A women-only industrial city dedicated to female workers is to be constructed in Saudi Arabia to provide a working environment that is in line with the kingdom’s strict customs.
The city, to be built in the Eastern Province city of Hofuf, is set to be the first of several planned for the Gulf kingdom. The aim is to allow more women to work and achieve greater financial independence, but to maintain the gender segregation, according to reports.
Proposals have also been submitted for four similar industrial cities exclusively for women entrepreneurs, employers and employees in Riyadh.
Photo: AFP
Segregation of the sexes is applied in Saudi Arabia, where Wahabi Shariah law and tribal customs combine to create an ultraconservative society that still does not allow women to drive. Saudi women are said to make up about 15 percent of the work force, with most in female-only work places. Although the number of mixed gender workplaces has increased, these are still few.
The proposals follow government instructions to create more job openings for women to enable them to have a more important role in the country’s development.
The Saudi Industrial Property Authority (MODON), which is developing the women-only industrial city at Hofuf, said it hoped the city would open next year. Prince Mansour bin Miteb bin Abdulaziz, minister of municipal and rural affairs, had approved the plan, a spokesperson said.
“I’m sure that women can demonstrate their efficiency in many aspects and clarify the industries that best suit their interests, nature and ability,” MODON deputy director general Saleh al-Rasheed said.
The Hofuf development is expected to create about 5,000 jobs in textiles, pharmaceuticals and food processing, with women-run firms and production lines. MODON said the Hofuf industrial site was a suitable location given its “proximity to residential neighborhoods to facilitate the movement of women to and from the workplace.”
In a statement it added that the site was equipped “for women workers in environment and working conditions consistent with the privacy of women according to Islamic guidelines and regulations.”
The project has been proposed by a group of Saudi businesswomen, the business daily Al Eqtisadiah said, quoting businesswoman Hussa al-Aun.
“The new industrial city should have a specialized training center to help women develop their talents and train them to work at factories,” she told the paper. “This is essential to cut unemployment among our female graduates.”
The oil rich kingdom has one of the world’s largest disparities between male and female employment, with a gap of 23 percent, according to a recent Gallup poll, arabianbusiness.com reported.
An increasing number of firms were insisting that women had to be unmarried to qualify for employment.
“Some private companies are stipulating conditions such as a woman shall be recruited only if she is single or not pregnant if married,” Hatab al-Anazi, a ministry spokesman, is reported to have told the paper Arab News. “[That] is against the regulations.”
Saudi Arabia is criticized by human rights groups for its systemic discrimination.
In September last year, King Abdullah, who has taken some steps toward loosening strict gender segregation, announced that women would be able to vote in the 2015 local elections and for the consultative assembly. In January the government enforced a law allowing Saudi women to be employed in lingerie and cosmetic shops. Previously women had to purchase underwear from male shop assistants.
Last month a poll of working women in Saudi by YouGov and Bayt.com found 65 percent wanted to achieve greater financial independence through their careers. Those under 25 also wanted to make use of their educational qualifications.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion