RIYADH/JEDDAH, 26 December 2005 — Nadia Bakhurji is the lone woman candidate along with 72 men who are contesting the first-ever elections for 10 seats to the Board of the Council of Saudi Engineers.
Speaking to Arab News by phone, Nadia said she had a four-point agenda: Help female engineers professionally; seek job opportunities for women through training programs; help them overcome obstacles in the field; and promote the council’s agenda.
Another of her priorities is to help the council get better representation at professional platforms. She would also like to promote interaction between the council and other professional bodies, including planners, ministries and public sector organizations.
“I would like to safeguard the profession against unqualified people making forays into it and undercutting the market,” said Nadia, who is an architect by profession.
According to her, there is a relatively large number of Saudi women engineers working in the Kingdom. The problem, as she sees it, is their failure to organize themselves under the umbrella of the council.
“If, Inshallah, I get elected to the council, one of my top priorities would be to encourage female engineers to enroll themselves as members, so that we could work for their professional advancement,” said Nadia.
Asked about the obstacles facing female engineers, she said one of them was the difficulty in getting licenses and accreditation.
“Finding job opportunities is a difficult task, since they are limited. The problem is further compounded by gender discrimination that prevents women from entering a profession that is regarded as a male bastion,” she said.
Despite these obstacles, Nadia said the employment market for women was set to expand. A lot of women clients do not feel comfortable dealing with men. They prefer to deal with female engineers, architects and designers.
“Ridding the market of unqualified males would create more space for women in terms of job opportunities,” she said.
Asked how she rates her chances of success, Nadia said they were average to high. “I am optimistic about my prospects,” she observed.
Some engineers, both men and women, have expressed concern that the Council of Saudi Engineers is not as effective as it could or should be.
Mazen Khalifah, an official at the National Commercial Bank in Jeddah, said there is a clear lack of communication among engineers in the Kingdom.
“We as engineers were not informed about the importance of joining the council,” said Khalifah.
The media, he said, only cover the elections, and never focus on the roles and benefits of joining the organization.
“Only now am I joining the council, and only after I read in the newspapers that it is compulsory for engineers working in the private sector,” said Khalifah, who is a member of the Saudi Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering (SSISE).
“As a member of this society I am frustrated because of their concern in managerial organization instead of holding events and forming regulations ... I hope that I don’t find this happening with the Council of Saudi Engineers,” he said.
Areej Ghandour, architect and interior designer in Jeddah, said there should be clear standards and qualification tests for all engineers.
“We have many non-qualified people working in this field, only because there is no specialized firm to monitor them,” she said.
She added that these committees should implement more quality control instead of wasting time only in elections and managerial setups.
“I was never invited or even knew about the roles of this committee,” she said, adding that it is important to form efficient communication systems between engineers so that they would be aware of such important events.
“We still have a long way ahead of us,” she said. “We need a lot of organization to meet international engineering standards.”
