Last week Sheikh Ahmed al-Ghamdi, head of the religious police in Mecca, gave an extraordinary interview to the Saudi newspaper, Okaz. In fact, it was so extraordinary that I decided not to write about it at the time, imagining the sheikh’s remarks must have been misquoted or at least taken out of context. But it seems now that the report was correct.

Ghamdi began by praising the newly-opened King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Kaust) – a personal initiative of the king – where, controversially for Saudi Arabia, mixing of the sexes is allowed.

But he then went on to say that the concept of ikhtilat (gender mixing) and its prohibition “is a recent adoption that was unknown to the early people of knowledge ... Mixing was part of normal life for the ummah and its societies.”

He added: “Those who prohibit the mixing of the genders actually live it in their real lives … In many Muslim houses – even those of Muslims who say mixing is haram – you can find female servants working around unrelated males.”

Coming from one of the leading figures in the organisation responsible for enforcing gender segregation in Saudi Arabia, this was truly astonishing.

Ghamdi went on to cite various ahadeeth in support his position. “Those who prohibit ikhtilat cling to weak ahadeeth, while the correct ahadeeth prove that mixing is permissible, contrary to what they claim,” he said.

An English-language version of the interview was reported in the Saudi Gazette which also two cited non-Saudi scholars, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, head of the International Union for Muslim Scholars, and Ali al-Jum’ah, the Grand Mufti of Egypt, who hold a similar view:

“Islam does not forbid the mixing of the sexes as long as it is conducted according to Shariah,” it quoted Qaradawi as saying, and continued:

According to Grand Mufti al-Jum’ah, there is “no harm in coeducation between male and female students within Shariah rules and within a learning environment …

“Explaining a hadith from al-Bukhari, Ibn Al-Battal said: ‘Separation of women from men in terms of place or in direct dealings is not obligatory for the women of the believers, but only applies to the wives of the Prophet (peace be upon him)’,” al-Jum’ah said.

“It is also permissible for a man to speak to an unrelated woman to ask her of issues if they are of public benefit,” he said.

The practice of gender segregation in Saudi Arabia appears to have been influenced by Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, a prominent 14th-century scholar whose work is admired by Wahhabis,according to The National. The paper quotes Jawziyya’s book,Al-Turuq al-Hukmiyyah: 

“There is no doubt that enabling women to mix freely [ikhtilat] with men is the root of every calamity and evil. Free mixing between men and women is also the reason for increase in immorality and illegal sexual intercourse.

“Had the rulers known what corruption it causes in worldly affairs and the society, before the hereafter, they would have been the strictest in stopping it.”

Intentionally or not, the establishment of KAUST as an un-segregated university is beginning to look like a very smart move by the king which might in the end justify the billions of dollars spent on the project. It has provoked an unprecedented debate about gender mixing within the kingdom.

The response to Ghamdi’s remarks has been overwhelmingly positive, according to the Saudi-owned news channel, al-Arabiya. It praised him for showing “the necessary daring” and said that until recently “no one would have been expected to discuss such sensitive and thorny topics the way al-Ghamdi did”.

Ghamdi has also been supported by the Saudi justice minister who suggested that supporters of strict segregation are failing to distinguish properly between permissible ikhtilat (mixing in public with modesty and chasteness) and forbidden khulwa (orkhalwa) which according to some definitions means people of the opposite sex being secluded together in “a place of privacy which is not usually accessible to others”.

The implications of this debate for Saudi society are enormous. Depending on the outcome, it could mean the end of gender segregation in education and workplaces, and much else besides.

Inevitably, though, there is also resistance and rumours are circulating that conservative elements in the religious police have either removed Ghamdi from his post or are trying to do so.

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 17 December 2009.