Saudi Arabia still has a conservative society, where women are bound by tradition in their lifestyle. They are covered in hijab, and cannot breath freely under the thick veil of black. In such a scenario, the fashion industry there tried a new gimmick.
At a fashion show in Jiddah, the dresses were flown in by drones. However the replacement of actual women with flying robots prompted widespread mockery. Some have compared the show to a ‘ghost show’, as the billowing dresses seemed spooky.
Image Credit: covetedition
Traditionally, Saudi Arabia has set restrictions on the types of clothes women can wear. The country legally requires women to cover themselves while in public by wearing an abaya, a loose-fitting cloak. Many Saudi women are also expected to wear some kind of hijab or head covering, and some opt to cover their face with a niqab. These expectations are more relaxed in Jiddah, a relatively liberal city.
After years of repression, Saudi women finally gained the right to drive after Saudi Arabia’s King Salman issued a royal decree last September. Some women have already received their licenses but won’t be able to drive until June 24. And in April, Saudi Arabia hosted its first-ever Arab Fashion Week in the capital city, Riyadh.
Although women may be beginning to get driver’s licenses, women activists are still jailed under the cause of spreading instability. And Saudi women are still forced to seek the approval of a male relative to carry out basic acts like getting a passport, traveling outside the country, and getting married. Even at the Fashion week held in Riyadh, only women were allowed. Male designers were not even allowed backstage.
Despite the halting and slow reform in gender equality, the discrimination is so entrenched that Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been hailed as a hero in the Western press and lauded for bringing about change in the conservative country.
Replacing women with drones is just one symptom of the parochial gender attitudes in the country, and how far the women will have to fight to get what is their due. While western societies may speak of #MeToo, women in Saudi Arabia are not even allowed the freedom to live a life they choose.
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