RIYADH, 8 March 2004 — In a country where women are not allowed to drive, 25-year-old Hanadi Hindi hopes to become the first to fly a plane of the national carrier.
“My dream is to fly a plane of Saudi Arabian Airlines. If this doesn’t happen, I’m pretty sure a Saudi private company will hire me,” Hanadi told AFP by telephone from her home in the holy city of Makkah.
Hanadi is not quite ready to sit in the cockpit of a Saudi Arabian Airlines jumbo jet as yet.
At the moment, she only has a Private Pilot’s License (PPL), which does not allow her to fly for a job, although she can take to the skies “for fun,” as she put it.
But she says she is determined to go on to take a Commercial Pilot’s License and an Instrument Rating (CPL and IR) from the same school — the Mideast Aviation Academy in Jordan.
“I have become addicted to flying,” she confesses.
Her father, Zakaria Hindi, a retired civil servant, is currently arranging the financing of her costly pursuit. But judging from the fact that he was the driving force behind her flying ambitions, the chances are that money will not ground her.
“My father does not distinguish between boys and girls. He treats us in the same way,” said Hanadi, who has two brothers and four sisters.
“He himself had aspired to be a pilot, but could not realize his dream because of financial constraints. So he encouraged me to become a pilot myself, since I have always been inclined to study anything, and I felt I had to make his wish come true,” she said.
“Captain Hanadi,” as she is already called, says she can understand the thinking behind the ban on women’s driving in Saudi Arabia, but argues that flying is different.
“When a woman drives a car, everyone sees her and she might be exposed to unpleasant situations. But no one knows who’s in the cockpit,” she reasoned.
And she said she was perfectly comfortable wearing a headscarf under her pilot’s cap.
Hanadi said she had both her parents to thank for being the first Saudi female pilot, as they were standing by her every step of the way, but was also receiving invaluable support from prominent lawyer and rights activist Mohammad Saeed Tayyeb, who was “opening doors” for her.
Saudi Arabian Airlines has not approached Hanadi, but a private Saudi firm has, she said.
“I want to serve my country by becoming a Saudi Arabian Airlines pilot. If they don’t take me, then I will go for a private company.”
Did she think the national carrier would hire a woman?
“I don’t know. But I’m optimistic.”
Hanadi said the fact that she had been acknowledged as the first Saudi woman pilot by the Air Force’s Saqr Al-Jazira Aviation Museum in Riyadh, where her picture is on display, amounted to “semi-official recognition” by the government.
She said she had also received support from the cultural attaché at the Saudi Embassy in Amman when she went to enroll at the Jordanian academy in September 2002, although he did not have to look after her, as she was a private student.
Zakaria Hindi recalled it all began when he was sitting by the seafront with his daughter as a plane buzzed overhead and she asked him what he was thinking about.
“That I wish I were a pilot,” he replied.
