ARAB NEWS: LONDON — Princess Adelah bint Abdullah, the daughter of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, should perhaps take a leaf from the copybook of Marina Mohamed and Nori Abdullah. Marina is the daughter of former Malaysian Premier Dr. Mahathir Mohamed and Nori is the daughter of the current Premier Abdullah Badawi. They are known for giving their fathers “an earful” regarding the rights and empowerment of Muslim women.
Perhaps the reforms which Saudi Arabia has instituted in the last year or so regarding the greater role of women in Saudi society and economy may indeed have had some influence from Princess Adelah.
But, women such as Lubna Al-Olayan, CEO of Olayan Financial Services; Samra Al-Kuwaiz, managing director of Osool Brokerage Company (Women’s Division); Nabila Tunisi, acting manager, projects department at Saudi Aramco, and Soha Aboul Farag, a banker with 17 years of experience who last year was chosen for the “International Women Leaders Mentoring Partnership” in the US, are the pioneers for the new and future generations of Saudi women especially in an era of socio-economic reforms in the Kingdom where the contribution of women to economic development is being increasingly acknowledged.
As professional women in high-powered jobs, they have successfully managed to carve out careers as working mothers while at the same time managing their families and dispelling the oft-quoted stereotype of Saudi women — of a meek, compliant and oppressed section of society. The good news is that the government is actually engaging with women in the Kingdom as part of a speeding up of the reform process. Women ‘Own’ Some 1500 companies >>> By Mushtak Parker
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