Sahwa Has Fallen: How Saudi Academics See the Ramifications of Sex Segregation

ABSTRACT Sex segregation is a socio-cultural norm associated with symbolic, rhetorical, and institutional power in Saudi Arabia. It was established by the extremist discourses prevalent in the Kingdom from the 1970s to 2010s. This study argues that the public pedagogy of patriarchal sex-segregated society transforms into a biased form of identity, referred to as ‘sexagogy’ in this study. While individuals in a sex-segregated society are born, raised, and publicly ‘pedagogized’ to fear the opposite sex, some individuals have been exposed to educational and technological opportunities, whereby they can interact freely with each other and cross boundaries intended to segregate the sexes. This study investigates how members of Saudi academia relate to gender segregation and how the Sahwa—an extreme religious discourse preventing Saudi women from any natural interaction and socialization—has faded amidst the recent changes in the Saudi Kingdom’s vision. The researcher used qualitative methodology and snowball sampling, interviewing 72 Saudi academics who have lived through the Sahwa period and witnessed the recent changes in the Kingdom. The interviews revealed that the power of the Sahwa discourse has been fading and that the younger generations’ thinking aligns with the recent reforms in Saudi Arabia.