Manama: In a new breakthrough for women in Saudi Arabia, a team of Saudi women inspectors carried out their first market tour in Madinah.
The team was dispatched by the all-women Municipal Council, the first to be set up in the kingdom.
The deployment in the second most sacred city for Muslims was made months after women were deployed to inspect shops in Makkah, the most sacred city, for the first time during the Haj season in September.
In November, Madinah Municipality announced it was setting up the first all-women city council in order to provide women with full municipal services while investing in their creative competencies and empowering them.
On Tuesday, Mayor of the Madinah region Mohammad Bin Abdul Hadi Al Amri launched the first inspection tour and said the deployment was in line with the empowerment of women as set in the goals and aspirations of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 and National Transformation Programme (NTP) 2020
Human Resources General Director Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al Tuwaijri said field tours by the women inspectors would generate numerous new ideas that would help ease the work process and enable women to partner with men as the twin forces steering development forward, Saudi daily Okaz reported on Wednesday.
The Women’s Council will provide the full range of municipal services, including issuing licences for all commercial activities and for construction and carrying out field inspections to ensure full compliance with the law and with trade regulations.
Most comments on social media applauded the decision to set up the Women’s Council and saw in it a new opportunity for women to build on their aptitudes and boost social and economic reforms.
Several users said that women would be much more understanding and tolerant than male inspectors when dealing with situations.
Those who opposed the field visits claimed women would face major difficulties during inspection tours and should be confined to office work. However, they did not provide definitions of “major difficulties.”
Women in Saudi Arabia have made huge strides as the country opens up under an ambitious reform drive that has given them several rights, including holding, attending and participating sporting events and obtaining Saudi driving licences starting June 24.
