Fatima Muhammad

Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH — Saudi women on Friday mourned the death of a leader who whole-heartedly supported their causes and opened opportunities for them to advance in education, employment and business.



Speaking to Saudi Gazette, they described the reign of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah as “the golden age for Saudi women”.



They considered King Abdullah an “affectionate father” who granted them several concessions and privileges, which included the right to their own distinct ID cards and abolishing the need for a legal representative to carry out commercial activities and official transactions on their behalf.



His eponymous foreign scholarship program helped some 30,000 female students to pursue higher education in different specializations in top institutions around the world. Many others enrolled in local private colleges and universities under other scholarship programs.



Saudi women were unanimous in their opinion that the doors of success were opened to them by King Abdullah during the last nine years.



In 2009, King Abdullah appointed the first female deputy minister in the Ministry of Education. In another brave decision, the King in 2011 decided to name women to the country’s consultative Shoura Council.



Over the past nine years several women were appointed to key positions in the government and public sectors. They became members of the boards of chambers of commerce and industry as well as heads of chamber committees.



Women with lesser skills were given the opportunity for the first time to work in the retail sector as cashiers and saleswomen. They also received support to start their own small businesses and were able to obtain real estate loans. They also won the right to sponsor their non-Saudi children, something that was not permitted previously.



Female students were no longer restricted to study specializations in education, humanities and medicine, but were given the freedom to choose from a variety of specializations and career options, including engineering and legal practice. They now have access to such specializations in newly launched university departments in the Kingdom.



Mona Al-Dosary, a Shoura Council member, said Saudi women were not just given the chance to sit in the council as observers, but were considered active members. She said they were given every right their male counterparts enjoyed.



“We have been making valid proposals and constructive comments that are appreciated by our male colleagues. Recently, a female member was named the deputy head of a committee.”



Professor Rouqaya Kashgari of King Abudulaziz University in Jeddah said the mentality of male domination many sectors changed during the King’s era.



“I was elected to be the first female head of a scientific society at King Abdulaziz University three years ago. The move to include women was not restricted to the Shoura Council alone but was applied in our sector as well,” she said.



Amal Al-Hamdi, a reporter at Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper, agreed that King Abdullah’s reign could be rightly called the “golden age for Saudi women.”

She said women were given the opportunity to participate more in the development of the country.



In addition to different leading positions they hold in the private sector, women now make their presence felt in the retail sector.



“Women are now present in the Shoura; we contested elections to the chambers of commerce and voted in municipal council elections. The decision to employ women in the private sector has paved the way for more than 300,000 females to become productive members of society,” Al-Hamdi said.



Madhawi Al-Hassoun, head of the beauty salons committee at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said Saudi women have lost their “protector.”



She noted that King Abdullah has put women on the spotlight and made them partners in the country’s development.



“We were given awards and provided with education and training. Huge budgets were allocated to educate women, employ them and increase awareness among the public about their important role in society,” Al-Hassoun said.



Enas Malaibari, an electronic and computer engineering student at Effat University, described the King as an “affectionate father” who granted scholarships to women to pursue education aboard and also locally for those who cannot travel. “This is an achievement that we will not forget. He is the father who believed in his daughters and believed that a woman’s place is not inside her home.”