EARLIER this year Bank Negara Malaysia, the central bank, approved the appointment of two women chief executive officers of local Islamic banks. Jamelah Jamaluddin was appointed CEO of RHB Islamic Bank and Fozia Amanulla the CEO of EONCAP Islamic Bank — making them the only two female CEOs of Islamic banks anywhere in the world. Women bankers are curious to know why this phenomenon should not be more widespread in the Muslim world, especially in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. In Saudi Arabia, for instance, such appointments would be highly unlikely, unless there is a change in the laws regarding gender segregation, equality and empowerment, and in the mindset of the male-dominated establishment and of Saudi men in general.
Of course, women reaching the top in Malaysian banking, is not confined to the Islamic finance sector. There are several women running Malaysian banks including Yvonne Chia, who is the group managing director and chief executive of Hong Leong Bank, a well-established Chinese-owned universal banking group. Hong Leong Bank Group in fact owns the dedicated stand-alone Hong Leong Islamic Bank and Hong Leong Tokio Marine Takaful Berhad, an Islamic insurance company set up in a joint venture with Japan’s Tokio Marine and Fire Insurance Company.
The nearest a Saudi woman got to the highest position in the banking sector is Dr. Nahed Taher, CEO of Gulf One Bank in Bahrain. Before being appointed to this position, Dr. Taher was chief economist of the National Commercial Bank (NCB) in Saudi Arabia and then in charge of overseeing the ‘Islamization’ of NCB’s entire retail and consumer finance division and business. Under ‘normal’ market circumstances, Dr. Taher could easily have headed any one of the top Saudi banking institutions.
The question which the Saudi government, and the business and socio-cultural establishment should ask themselves, is ‘Why is it possible for the likes of Dr. Taher to be appointed to run banks in Bahrain and others in countries such as Malaysia, and not in the Kingdom?
The usual responses are becoming as tedious as they are stereotypical — Saudi Arabia is a gender segregated country; it is an ultra-conservative country; it is a male-dominated country; it is a country based on Islamic values; etc. Such views do a disservice both to aspiring Saudi women bankers and entrepreneurs and to their counterparts abroad.
Concomitant with the social and economic reforms pursued by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, the lot of Saudi women is changing, but the pace of reform as in other areas of Saudi activity, can be frustratingly slow and fraught with anomalies and chauvinism.
In the Islamic finance sector, Sheikha S. Al-Sudairy, for instance is a manager at HSBC Amanah, the Islamic finance department of HSBC Bank in Riyadh. She is part of a team of professionals that built HSBC’s investment banking franchise in Saudi Arabia, where the focus is on high-profile, high-value clients in both the public and private sectors.
Since joining HSBC in 2004, the UK-educated Sheikha S. Al-Sudairy has worked on a number of landmark transactions such as the first wholly Islamic project finance structure; the first Sukuk approved by a Saudi Shariah Committee; and the first Islamic tranche in a project financing in Saudi Arabia. HSBC of course lead managed the SABIC-I and SABIC-II Sukuk and the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) Sukuk — all of which pioneered innovative new asset classes, such as pools of petrochemical marketing contracts and electricity meters and the tariffs due on them, which were securitized.
Another top Saudi women in financial services is Samra Al-Kuawaiz, managing director of the women’s division of Osool Brokerage Company. Indeed there are several Saudi women now entering the financial services sector, especially in Islamic finance, which should be a natural sector for gender empowerment as Malaysia is proving.
Women have been actively involved in trade, financial and investment matters throughout Islamic history. In fact, Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) worked for a businesswoman Khadijah who subsequently became his wife.
While the involvement of women in senior positions in Islamic finance is increasing in Southeast Asia, the situation elsewhere in the GCC countries, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and Egypt is much less encouraging. In the GCC states, for instance, forced or cultural gender segregation policies have put many aspiring women bankers at a massive disadvantage. Experienced women bankers, who very often outperform their male counterparts, are privately exasperated that their career chances are governed by the socio-cultural norms imposed by men. They are not satisfied with heading marginalized women-only departments at banks; or women-only financial institutions. They want to be acknowledged as leaders in their fields in the mainstream Islamic or conventional financial services sectors, irrespective of gender or other barriers to entry.
If women are increasingly required to contribute their part to GDP in GCC and Middle Eastern economies, as the governments seem to suggest, many of them argue that they need to operate in a level playing field with access to equal opportunities in order to realize their full potential and contribution. The fact that there are several notable GCC women who run companies and the odd financial institution are exceptions rather than the norm. They are extraordinary and highly capable women whose families usually educated them abroad and had no hesitation for them to join and to run the family businesses.
Ask Saudi businesswomen such as Nadia Al-Dossary, CEO of Al-Sale Eastern Company Limited and Jawahara Al-Angari, vice-chairman for the National Society for Human Rights. Al-Dossary contends that the government must take the lead in gender equality and empowerment. The private sector cannot be expected to drive this change. Al-Angari at a recent lecture on ‘Rights of Women in Islam’ at the KBK Center at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce & Industry (JCCI), on the other hand has urged Saudi women to be more active in promoting change and to be better informed about their rights under Saudi law and under the Shariah.