‘Let Saudi women choose their own priority’:

Princess Basmah Bint Saud Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud on Wednesday stressed that Saudi women are setting their own agenda, and their foremost concerns may not be the same as those of women in the West.

“Let us choose our own priority,” she said during a question-and-answer session at the Middle East Institute think tank in Washington. The inability of women to drive, she added, “is not the issue” Saudi women struggle with the most.

The greatest obstacle to their growth, she noted, is the current Saudi labor law — but she anticipates changes on the way following a “historic” new family law that now allows women to have a “family book” where they can register their own children and take them to school and to hospital.

The princess, who is the granddaughter of the kingdom’s founder and an advocate for female-led businesses, delivered remarks on the importance of entrepreneurship for women in the Middle East. She referenced her background in Islamic studies and her travels around the world, as well as her stints in real estate development, interior decoration, fashion design, retail, and organic farming.

“Entrepreneurship is how you get the wheel going,” and how global connections are established for both men and women, she said. “Women should stand up right now ... We should be helping each other, the women who made it.” She pointed to women themselves as being in the way of other women’s successes.

“We don’t shine the light” on accomplished Arab women, Princess Basmah said. Futhermore, across the Arab world, the education system “does not allow women to know their rights.” (KUNA)