JEDDAH: Despite women’s strong presence in the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI), the second day at the Jeddah Economic Forum (JEF) did not attract a large number of women. The forum is back this year with a more informative agenda, calling itself once again as an annual event that draws the world’s top economists and government leaders. However, women delegates are disappointed that only one of the 35 people scheduled to speak is a woman — the Swedish trade minister, Ewa Helena Bjrling.
Barbara Schumacher, a German journalist who came to JEF for the third time for media coverage, said she was disappointed by the lack of women’s participation and attendance. “I was really shocked when I read the program and found there was only one woman speaker. The program two years ago was more interesting because a number of Saudi women were among the speakers,” she said.
“I have heard that Saudi businesswomen are complaining about the absence of women at the JEF this year. I honestly believe it’s a step backward.”
Albina Iskhakova, president of DV-News News Agency in Russia, is participating in JEF for the first time. Of course, she believes it is different from European forums she attends but she finds it interesting. “It is weird seeing that men and women are separated. However, I would have preferred if there were some Saudi women speakers. Also, the women’s section should be allowed the same number of questions as the men’s section,” she said.
JEF has moved from being a glamorous event to an informative one, according to Lama Al-Suleiman, deputy chairman of the board of directors of the JCCI. “Unfortunately, we have noticed that women here love high-profile events,” she said commenting on the low number of women delegates.
“This year’s forum has been a transition between the old board and the new board; we were not really supervising the arrangement of where women would be seated or the separate entrances for men and women,” she added.
She also believes that the women who attended the opening on Saturday were expecting more and they found that two economists talking about some very dry economic subjects. “In my opinion, I believe they were not interested in the subjects of the forum,” she said.
Commenting on not having women speakers, Al-Suleiman said that they had pushed so long to put Saudi women speakers into the JEF because they had a message to send. “Today JCCI does not need to prove anything about gender, JCCI is equally divided between men and women,” she said.
“We don’t need to prove it’s a gender issue like other parts of the Kingdom. The Gulf Research Center created panels for information, not for the gender issue. We don’t need to put a woman in an abaya to prove that women can participate,” she added.
