By Alhanouf Aldouqi

JEDDAH — Adwa Al-Arifi, Mishaal Ashemimry, Dalal Al-Harthy, and Sarah Taibah are paving the way for more women to pursue careers in unique areas.

Women in Sports

Adwa Al-Arifi

Distinguished for her inspiring efforts in developing the sports sector, Adwa Abdul Rahman Al-Arifi is a deputy minister in the Ministry of Sports for Planning and Development.

Al-Arifi is a well-known figure in the development of women's sports in the Kingdom, with vast expertise in community sports. She had a passion for football from a young age when she used to watch the matches enthusiastically.

Al-Arifi earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from Al-Yamamah University in Riyadh in 2011. As an undergraduate in 2007, she helped form the first Saudi football club for girls, which she dubbed "Al Yamamah Women's Club," making her the first Saudi woman to be permitted to lead women's football in the Kingdom.

Al-Arifi then joined the Saudi Football Association. She worked as a member of the Saudi Football Federation's Committee for Social Responsibility and Public Participation, and she became the first woman to chair a committee in the federation after being named head of the "Social Responsibility Committee" in the Saudi Football Association.

Al-Arifi said on Twitter after winning the Women in Sports Award for the year 2020, “To all my female colleagues in the sports sector, including administrative and technical staff, and players. This award is for all of you. Your efforts were great in spreading and developing women’s sports during this year. We still have more to offer to this country.”

Al-Arifi was also named the General Sports Authority's Director of Investments and an advisor to the same body. She has been a member of the Saudi Arabian Olympic Committee's Board of Directors since December 2019 and of the Riyadh Chamber's Sports Committee since January 2018.

Women in Space

Mishaal Ashemimry

Eng. Mishaal Ashemimry is the first female aerospace engineer in the whole GCC region. She is also an entrepreneur and commercial pilot.

According to her YouTube channel, Ashemimry decided to pursue this path when she was just six years old. One night her mother took Ashemimry to the desert in Unayzah. She looked to the sky and was captivated by the large number of stars up above.

“I was mesmerized by the view,” Ashemimry said while explaining her decision on embracing this career path. “I wanted to understand how they’re up there, what are they made of, why do some flicker and others don’t, and why some have different colors than others.”

She added: “I had all these questions, but I never got a satisfying answer. From there on I understood that the only way I can understand space is to go there. And in order to go there, I need to have a rocket. Therefore, I must be an aerospace engineer or a rocket scientist.”

Ashemimry works as a consultant for one of the USA's leading space and defense companies. She attended the Florida Institute of Technology and graduated with a BA in applied mathematics and an MA in aerospace engineering. Her study on thermal rockets was supported by NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, and she constructed a rocket capable of transporting humans to Mars.

She worked for Raytheon Missile Systems and then started her own rocket company at the age of 26: Mishaal Aerospace, which focuses on launching small satellites to low earth orbit.

Ashemimry’s ultimate ambition is to become an astronaut, but she recognizes the significance of gaining a broad range of experience before achieving that objective. "It can't just be a single certification or license," she commented.

And, Ashemimry emphasizes hope in her advice to others. "No matter how difficult things become, one must remain positive and hopeful," she stressed.

“If you have a huge goal to achieve, it will be really difficult. You must be resilient and determined in order to stay focused on your objective and achieve it.”

Women in Cybersecurity

Dalal Al-Harthy

Dalal Al-Harthy is a professor at Shaqra University and a Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science at the University of California, Irvine. She has more than 11 years of experience in academia and industry, focusing on cybersecurity, specifically cloud computing security, where she spent more than a year working for a major financial company in Los Angeles.

In 2020, she was able to train 500 Saudi girls on cybersecurity as part of a national and voluntary initiative.

In an interview with Al-Arabiya.net, Al-Harthy said: “I wanted to contribute to increasing the number of women in an important and qualitative field, such as cybersecurity."

She added: "By the end of 2019, the percentage of women working in the field of cybersecurity did not exceed 20%. We need to raise this to 50% to maintain the required balance and to empower women in this vital field.”

To that, she stressed: "This initiative sends a message to empower and support women in all fields, specifically in the field of cybersecurity, through learning all its aspects and practical application of its various tools. About 20% of the training content was theoretical background and 80% practical application to give the trainees the basic idea on the nature of work in each field of cybersecurity, as well as preparing to pass exams and job interviews and enriching the resumes of female students with qualitative skills to compete for jobs.

She also stated: "This initiative covers at least 60% of the topics covered for the CompTIA Security+ certification. The goal is to prepare and encourage female students to pass this certificate, participate in the dissemination of knowledge and enrich the Arabic content in the field of cybersecurity, and create job opportunities for female graduates in this field."

Women in Film

Sarah Taibah

Recognized by versatile skills and her ability to combine varied interests such as sketching, scripting, composing music, and high-level acting, Sarah Taibah was born and brewed in Jeddah until earning a master's degree in free illustration and printmaking from San Francisco's Academy of Arts.

Taibah had a fascination for the activities behind the camera and pursued scriptwriting. She created, wrote, and acted as the main lead in the TV show Jameel Jedan, which streamed on Shahid last February.

In an interview with Sayidaty, Taiba discussed her writing: “I've always loved telling and collecting stories. I am fond of keeping written secrets and memories, and I appreciate writing feelings and daily diaries from the emotional side, but in practice, I believe that we need more Saudi female voices that tell our stories in all its dimensions, as there is no one who tells women’s stories better than the woman herself.”

“I am excited to represent characters that touch the reality of our lives as women. The presence of an important issue is not the first thing I look for in a character, but I look for the story of the film in general, and how much I enjoy the creative process in it, even if it is short and simple, as I am interested in representing unembellished characters, easy to communicate with,” Taibah told Sayidaty explaining her vision of the characters.

Regarding the current state of the film industry in the Kingdom, Taibah commented, “Saudi women are present and have an important place today in the Saudi film industry because of its many dimensions and multiple layers. I am convinced that the Saudi woman is capable of conveying the reality of her life and raising her issues. No one outside Saudi Arabia can do that because the stories that take place behind our doors are known only to us, and we have the right to tell them, and I believe this is our time and the time for our stories.”

When it comes to giving advice to newcomers, Taibah urges young people to put fear aside and keep persisting in the face of hardships, no matter how impossible it seems.