Two groups of Saudi women have made news headlines this month and they could not have been more different. The first group is the female Olympic team representing Saudi Arabia in Rio de Janeiro taking us a step further in the development of Saudi women's rights while the second group consists of three Saudi women with their seven children who were stopped with the cooperation of the Lebanese government from joining Daesh (the self-proclaimed IS). As misguided and outrageously imprudent as the second group is, both groups are partly motivated by the need to feel empowered. Although we do not know enough about these individual three women, as explained in an earlier article, one of the reasons many women join Daesh is to feel empowered by the false assumption that they will make a difference. Sometimes, when legitimate channels of women's empowerment are blocked, some women resort to illegitimate ones to achieve the end they desire. These "illegitimate" channels usually take the form of extremes, such as joining a terrorist group or by stripping away every aspect that connects them to their culture, such as religious teachings and traditions. Most of the time, both groups end up hurting themselves more than anybody else and are scarcely concerned with the greater good of their countries. This is not to say that in order to be empowered, we need to go by the book and follow the rules, but as those amazing female Olympians have shown us, there are legitimate ways to rebel against specific cultural norms that are a hurdle to our development. Our empowerment should not be achieved at the expense of our identity and heritage nor by compromising our country's security and harming ourselves and others. In many countries and societies, one of the greatest obstacles that stand in the way of women's empowerment is the absence of education. However, this is not the case in Saudi Arabia as 51.8 percent of university students are women according to the Saudi Ministry of Education. Furthermore, 35,537 Saudi women were studying abroad in 2014 completing their undergraduate or graduate degrees in education, social sciences, arts, business, law, engineering, natural sciences, agriculture, medicine and the service sector spread across 57 countries around the world, which further embellishes their personalities and empowers them. What Saudi women need more is the opportunity and choice to participate in the development of their country by participating in public life while providing them with the training required to excel in whatever endeavor they choose to pursue. There must also be clear laws that guarantee their rights and protect them from discrimination and sexual harassment. HRH Princess Reema is one of the Saudi beacons of hope and a model for the empowering of Saudi women. In addition to being a successful businesswoman herself and leading the first all-female Saudi team to Everest Base Camp in 2012, she is the founder and CEO of Alf Khair and Alf Darb, both of which are social enterprises to empower women in many ways, including increasing health awareness, especially regarding breast cancer, and providing training curriculums to those who wish to enter the workforce. Shortly before the Olympics, she was appointed as the first Vice President for Women's Affairs of the General Sports Authority in Saudi Arabia, which is a promising start for the future of female sports in the country. With her keen ability to deal with cultural norms, we can hope that Saudi women might receive the necessary training and opportunities that other female athletes have in order to have a chance to finish "first" after overcoming the barriers of becoming "first" to participate. Hopefully, Saudi women might even be able to participate in national sports leagues, national tournaments, or at least start attending the games of national team as spectators. "I want to be the first Saudi female police officer" was the response of my seven-year-old daughter when I asked her what she wants to be when she grows up. An innocent and surprising answer that made me so proud of her while realizing the long way that we still have ahead of us in order for that to happen. The past decade has witnessed numerous "firsts" of female Saudis overcoming social barriers in order to gain more rights as citizens in addition to conquering "forbidden" positions in many fields including medicine, journalism, business and sports. These amazing women found the path to empowerment and hopefully now every Saudi woman can pave her own path by never letting go of who she truly is while at the same time fighting to achieve what she is capable of. — The writer can be reached at [email protected]
