Power and Gender in Saudi Hijazi Proverbs: An Ideological-Cultural Study

Abstract

Proverbs generally reflect a nation’s social values, norms and attitudes. Several studies have looked into the representation of women in proverbs. However, such research on women’s portrayal in Arabic proverbs is scarce. The aim of this research is to explore the representations of women in Hijazi proverbs in Saudi Arabia. Twenty-five proverbs portraying women were selected from several authentic books of Hijazi using the Feminist critical discourse analysis approach. On one hand, the findings showed women were represented negatively as lacking intellectual maturity, failures, incapable of carrying out their tasks, bad-decision makers, inclined to bias, and the source of temptation for men. On the other hand, women were praised in a number of proverbs that confine them to particular restricted gender roles, such as mothers, wives and daughters. We argue that some of the Hijazi proverbs on women may represent negative images of women and that should not be encouraged, or perhaps that would be advisable not to encourage their use in Hijazi society or to refrain from using them when communicating with women.