JEDDAH, 20 March 2007 — Princess Adelah bint Abdullah ibn Abdul Aziz and Lubna Al-Olayan expressed their concerns and worries at the first session of the Khadija bint Khuwailid Forum yesterday. Both stressed that without utilizing 100 percent of Saudi society’s talents and abilities, the country would never develop, compete internationally or witness any real national economic growth.
“The situation has resulted in more than SR60 billion leaving the Kingdom because of expatriates being employed,” said Al-Olayan. “I believe that we could save a third of this amount by increasing employment opportunities for women and then reinvesting the money to benefit our society.”
Princess Adelah estimated the Kingdom’s current work force to number 11.5 million and anticipated that the figure would rise to 21 million in 2020. “Women’s unemployment is estimated at between 25 and 28 percent,” she said. “We have to open the door for women in the fields of energy and transportation. Women have to be included in the decision-making process.”
Al-Olayan identified five major points which are vital to the success of businesswomen. They are: providing the education that is really needed; providing opportunities for training women equal to those available for men in banks and companies such as ARAMCO and SABIC; encouraging women to take the initiative and then rewarding them; ensuring continuous support and encouragement by family members and colleagues; having the same rights and benefits men have — equal legal rights, easy transportation, the freedom to reach official institutions and the freedom to benefit from the legal system and the law.
“We don’t live in this world alone. We don’t want to and we can’t live isolated from everyone else,” said Al-Olayan. “Even though we’re stepping forward, many countries who were once behind us are ahead of us now. It’s time that we stopped talking and started working to educate and train our Saudi sisters and daughters while preserving our Islamic identity.” The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report measures the size of the gender gap in four critical areas of inequality between men and women: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, political empowerment and health and survival. According to the 2006 report, Saudi Arabia ranked last in a group of 115 countries in terms of economic participation and opportunity and political empowerment.
Souad Al-Hakeem, professor of philosophy in the Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences at Lebanon University, tackled the problem of Muslim women being an international model. Her theme boiled down to one point: Islamic laws and Shariah do not stand in the way or hinder the process of advancement for women but traditions and customs do.
“We have to stop accusing Islam of holding women back and saying that it is blocking the way for achieving an international role-model,” said Al-Hakeem. “Women are partners of men in life and in destiny and the Muslim woman in particular is the man’s partner in everything.”
