- 17 Nov 2021
Perfect Imperfection: Socio-cultural and Religious Reforms in Saudi Arabia
(This event is organised by MEI Diffusion of Ideas-Gulf research cluster.)
Abstract
Five years since then-Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) unveiled Vision 2030, reforms continue to be rolled out in Saudi Arabia. Early this year, for example, it announced new judicial reforms that set it on a course towards codified law – a major step for a country whose legal system is based on Islamic law. While such reforms are aimed at boosting the liberalisation drive by softening the nation’s austere image, jarring contradictions remain. Women’s rights, for instance, remain a target of criticism – a recent article in The Washington Post revealed clandestine shelters that incarcerate “disobedient” women. This raises several questions: Is social change for real? What is the price of change?
Social change is but one aspect of MBS’ vision. Religion is another target. The crown prince has said that Wahhabism is akin to “deifying human beings”. This follows his championing of “moderate Islam” reining in the clerical class and resetting the role of religion in the state. How successful has this religious re-orientation been? What are the implications for Riyadh’s role as the gatekeeper of the global Muslim community?
MEI-NUS will host two prominent experts to tackle the above questions and more.
This public talk will be conducted online via Zoom on Wednesday, 17 November 2021, from 5.00 pm to 6.30 pm (SGT) / 10.00 am–11.30 am (Paris time). All are welcome to participate. This event is free, however, registration is compulsory. Successful registrants will receive a confirmation email with the Zoom details closer to the date of the event.
Image caption: Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman attending the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan. Photo: Palácio do Planalto / Flickr
Listen to the full event here:
Watch the full event here:
About the Speakers
Associate Professor of Political Science,
Sciences Po Paris
Dr Yasmine Farouk
Non-Resident Scholar,
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
[Moderator]
Dr Clemens Chay
Research Fellow, MEI-NUS
Dr Stéphane Lacroix is an Associate Professor of political science at Sciences Po Paris and a researcher at Sciences Po’s Centre de Recherches Internationales (CERI). His work deals with religion and politics, with a focus on the Gulf states and Egypt. He is the author of Awakening Islam: The Politics of Religious Dissent in Contemporary Saudi Arabia (Harvard University Press, 2011), Saudi Arabia in Transition: Insights on Social, Political, Economic and Religious Change (Cambridge University Press, 2015, co-authored with Bernard Haykel and Thomas Hegghammer), Egypt’s Revolutions: Politics, Religion, Social Movements (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, written with Bernard Rougier) and Revisiting the Arab Uprisings: The Politics of a Revolutionary Moment (Oxford University Press, 2018, with Jean-Pierre Filiu).
Dr Yasmine Farouk is a Non-resident Fellow in the Middle East Programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Previously, she was a Fulbright fellow at Yale University during her postdoctoral studies. Her previous research and publications cover Egyptian and KSA foreign policies, international relations in the Arab world and social participation in policy and constitution making. Prior to joining Carnegie, Dr Farouk was based in Egypt where she taught political science. She previously worked at the office of the Egyptian prime minister after the 2011 revolution supporting civil society participation in the national dialogue and constitution-making processes.
From 2016 to 2017, she was the director of research at Cairo International Center for Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding (CCCPA), a think-tank and training center affiliated with the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Yasmine was a fellow of the French Ministry of Defence, Stanford University, the American University in Cairo (AUC Forum) and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She was also a consultant for the United Nations Development Programme, working on the Arab Human Development report. She completed her PhD at Sciences Po Paris, France.
[Moderator) Dr Clemens Chay is a Research Fellow at MEI-NUS. and heads the Diffusion of Ideas-Gulf research cluster at the institute. His research focuses on the history and politics of the Gulf states, with a particular emphasis on Kuwait, Oman and Saudi Arabia. Prior to joining MEI, he was the Al-Sabah fellow at Durham University, where he taught and completed his PhD.
His most recent academic publications include a chapter that examines Kuwait’s parliamentary politics in The Routledge Handbook of Persian Gulf Politics (2020) and another article appearing in the Journal of Arabian Studies The Dīwāniyya Tradition in Modern Kuwait: An Interlinked Space and Practice. His commentaries are also featured across different outlets, including ISPI, KFCRIS and Cambridge MENAF. Dr Chay is currently working on a book project related to Kuwait’s diwaniyyas.
