The gender agenda in Saudi Arabia and Iran: factors for an international socialization

Abstract

With the arrival of the heir to the Saudi throne, Muhammad Bin Salman (MBS), Saudi Arabia has proceeded to develop a set of gender policies based on international socialization process which are closely related to an intensification of a diplomatic activity. As a part of this process, it has developed a derision policy of its regional enemy, Iran, seeking to legitimate itself as Middle East leader under the label of “reformist monarch” on an international scale.

The present article seeks to analyse the explanatory factors of gender mainstreaming within the political agendas of Saudi Arabia and Iran from both a local and an international perspective. To understand the acquisition of these policies, this investigation focuses on the internationalization of the gender agenda and on the demands of the social movements in both states. On this basis, two different models have emerged: the Saudi model which is based on the appropriation of the activists’ discourse and its silencing; and the Iranian model which is more modest at local and international scale, but it is directly related to the demands of the social struggles by means of an operational integration with each one of them in the power dynamics.

 To do so, in the first place, it will be explored the trajectories of the gender policies of these Member States; secondly, this will be followed by the study of the regional rivalry between  the two states under the construction of polarized identities; and, finally, it will be analysed the incorporation of gender policies as a legitimation model of regional leadership.