They believe that employing more women will help reduce the unemployment rate in the Kingdom.

“I strongly support women to work. They will be an asset to our economy,” Khaled Al-Qithaimi, a 36-year-old Saudi, told Arab News. He has been married for six years.

“My wife has been working for five years. I fully support her, not so much as to grab her salary as some men do, but in order to enable her to prove herself and achieve her own ambitions,” he said.

Al-Qithaimi said Muslims should follow the pattern of their Prophet (peace be upon him), who allowed his wife Sayyida Khadija to work and never objected to that. “We are going through difficult economic conditions, which we need to improve more than anything else. Workingwomen can help in this by taking care of their own expenses without the need of financial help from others,” he said.

Ahmad Osman, a Saudi man of 60 years, was eager to educate his five daughters and two boys, so they could get jobs and be independent in their life. “I was keen especially about the education of my daughters, so as to arm them for the future. Men can work without sufficient education and do difficult jobs, but women have to be well educated in order to be employed,” he said.

Osman said though women had proved themselves to be capable of doing the same jobs as men, they might not have the same stamina and versatility as men. “I may not be able to build a house for each of my daughters during my life, so I provided them with good education,” Osman said.

Twenty-seven-year-old Saud Al-Khaldi is newly married and a staunch supporter of women working. “A working woman will have the opportunity to get in touch with all kinds of people, which will personally enrich her. She will also make money and be independent,” he said.

Al-Khaldi said an economically strong woman would not be a burden on her father, brothers or husband in these difficult times. Besides taking care of herself, she would also help her family economically, he explained.

A number of women speaking to Arab News were also in favor of women going out for work. They said a workingwoman is an asset to the national economy, to herself and her family.

Raniya Salim, who got married nine years ago, said she had been working for seven years now. “I was able to support my family and take it to the shores of safety when the stock market collapsed and my husband lost all his money,” she said.

Thanks to her job, her husband did not fall prey to debt traps, she continued. “I was able to send my children to private schools to ensure that they get a good education,” she said.

Nasreen Al-Idreesi, who is 25, said she was working before she graduated from university. “I got a job with a good salary at a private company. I was able to support my family and lift their living standards,” she said.

She hoped that the king’s decisions to provide more jobs for women would soon be implemented to cut down unemployment and improve the living conditions of Saudi families.