Saudi's case for women lawyers is paying off

Enormous amount of opportunities loom for Saudi Arabian women after decision to allow females to apply for licences to practise law.

When Asma graduated from high school almost a decade ago, there were no law schools for women in her home city of Riyadh or anywhere in Saudi Arabia, so she left to study in Europe. When she returned, the first law faculty for women, Jeddah's Dar Al-Hekma University, was just opening. But many law firms still were not employing women because female lawyers could not be officially licensed to practise.

"It seemed like I had certain unemployment ahead of me," she recalled. "I put in job applications, but many law firms saw hiring women as a liability."

Yet Asma - and a growing number of women like her - was too good of a job candidate to pass up. Now at a Riyadh-based legal company, her flawless English and experience abroad are assets. For several years now, she has been a Saudi lawyer in nearly every way but name.

All that looks set to change. Saudi Arabia last week announced that it would allow female lawyers to apply for licences and to argue cases in court. The Ministry of Justice directive will reportedly take effect later this month.

The switch, long advocated by both men and women in the legal profession, could open a slew of opportunities for women not just in the legal profession but across the workforce.

"This isn't trivial at all. Women have been poised to enter this profession," said a western legal consultant who works in Saudi Arabia but declined to be named because of client sensitivities. "Now, they're being given the tools to operate the system."

For now, the mood is still expectant. Asma, like several others interviewed for this story, declined to use her real name for fear that speaking about the changes before they take effect could compromise her career.

Saudi Arabia's legal code is based on Sharia, the law of the Quran, and also relies on a body of royal orders and past judgments. No Saudi law had ever directly stipulated that women should not be allowed to practise in court, but years of tradition and interpretation solidified their exclusion.

In 2007, a group of women working with Saudi Arabia's National Society for Human Rights published the first legal study arguing that female lawyers should have equal rights to practise law. They presented their findings to the government but they also took their campaign directly to the people.

"We were trying to send our voice through the media," recalls Hanouf Alhazzaa, a lawyer who worked on the study and is now a doctoral candidate at Harvard University.

A Facebook group named "I'm a Lawyer" was set up. Twitter hashtags followed. Women posted YouTube videos arguing that they were just as qualified as men to be lawyers.

Small cracks began to open in the system as the word spread.

Ms Alhazzaa received a call from the Jeddah municipality asking her to open a government legal office run and staffed by women. She leapt at the chance, but was disappointed to find that she was unable to provide official legal counsel to clients or even receive the same employment benefits as male counterparts since she was unlicensed.

Four years later, and both Ms Alhazzaa and Asma have been caught off guard by the sweeping changes.

"We thought if change did happen, there would be a lot of caveats and restrictions," said Asma. "My fear was that we would be limited to certain areas of practice, such as civil cases. But when the announcement came, it clearly pushed all these thoughts aside."

Instead, the new rules seem to place women on equal footing with men across all segments of legal practice, from arguing cases to meeting clients and filing legal documents with the government.

The opportunities for new women lawyers are enormous. Saudi Arabia has just 2,115 licensed lawyers - a remarkably small number for a country with a population of more than 26 million.

And many of the cases that come to trial involve women, who might feel more comfortable with a female lawyer, said Ms Alhazzaa.

"Now, there are a lot of men trying to make agreements with women lawyers to open firms, because they believe that a lot of the untapped market is cases for women," she said. "They know that the market will grow.

Perhaps the biggest effect of the licensing may come from the many, less visible roles that women lawyers can play, particularly their new ability to liaise with government ministries.

Hassan, a Riyadh-based lawyer and senior colleague of Asma, said that female lawyers may prove to be the gatekeepers to the female half of Saudi Arabia's economy by helping women entrepreneurs seek the permits and guidance they need to start and run businesses.

"In many ways, the restrictions on female lawyers have been a restriction to the economy itself," he said.

All of the restrictions may not fade overnight. Some lawyers express concern that the changes on paper will take time to trickle down into day-to-day operations.

Some male judges have in the past requested that women in the courtroom be accompanied by male guardians. It is not clear if they could make the same request of female lawyers.

Verifying identity is another challenge. Since many women's faces are covered in public, the court would need a method, such as fingerprinting, to ensure they are who they claim to be.

But an equal challenge stands before the new generation of Saudi women lawyers, said Ms Alhazzaa.

"There is a big question from the men around us. For a long time, they have said, 'Show us your qualifications. Show us that you can perform this job.'

"Now, we are happy we can do that."