Posts by ehab:
Women in Saudi Arabia Will Drive
October 9th, 2012By Ehab Alkindi
Will she drive in the kingdom?
The answer is yes. She will eventually drive. But when will she drive? This should be the right question to ask. If we look into the reasons behind prohibiting women from driving in Saudi Arabia we find that they are all related to culture. And cultures change with time to align with progressing needs.
To start with, I do not personally believe that allowing women to drive is a form of civilization. In fact I believe it is the opposite. Women should be respected and honoured and be served no matter who they were. In Saudi Arabia, it is mandatory for each man to fulfill all the needs of his dependants, i.e. mother, sisters, daughters, and all close female relatives. One of the main man’s jobs in Saudi Arabia is to drive and stay with dependants whenever or wherever they were. Among Arabs it is not seen to be appropriate to let women go out to carry on their own needs without being helped. In a civilized community, men and women perform their duties and understand their rights and limits. Societies should understand that men and women have different capabilities, and so they should have different tasks and duties. Men know what they are mandated to do and how they should be serving their women and women know their rights to be served and understand their duties of providing help and convenience to their men.
However, as a result of external influences, lack of responsibility, and disengagement to cultural values, Saudi men enormously deviated from their duties, and gave less importance to serving their women, and therefore resulting in a necessity for women to carry on their own needs by themselves.
Understanding the fact that women are in need to drive is the first step to allow them to drive. This step has already taken place here in the kingdom, but its application seem difficult. Questions abound such as:
How will women be trained to drive?
How do we initiate these training facilities?
Who will be working in these facilities?
Who will issue driving licenses?… etc.
Other questions are related to women’s safety:
Are women going to be allowed to drive at night?
Are they going to be allowed to drive between cities?
Are there going to be female policemen organizing traffic and working at checkpoints?
Is it going to be safe for women to fix their cars in highly male-populated car shops?
These questions and more are being studied and analyzed to come up with a step by step plan to allow women to drive safely in Arabia.Away from the cultural factors preventing women from driving, in Saudi Arabia driving just does not seem to be safe at all. Saudi Arabia is known to have one of the highest records in traffic accidents where almost 6,000 people die annually. Traffic regulations, driving awareness and even the infrastructure of the streets need to be improved before women are allowed to drive.
These factors and more are being studied by the Saudi Shura Counsel. Unless a comprehensive solution is reached and developed, women will not be able to drive. And this will take time.
Saudi Arabia enhances new economic future.
May 4th, 2012By Ehab Alkindi. Project engineer of Saudi Aramco.
Saudi Arabia enhances new economic future.
A new era has started in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia since the arrival of the custodian of the two holly mosques, King Abdullah Bin Abdul-Aziz, who extended the orientation of the country from an oil producer and consumer to a field of Science, exploration, invention, and Technology.
The kingdom started this movement early on 2005 by sending thousands of college graduates to study abroad in different countries as a step to help Saudi youths to explore the outside world and widen their knowledge and experience. These graduates are carrying the hopes and dreams of all Saudis to bring the country back to its golden age during the time it was leading the world in Science and Technology during the 7th – 12th centuries.
I am proud to be a product of this scholarships program. I graduated from the Ohio State University with a Master Degree in Business and a Bachelor degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering. And I am currently a project engineer at Saudi Aramco, the world’s leading oil company which is playing a major role in assisting the king to reach his goals of improving Science and Technology and inspiring investments inside the kingdom.
As a project engineer at Saudi Aramco, I have been witnessing and participating in Saudi Arabia’s plans to enhance and improve the country’s economy and future. Saudi Aramco was directed by the king to build and operate new research centers such as King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Thuwal, King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (KAPSARC) in Riyadh, and King Abdul Aziz Center for Knowledge and Culture in Dhahran.
In addition, the kingdom has established multiple high class research centers to attract premium brains from all over the world to participate in improving the quality of life. The kingdom invested billions of money to create environments suitable for research and struggled to provide all required resources.
There are many other on-going mega projects in Saudi Arabia including the construction of new cities. About 70 miles away from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia’s second largest populated city, there will be King Abdullah’s Economic city which will contain a new port, an economic restrict, an academic restrict, and a residential district. This city is anticipated to accommodate up to 1.8 Million people. There are also plans to extend and improve existing small cities such as Jazan, Hail, and Ras-Tanura.
A major achievement of this journey of development is to decrease the number of unemployment. The government has been taking serious actions to encounter unemployment by expediting project execution, project awarding and decreasing dependence on foreign manpower. The government has created strict regulations for all companies to employ Saudis. It also initiated programs to encourage small local Saudi companies to expand and hire Saudis.
Despite all these efforts and progresses in all aspects, Saudis believe that there are always areas for improvements. They believe that the wealth they are living in is a gift from God that they must be thankful of. And they can only be thankful to God by appreciating his bounties and helping his servants around the world. In Saudi Arabia, we can never reach perfection but we can always seek it.