Problems Faced by Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is the largest country in the Arabian Peninsula. It has an appraise population of 27.5 million. Riyadh is the capital of Saudi Arabia. The official language in is Arabic and the Saudi legal system is based on the Islamic constitution. It is the homeland of the Islam, where the two major holy mosques are found. They discovered oil in 1936 which made the country wealthier. Oil accounts for more than 90 percent of exports and nearly 75 percent of government revenues. It provides the government with money to provide health care and education. There are no taxes taken by the government from the residents. Saudi Arabia faces many serious problems which need attention like any other country. According to the researches, Women in Saudi are not allowed to vote only men were admit to vote in the 2005 elections of 179 municipal councils of the country. Also in recent article of al-shaq al-awsat newspaper announced that Saudi Arabia has got the lowest percentage of the world with women constitute 5% of workforce. And can u imagine that one person dies each hour in a car accidents because of the high speed? how terrifying is this? what is more, in a report of several studies and smoking prevalence 20% to 40% of the population smoke. This essay will discuss three major issues women rights, car accidents and smoking in Saudi Arabia and the possible solutions for each problem.

One of the main major problems that are considered in the Saudi society is women rights. The men and the religious police in Saudi claim that in Islam women’s place is at home taking care of their husbands and families, which is not true it is just intellectual invasion. Women suffer from discrimination in the labor market therefore they could not work in the same place with men; their job, according to the men in Saudi, is to stay at home to take responsibility of the house and manipulate with their freedom. For instant, women have no right choosing their husbands, it is usually arranged by their family or the man chooses her and driving is forbidden for them, by law. Besides, women have no right to vote and not allowed to be a part of the weekly council which is where Saudi citizens complaint to a certain member of the royal family who controls the country. Moreover, women are not able to study, travel or work unless they get the permission from their parents. Although they are allowed to travel they still have to get permission every-time they go to the airport. In addition, all schools and some malls are sex-segregated. As a result of this, men began using that as an advantage by pursuing violence and abusing them in any way possible. However, women try to tackle this problem. For example, a few years ago a group of women from different parts of the country requested a petition, written in it “recognize woman as eligible, without the need to have the escort of the legal supervisor -such as a father, husband or brother- to be present in case a trade registration record is needed for a woman to start business” and “the woman is in need to get her own legitimate and civil right, starting from her right to learn, work and health care but not to be conditioned on the permission of the legal supervisor to her rights to transfer her property after her death to her inheritors under the rule of civil service on equal footing with man”. The government is trying their best to tackle this and they started by announcing to give women identification cards when they register on their custodians’ identification cards in previous whereas the key reason of treating women in the wrong way refers to gender apartheid so it needs time to get over this ineffectual idea.

Secondly, driving cars in a high speed causes many accidents in Saudi Arabia. It costs the government a lot of money yearly which cause decrease in the economy of the country. what is more, the lost of human which costs lives and cost their families tears and long nights without sleeping worrying about what is coming next. Is it death or disability for the rest of their lives? People are dying daily even if they escape the death there is a high possibility to get paralyzed or disable. In a report said that “the average age of death causalities that result from car accident is 34 years, which means that 26 working years were lost for each person. The economic input of each 26 years is calculated in the annual economic losses of Saudi”. The report found that “ 65% of people with minor causalities need up to 20 days in hospitalized treatment and up to 70 days for rehabilitation. On the other hand, 33% of the minor causalities need up to a full year in treatment and rehabilitation, which results in complete loss of full year economic input for each person. The remaining 2% end up in permanently handicapped that may require up to 15 years of treatment and rehabilitation”. According to the traffic department on the numeration for the last five years approximately more than 1.36 million accident cause death for 21,900 people and about 122,600 coming with injuries. Therefor some possible solution could be follows to help solving this dilemma. For instance, make the driving license test much difficult than it is now with requirement to illustrate driving ability in the Saudi’s roads and give condensed driving lessons before people start using car. besides, that the government should either charge or punish for speeding. Also should send campaign which focus in damage which causes from the high speed that all could push the people not to drive with high speed in order to help with this problem.

finally, last but not least this phenomenon that spread in the saudi society like the cancer when it spreads in the body smoking. people who always smoke are more likely to expose heath problems; lung cancer and heart disease. Smoking in Saudi is becoming like hobby for people. What is really horrifying that the people start smoking in the teenage for the wrong reasons like to make them feel better about themselves and more confident to face the worlds. What is more, the number of smokers in Saudi is increasing which put extra pressure on the heath system. The essential problem which made them go toward smoking that the price of the pack of cigarettes in Saudi is the cheapest in the world what is worse that there is not any law obstruct young people from buying cigarette. however, the people not only smoke cigarette but also shisha (hubby-bubbly) specially women thinking that it is not as harm as cigarette whereas it equals 15 cigarettes. According to one anti-smoking organization said “ Saudi Arabia has fourth highest number of smokers per capita in the world. There are 6 million smokers and a growing number of women lighting up”. Also 27% of students in intermediate level smoke, up to 51% of the of the female teachers and educators smoke and 5% of the people in Saudi have lung cancer. The director of the ministry of health ‘s anti-smoking program contended that “Saudi Arabia loses SR8 billion because of tobacco and spends SR3.5 billion treating smokers every year”. which is affect the economy of the country. So government should focus more in the public problem that faces Saudi Arabia providing awareness campaigns which show the dangerous of smoking and the damage that it causes plus of banning smoking in public and close places. besides rising the price of the pack of cigarettes that is some of the credible solutions which can assist in solving this major problem.

To sum up, we discussed the three major problem that faces Saudi Arabia. We suggest some of the possible solutions that government can follow. However, government is trying the best to help in solve this problems which is considered as society issues and this type of problem need more time to be solve because it needs the government concentrates and the society effort at the same time which make it harder to tackle although Saudi Arabia it is not the only country that faces problem each country has it own problem and I think that each country should focus in their problems. above all, lately in the last 2 years government is putting an extra effort in this with is perceptible from the whole Saudi’s citizens and shocking i the same time because no one expect that enormous change in that short time.

Bibliography:

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