Saudi women and political science

Recently, the Ministry of Higher Education had finally agreed on the development of a political science department for women who want to study politics in Saudi universities, and King Saud University in Riyadh, will be the first university that is preparing to open its doors to welcome female students who wish to specialize in political science from the beginning of next year, for the first time in Saudi Arabia’s history. The importance of this step is that we are witnessing the era of new political rights for Saudi women, as they prepare to enter the Shoura Council. They shall soon have full rights of membership, preparing to participate in nominations and to vote in municipal elections during the next session. This is thanks to the royal decree by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah (may Allah protect him) during the last inaugural session of the Consultative Shoura Council meeting.
There are now opportunities for Saudi women to represent the Saudi Government at an international level and to participate in the work of international organizations and work in the diplomatic corps for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The ministry had also provided training to a group of hopefuls for the ‘Second Secretary’ job competition, the first available diplomatic job for women in the Kingdom.
All these factors have created an urgent need to train women in the political sphere through the opening of political science departments at Saudi universities.
Dr. Saleh Al-Khathlan, dean of the Faculty of Law and Political Science at King Saud University, made a statement expressing his support, saying that females should be allowed to hold degrees in law and politics, despite the inability to get diplomatic posts because they are currently available to men only.
I disagree with him, because Saudi women have previously proven themselves in political arenas at the level of international organizations, such as Dr. Thoraya Obaid, who was executive director of UNFPA that operated for three decades, under the UN and many other distinguished ladies in similar fields.
Thus we eagerly anticipate that the opening of political science departments at Saudi universities for it would contribute to paving the path for far more Saudi women to be involved in the field of local and national politics.
— Mira Al-Kaabi is a Saudi opinion writer for Alsharq newspaper