Saudi Arabia has made significant advances in women's education in recent years. A media report indicates that the women there have been coming forward in larger numbers for higher education. Quite many have joined professions and even entered business. That belies the impression entertained in the west that women still do not enjoy full rights in the Saudi kingdom.
Thanks to the forward looking policy of The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah, there has been an upsurge among women in Saudi Arabia for going in for higher education and joining professions like medicine, teaching, nursing, law and business. . Women there are now also working in government offices and some have even joined diplomatic service. They are being encouraged to take on new responsibilities in the country. A woman has also been appointed as a deputy minister. She is Norah Al-Fayez who has been given the portfolio of education in the cabinet.
An all-women university with a 40,000 capacity is also being built in Riyadh, perhaps the largest such institution in the Muslim world; indeed in the whole world. It will turn out doctors, scientists, researchers, teachers, lawyers, journalists, business managers, bankers as well as businesswomen and civil servants.
The trend towards women education is changing the pattern of the Saudi society. A transformation has been taking place from extended families to nuclear families in which the wife would also be an earning member thereby further promoting the rising standards of living in the country.
Saudi Arabia is not alone in the Muslim world in this social change. Other countries of the Gulf such as Bahrain, Kuwait and UAE are also experiencing similar trends as a result of female education. There too women have entered business and have come to have large savings and investments independently. One could say that winds of change are sweeping over the entire region and before long these societies may be transformed into modern ones, albeit Islamic.
With women education, these countries are moving fast towards universal compulsory education and all round progress in social, cultural and economic fields. When women also enter the business and professions, it may also reduce the regions dependence on foreign workers thus bringing a sea change in the entire scenario in the region.
One hopes other Muslim countries which are still lagging behind in female education would emulate Saudi Arabia and initiate programmes for mass education. Countries such as Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Nigeria etc., should also undertake compulsory education programmes. In fact all Dawah missions should give first priority to education, and taking inspiration from Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries, should encourage female education among the people.
