patriarchal regime — World News, Travel and Social Action

As the sustainable travel movement takes hold throughout the tourism industry, a new initiative has grown: one which promotes social sustainability by empowering women who run travel organizations, as well as the women who live and work in the communities visited.

In recent years, a new movement has grown within the tourism industry: socially-responsible travel. A primary facet of the ethical travel movement has been eco-tourism: international travel focused on reducing environmental impact as much as possible. When thinking about the ethics of travel, tourism is especially tricky. Although not completely straightforward, environmental footprint can be measured quantitatively by studying emissions, soil erosion, and fluctuations within ecosystems. Similarly, travel undertaken without cultural awareness risks trampling, commercializing, and exploiting the cultures and peoples indigenous to the places visited. Negative socio-cultural effects of travel are frequently masked--or if not masked, are presumed to be mitigated--by the economic benefits of tourism. Because of this, and unlike environmental effects, the drawbacks of socially-irresponsible travel are difficult to categorize, and spiral throughout society as a whole.

Fortunately, the ill-effects on the social structure of communities created by tourism can be minimized through a respect for and a foreknowledge of the history, language, and culture of the peoples and places visited. More than just minimizing social impact, there exist multiple organizations and projects dedicated to mindful traveling that promotes female empowerment and forging sustainable global relationships. The work of these organizations allows for enriching travel experiences while cultivating the socio-economic flourishment of local cultures. Growing alongside eco-tourism, but often less discussed, are movements empowering women through the travel industry; these include women-owned travel firms with primarily female staff, as well as organizations that seek to connect with and offer support to women in the communities they visit.

One such organization is Planeterra, a foundation that assists in designing, planning, and executing projects focused on sustainability and global development by harnessing the resources available in local communities in combination with those generated through the travel industry. A major facet of Planeterra’s work is in female social and economic empowerment, which includes employing women as tour guides, and contributing funding to and bringing in markets for handicrafts and services provided by entrepreneurs who are women all over the world. Similarly, the Intrepid Foundation has spearheaded the Empowerment Collective, a series of localized community projects based around the world. Empowerment Collective projects concentrate on areas such as women’s education and literacy, vocational training, and supporting entrepreneurial endeavors undertaken by women inside and outside of the travel industry.

Consequently, ethical travel spearheaded by women, for women fosters sustainability in ways that differ from environmentally-sustainable travel. Rather than seeking to reduce impact alone, female empowerment projects promote sustainability in a productive sense: forming relationships and growing networks of economic support that heightens the personal and financial power of women globally. The act of traveling connects women and builds self-esteem, while providing avenues for women who are entrepreneurs in the travel industry to empower themselves and one another by achieving economic independence and forming cross-cultural partnerships. Although the ability to travel itself is, for the most part, linked inextricably to socio-economic privileges, it is misguided to say that those hierarchies must be replicated in the places visited. That is to say, intentional channeling of the resources of the tourism industry brings heightened personal independence and opportunity to both the women who run these projects and the women who live and work in the places visited, creating avenues for greater socio-economic parity all over the world.

Hallie Griffiths

is an undergraduate at the University of Virginia studying Foreign Affairs and Spanish. After graduation, she hopes to apply her passion for travel and social action toward a career in intelligence and policy analysis. Outside of the classroom, she can be found, quite literally, outside: backpacking, rock climbing, or skiing with her friends.

In 2017, the driving ban was lifted for Saudi women. However, the women who vocally protested the ban have been jailed, subjected months of torture and unable to communicate with their families.

Lina Al-Hathloul speaking about the imprisonment of her sister, Loujain. POMED. CC BY 2.0

June 24th, 2018 marked the first day women in Saudi Arabia could legally obtain drivers licenses, following an announcement by King Salman in September that women driving would be considered acceptable under sharia law. By March of 2019, more than 70,000 Saudi women had received a license. Under the interpretation of sharia law enforced by the Saudi government, women are effectively minors, subject to guardianship by their fathers, husbands, or even their sons should their husbands pass away or become otherwise unable to fulfill the role of guardian. Women must receive permission to enroll in school, open bank accounts, sign contracts, or acquire a passport, to name a few of the many restrictions women face under guardianship laws.

Regarding the announcement of the end of the driving ban, Eman al-Nafjan writes in her blog, “Initially I was overwhelmed with my own powerlessness as a woman living in a patriarchal absolute monarchy. Were our efforts the reason the ban was lifted? Or was it a decision that had been made regardless of our struggles?” Dr. al-Nafjan is one of eleven women who was detained, subject to torture, solitary confinement, and threats of rape and death—more than once by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman himself—in 2018 as a result of their protests against the ban. The protests against the driving ban began in 1990, and have lead to the arrest, imprisonment, and severe punishment of many individuals. Of the eleven arrested in May-June 2018, some were released on bail. Al-Nafjan, as well as two other women, Loujain al-Hathloul and Nouf Abdulaziz, have borne the brunt of cruelty at the hands of the Saudi government, and as a result have received the most media attention. Their trials began in late March of 2019, however little is known of their current situation.

Nouf Abdulaziz, one of the women held in prison, writes in a letter sent during her detainment: “Hello my name is Nouf, and I am not a provoker, inciter nor a wrecker, nor a terrorist, nor a criminal nor a traitor.” The women imprisoned have sought justice for their fellow women, and we must honor their work by seeking justice on their behalf. There exists a clear duplicity in the West’s reaction to these human rights violations: although outwardly supportive of human rights, the U.S., France, and the U.K. have been complicit in the Saudi regime’s actions by maintaining close economic and security ties with Saudi Arabia. At the end of her letter, Abdulaziz implores her readers: “if what is happening does not please you, help our people to see clearly that our sister in the homeland is mistreated and she does not deserve other than her freedom, to maintain her dignity and to have the warmth in her parents [sic] arms, that has been taken away from her.” Many human rights organizations have spoken up on behalf of these activists, and Abdulzaziz, al-Hathloul, and al-Nafjan were awarded the 2019 PEN Freedom to Write Award for their work.

In this vein, Amnesty International marked May 2018-May 2019 a “year of shame for Saudi Arabia” due especially to its treatment of women’s rights activists and the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, a dissident Saudi journalist. Although Crown Prince Salman, accepting the position of Crown Prince in 2017, labeled himself a reformer, he immediately launched a campaign to repress dissenters of the regime. In this way, the worries expressed by Nafjan were prescient: the Saudi government lifted the driving ban in an effort to improve international opinion, as well as increase the number of women working in Saudi Arabia’s flagging private sector, not with genuine progressive intent. Those who most vehemently spoke up for the rights of women were made examples of for other dissenters. While ultimately a victory for the greater female Saudi population, the patriarchal regime insisted upon a last word—in the form of human rights violations against the very women who created the momentum for the lifting of the ban.

HALLIE GRIFFITHS is an undergraduate at the University of Virginia studying Foreign Affairs and Spanish. After graduation, she hopes to apply her passion for travel and social action toward a career in intelligence and policy analysis. Outside of the classroom, she can be found, quite literally, outside: backpacking, rock climbing, or skiing with her friends.