Saudi Arabia: Businesswomen clearing all hurdles

By Habib Shaikh, Saudi Gazette

The Ministry of Commerce has opened up all fields for women to do business in. “We received intimation from the ministry that now women can participate and get license in all the fields that are open to men,” Dr. Basmah Mosleh Omair, Chief Executive Officer of the Sayeda Khadijah Bint Khuwailid Center for Businesswomen at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI), told Saudi Gazette in an exclusive interview recently.

“Earlier, construction, real estate, and services licenses were not given to women. Now they can get these. And as for gender mixing, we are getting more women into the private sector based on their choice. So, lots of changes have been happening,” Omair said.

Again, with apologies to Shakespeare, there is a tide in the affairs of women in Saudi Arabia, which is being taken at the flood so as to create equal opportunities, status, growth and development, because it is almost widely being recognized than omitted, it can only push back the ongoing reforms in the Kingdom in shallows and myriad difficulties.

The road has not been smooth for Saudi women in business. There have been pitfalls, turbulence, pockets of resistance, but the journey has continued and reached a stage that some cynics thought was not possible. But mission is still not fully accomplished.

Women are said to be having nearly SR45 billion in banks in the Kingdom, more than half of it lying idle. They are urged to invest it, but the main hurdle preventing them from doing so is the system of ‘wakil’ (a male representative or guardian).

There have been ongoing efforts to have it removed, but as Omair said, “it is still an issue.” “However,” she added, “it is removed if it is a female only business. If it is going to be a public company she needs a ‘wakil.’ This is why there is a lot of money in the banks, lying idle. The ‘wakil’ gets too much authority, which businesswomen do not like.” According to Princess Loulwa Al-Faisal, daughter of late King Faisal, who has either led or been a member of several businesswomen’s delegations abroad, said throughout history women were always involved and were very astute, good businesswomen. “Business in our region is almost genetic. That’s the way they survived in the desert,” she explained.

She said that a woman who has a business, who knows what she is doing, doesn’t need someone to represent her.

Princess Mashael Bint Faisal Bin Turki Bin Abdul Aziz, president of the Business Women’s Forum of the Eastern Province, and one who is responsible for the establishment of the Gulf Businesswomen’s Committee (GBC), said, “Women are not supposed to see or talk directly to men. How do we allow this guy to run our business?”

She explained that one of the reasons is that there is no open channel between women and decision-makers.

Said Omair, “We are dealing with the issue in two ways. First, we are asking for the removal of the system completely, even if it is not a female only business, and second, we are teaching women how to give a limited ‘wakala’ (authority), which is not complete authority for the man to run her business. We are doing booklets and awareness programs for that.”

She said that the center has changed from a training body to a lobbying one. Following the first women’s forum of its kind last year, the center sent recommendations to King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, Crown Prince Sultan, and the Shoura Council members and the concerned ministries and authorities.

“We have seen more changes as far as women’s workplace is concerned. Now there is nothing in the labor law that says men and women cannot mix in the work place. All it says is that we should work within the Shariah, which is fine. So now there is more integration of women in the private sector,” she said of the achievements coming out as a result of the recommendations.

“Some of the other recommendations are developing,” she added. Asked what problems women face dealing with high government officials, and middle and lower management, Omair said that the top level “is most helpful, very cooperative,” while the middle management “somewhat, but the lower ones are the ones that sometimes are problematic.” She explained that is mainly because of cultural traditions, resistance to change. “That’s just the way they have always done business, lack of awareness within the ministry, and things like that,” she added.

Dr. Lama Abdulaziz Al-Sulaiman, elected JCCI board member, said she would like to see more obstacles to be broken down for businesswomen to be able to trade and to develop easily. “I know a lot of people will tell me those obstacles are there even for businessmen. Yes. But still the obstacles with ministries for businesswomen are twice as much,” she added.

Hanan Al-Madani, fashion designer, in business for the last ten years, said that a problem, which she has to this day as a woman fashion designer, is that she cannot have her own fashion show with media coverage. So, she goes outside of the Kingdom – to Beirut, Rome, England, some of the Gulf countries. On return, she uses the media coverage she gets there for marketing in the Kingdom.

Omair said that according to a research conducted by the center of top companies in the Western Region that have hired women, they saw great results and achievements.

They had issues with some members of the labor ministry, not the ministry as such, but just certain employees, and other agencies that were not very pro-active. “The companies were hesitant in employing more women that is why we did the research. The regulations were not very clear as to how to employ women. So they were hesitant that other people would interfere,” she said, and added, “But as we did more research, we learnt that there is a law passed by the King that no one can interfere in a woman’s workplace. That is up to the Ministry of Labor. Any other agency in the country that has opposition to women getting into the workforce cannot walk into the office and harass the owner of the company. We have passed on that law to the private sector so that it knows it has this legal right.”

Asked if a study has been done on investment by Saudi businesswomen, she said, “No, but right now we are doing a national study with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a World Bank Group, and SAGIA about businesswomen – National Businesswomen’s Survey – what we call the businesswomen’s DNA, because it will give something like the DNA. How does she find her investments, where does she get her money, is it easy to get finance, how does she expand her business, does she go bankrupt. We are benchmarking it with a study that the World Bank did with five other countries – the UAE, Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, and Morocco. We are benchmarking to see what is the difference in businesswomen in Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries and what are the challenges and obstacles. We are also asking searching questions culturally, our legal system here, what obstacles they find.”

Asked whether it could be possible for Arab businesswomen in general and Saudis in particular to form an economic bloc or umbrella, Omair said, “It is always helpful to work together, to network.”

“We see people buying into the vision of King Abdullah,” she said. In the past three years, there have been fast changes in economy, the integration of women into the workplace, support for women’s issues.

“Things are moving pretty quickly in Saudi Arabia. It is a booming economy although there is an economic crisis in the world but we are not affected here. Women are now more aware that they have to get involved early on into these investments and they now have the choice. What we have done is given them opportunities and removed as many obstacles as we could to give them the choice and opportunity to participate in the sector they like,” said Omair.

Madawi Abdullah Al-Hassoun, JCCI board member, who has been in business for more than two decades, said, “Most of us are highly educated. We have proved ourselves in many sectors, internationally. We have gained recognition from the government, the society that we are capable of shouldering responsibilities.”

“What is happening today is excellent. It is up to them (Saudi women) now to make more efforts to further prove themselves and take their right place in the society,” she added.

JEDDAH – The Sayeda Khadijah Bint Khuwailid Center for Businesswomen has come out with an English version of its newsletter.

“Based on high demand, it is our honor to send you our first English translated E-Newsletter. We are also in the process of translating our previous newsletters,” Basmah Omair said introducing the welcome venture.

“We hope that you will find the information provided of our lobbying efforts to be of great value in regards to women’s increase in national participation,” she added.

The first issue thanks and congratulates King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holly Mosques, “for the Cabinet changes and for appointing our First Female Deputy in the Ministry of Education.”

It may be pertinent to quote a part of the interview with Omair, wherein she had talked about some recommendations that were forwarded to King Abdullah. One of which was inclusion of women in all decision-making bodies, such as Shoura Council and the Cabinet.

She said that the center has changed from a training body to a lobbying one. Following the first women’s forum of its kind last year, under the theme ‘The Reality of Women’s Participation in National Development,’ the center sent recommendations to King Abdullah, Crown Prince Sultan, the ministries and the Shoura Council members. – SG