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“We are as varied as our families are varied,” said Dr. Thoraya Ahmed, executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to the Saudi Gazette in a March interview. “One goal I hope to achieve through my position is to show that Islam is a very progressive force. Islam is a force that can bring progress to society. Islam is pro-women and we have to show how it is pro-women. I think that the West has not seen the real Saudi Arabia and maybe part of our responsibility is to open up and show that Saudi Arabian women have made a great deal of progress.”
As an Indian born and bred in Saudi Arabia, I have met Saudi women who are intelligent, dynamic, highly ambitious, open minded and extremely proud of their heritage. At the recent conference held at the KACST (King Abdullah City for Science and Technology) organised by members of the Physics Society, I had met many highly educated Saudi women who were physicists in research and academia. Lubna Olayan, a Saudi business woman was named one of the top 100 most influential people of 2005 by Time magazine. At the Jeddah Economic Forum in 2004, she was the first woman to give the keynote address at a mixed-gender conference in Saudi Arabia and delivered a speech reminiscent of Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream”. In December 2004, Olayan was elected to the board of Saudi Hollandi Bank, making her the first woman to join Saudi-listed Company’s board. Another move in favour of women in Saudi Arabia is Saudi business women are now allowed to run their own businesses without a male agent. This nullifies the decree made in 2004 by the Ministry of Commerce and Trade prohibiting women from setting up a business without a male agent. According to the 2004 decree, a Saudi woman could only own and operate a business if it catered solely to women. If, however, the business was aimed at both men and women, she could own the business, but needed to hire a Saudi male to manage the business.In March 2009, a Saudi business woman Alia Banaja, who, together with her sister, owns and manages an IT company in Jedda in Western Saudi Arabia, started a campaign that picked speed by closing down her local business in order to lobby the ministry. In addition to the campaign, the Khadija Bint Khuweilid Center for Businesswomen distributed a leaflet which aimed at educating women on how to deal with the authority given to the male agent as reported by the Arab News. A new TV show involving discussions on issues concerning teenage girls and female university students was recently telecast with female Saudi presenters dressed in black from head to toe.The show, 'Asrar Al-Banat' (The Secrets of Girls) ,is shown on Awtan TV, a Saudi religious channel that was first aired in August 2008 and has women broadcasters who are permanently covered in the abaya and the hijab.There are over 60 religious satellite channels telecast in the Middle East via Arabsat and Nilesat networks. Channels such as Iqraa and Al-Resalah have women presenters who do not cover their faces and dress in different colors, not necessarily black while channels such as Al-Majd have no women presenters. Awtan Tv is the one that has a bit of both by allowing women to appear but only when covered from head to toe. All these are just some of the changes taking place at a rapid pace in the status and role of women in the Saudi society and its workforce. There is a lot that needs to be still done - the biggest one being lobbied is the right for women to drive in the Kingdom. We hope that it's just a matter of time when that goes through! |
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