13 Saudi Students Pave Way for Women’s Rights

Tufts alliance opens door to diplomacy career

A unique partnership launched this year between The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and Dar Al-Hekma College, the first private college for women in Saudi Arabia. This August, 13 Saudi women completed a crash course in international diplomacy, blazing a brazen path for the future of their country, where women still can’t drive or vote – nor, in many cases, travel, work, or see a doctor without permission from a male guardian.

The six-month program – split between Dar Al-Hekma in Jeddah and the Fletcher School – is the first known journey by an American university into training Saudi women to become diplomats. The new opportunity for women to represent their country could spur further gains in women’s rights in Saudi Arabia, a key US ally, and allow the kingdom to become more competitive in a global society, officials at both schools said.

The Fletcher School has also agreed to help the women’s college start an undergraduate program in international relations and diplomacy as early as fall 2009 to propel more Saudi women into diplomatic postings.

“We want women ambassadors, women officials, women leaders – not women working in the office,” said Suhair H. Al Qurashi, president of Dar Al-Hekma, who asked Fletcher School to train the women. “My efforts here will push the ministry to make serious steps. Now they have no excuse. We have a prepared group, and they are not secretary material.”

Read the full article here.

.femme for thought.

~ by vavavictoria on August 20, 2008.