouble in case diplomatic relations with those countries are severed due to political conflicts or wars.
About two decades ago the Kingdom faced a difficult economic situation and it had to look for new revenue sources. One proposal was to impose tax on expatriate workers. When the news reached the corridors of our medical centers, some doctors and nurses at a major hospital in Riyadh stopped working and this paralyzed the hospital’s operations completely.
Patients who were admitted to the hospital for treatment of chronic diseases were in trouble and this forced the government to withdraw the decision. Of course, that decision was canceled because of our weakness and incapability to run our hospitals with our own men and women.
Some of our age-old customs and traditions have obstructed women from making contributions to social and economic development. If foreign workers decide to leave the Kingdom for any reason we will be in deep trouble without having enough Saudi cadres to run our health institutions, which is the result of our unhealthy customs and traditions.
