10/01/2014
(CNN) -- Saudi Arabia is often touted as among the most conservative places in the world, with women forbidden even to drive.
But in terms of attitude
toward women's freedom of choice in clothing, it's significantly more
freethinking than some of its neighbors, a survey of seven
Muslim-majority countries suggests.
Nearly two out of three
people in Saudi Arabia believe women should keep everything but their
eyes covered when they are in a public place -- but at the same time,
nearly half say it is up to a woman to dress however she wants.
That puts it on a level with socially liberal Lebanon, and ranks it as far less conservative than Iraq, Pakistan or Egypt.
"Saudi Arabia is not as
conservative as it appears. Definitely on some level there is a
considerable liberal leaning," said Mansoor Moaddel, the lead author of
the study.
That could be partly a reaction to the conservative leadership, he said.
"Saudi has had a religious government for a long time. People tend to develop an oppositional attitude," he argued.
The findings come from a
report published by the Middle Eastern Values Study of the University of
Michigan's Population Studies Center.
It suggests Egypt is, in terms of gender relations, the most conservative country in the study by some distance.
Only 14% of Egyptians
believe women should be allowed to choose how they dress, the lowest
level in the survey. Egyptians are also the most likely to say that a
woman should be required to obey her husband -- only one Egyptian in 20
disagreed.
Moaddel does not link Egyptian conservatism to religion.
"Egyptians have become
more sexist in the past decade. They have become less religious, less
supportive of Sharia (Islamic law), but on the issue of gender, more
conservative," he said.
"The problem with Egypt
is not just religion, it is an intellectual trend. It is hard to say
what caused the Egyptians to become less supportive of gender equality,"
he said, but suggested it could be due to general social turmoil.
"When there is a high level of social insecurity, people tend to fall back on traditional values," he said.
His study is primarily
an investigation of social attitudes in Tunisia, which the report labels
the birthplace of the Arab Spring, toward a wide variety of subjects
including political engagement, national identity, secularism and
violence against Americans.
But it delves into
comparisons between Tunisia and six other countries: Saudia Arabia,
Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq and Pakistan.
In one of the survey's
most striking questions, researchers showed people pictures of women
with six different types of head covering, ranging from the full-body
burqa to no covering at all.
They asked people to say which was the most appropriate way for women to dress in public.
Across the seven
countries, the most popular answer was a tight-fitting white scarf that
completely covered the hair and ears but showed the entire face -- a
type of hijab.
Just over half of
Egyptians chose that option, as did well over half -- 57% -- in Tunisia,
and just under half in Iraq and Turkey.
But there were significant differences from country to country.
Lebanon was the most
liberal, with nearly half (49%) of respondents saying women should not
wear any head covering at all, and another 12% opting for a
loosely-fitting headscarf that showed some hair. At the same time, only
49% said it should be up to a woman to choose how she dresses.
Turkey, which for
decades banned women from wearing headscarves in public and is now in
the middle of a controversy over the subject, was arguably the next most
liberal country after Lebanon.
One in three (32%) said a
woman should not wear any head covering, while another 17% chose the
loose headscarf. Just over half (52%) of Turks said a woman should be
allowed to choose how she dresses.
Saudi Arabia was the
most conservative in terms of personal opinion, with about two out of
three people (63%) saying a woman should wear a niqab, covering the
entire head and face, showing only the eyes. Another 11% picked the full
burqa, showing nothing at all of a woman's head and including a mesh
over the face.
And yet Saudi Arabia
fell in the middle of the pack in terms of whether women should be
allowed to choose what they wear, with 47% supporting it.
Only Saudi Arabia had
more than token support for the burqa, with just 4% supporting it in
Iraq, 3% backing it in Pakistan, and numbers even lower in the other
countries.
Surveys were carried out
between January 2011 and June 2013 for the study, "The Birthplace of
the Arab Spring: Values and Perceptions of the Tunisian Public in a
Comparative Perspective."
The study was based on
interviews with 2,005 people in Saudi Arabia and at least 3,000 in each
of the other countries. The report, published in December, did not say
what the margins of error were.
The seven countries
include several but not all of the most populous countries in the
broader Middle East, from North Africa to South Asia.
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