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  • UPDATE: Saudi Arabia Declines Seat on the U.N. Security Council for Two Year Term
     

    Saudi Arabia has been elected to the United Nations Security Council as a non permanent member, a seat the Kingdom will hold for two years. However, a Foreign Ministry statement said that it would decline to take the seat. Reuters reports that a “decision of such magnitude would have to have been taken by King Abdullah […]

     
  • Slideshow: Coming to Riyadh’s KAFD: A Female-Designed Metro Station
     

    A leading female architect has been chosen to be the lead architect of the forthcoming metro station in the brand-new King Abdullah Financial District, Arabian Business reports.

     
  • Saudi Youth Filmmaking on the Rise
     

    Social media continues to catalyze Saudi Arabia in unpredictable ways.  Fatima Al-Arjan takes a look at the rise of video blogging ‘vloggers.’  Short videos – some 36 seconds at maximum – have proliferated.  While sometimes a platform for controversial posts, like many on-line communities, this one seems to be maturing. In a related item, female […]

     
  • Instagramming Riyadh
     

    Riyadh, Saudi Arabia is a beautiful city – one that is growing and changing at an impressive speed. Yet much of the Kingdom’s capital remains as it has for years. Traditional style housing and buildings, most of which are no higher than two stories, still dominate this sprawling city, but the gargantuan and glitzy new […]

     
  • Women Transforming the Middle East
     

    In this thoughtful interview with SUSRIS, Dr. Isobel Coleman, Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow, characterizes King Abdullah as a ‘committed incrementalist.’ An accurate description based on his steady push of reforms that are meaningful but are not, as some critics point out, decisive. Why doesn’t the King just declare that it is legal for […]

     
  • Interview with Thuraya Al-Arrayed, Women Join Shura Council
     

    This month King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia kept his promise and appointed women to the Shura Council for the first time. The council is a non-voting, advisory body. But the inclusion of women is significant. Anchor Marco Werman speaks with Thuraya al-Arrayed, one of the Shura’s new female members.

     
  • Nitaqat: Towards a Saudi “New Deal?”
     

    Editor’s Note: ‘Saudization’ is a topic that has garnered a great deal of front-page ink in Saudi Arabia of late.  The Nitaqat (“Ranges”) Program introduced in 2011 has staunch advocates and detractors and the ongoing argument between members of the private sector and the Ministry of Labor over recent fee hikes for foreign employees has been […]

     
  • Riyadh at Night
     

    The population of Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia, has risen dramatically in the last half century—from 150,000 in 1960 to 5.4 million in 2012. The city appears as a brightly colored patchwork in this nighttime astronaut photograph. The brightest lights, apart from those on the old Riyadh Airbase, follow the commercial districts along […]

     
  • Saudi Athletes in London
     

    London 2012 was historic for both Saudi Arabia and the Olympic games. Saudi Arabia sent its first female athletes ever to the Olympics, completing a strong talking point for the games’ organizers: London 2012 was the first time every country competing in the Olympics sent at least one woman. Sarah Attar (800m) and Wojdan Shahrkhani (Judo) […]

     
  • Saudi Arabia to Send Olympic Women Athletes for First Time
     

    Saudi Arabia will send female athletes to the Olympic Games for the first time, the International Olympic Committee said, ending a ban by the kingdom where women aren’t allowed to drive. Wodjan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shahrkhani will compete in judo at the London Games and Sarah Attar will run the 800 meters. The athletes, who […]

     

MUST-READS

  • Saudi female lawyers praise Justice Ministry’s efforts to empower women

    Compared to the previous status of women at the Justice Ministry, Al-Daknan said this latest step was a significant achievement, but added: “Of course we are looking for more, though that does not mean we should not appreciate this step.”

  • Saudi women achievers make a pitch for Kingdom’s first female-only golf tourney

    Dalma Malhas, Saudi Arabia's first female Olympic medalist, Mariam Fardous, the first Saudi woman to deep dive in the Arctic Ocean, Nelly Attar, founder of Move Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s first dance studio, Maram Al-Butairi, general manager of Eastern Flames, the first Saudi female football team, and DJ Cosmicat, the Kingdom’s first female DJ, came together to share what it means to them to have been a “first woman” in Saudi Arabia.

  • Saudi Arabia appoints second female ambassador

    Saudi Arabia has appointed Amal Yahya Al-Moallimi as the ambassador to Norway – making her the Kingdom’s second female ambassador, state news agency SPA reported. Princess Reema Bint Bandar was Saudi Arabia’s first woman to hold such a position when she was appointed as the Kingdom’s ambassador to the United States.

  • Saudi female footballers excited about the upcoming league

    “I’m honestly very proud that women found a lot of support in pursuing their dreams in sports and our families can be proud of us for doing so,” she said. “It’s a good feeling, even though we’re a bit later than other countries, but at least we got to where we are now for women and I couldn’t be more proud.”

  • Introducing: Saudi Arabia’s female bodybuilders [Video]

    "Bodybuilding was a frowned upon sport for women in Riyadh and Gulf countries, but nowadays everyone is taking an interest in it and everyone wants to be a bodybuilder. Even girls who thought that weightlifting is masculine or only for men. Now everybody is lifting, and it's an amazing sport."

  • Saudi’s first female GM: “It’s my aim to make a difference”

    In recent years, the Arab nation has been pushing hard into Saudisation in its hospitality sector, announcing last summer that it plans to reach 100 percent Saudisation in hotels, banning expats from holding managerial roles in the process.

  • Saudi Arabia: Female participant makes history in kingdom’s first cycling championship

    Ten Saudi women have participated for the first time in the kingdom’s cycling championship which was held this week in Abha in southern Saudi Arabia.

  • The Return of Women: A Post-Rentier Rediscovery of the Arabian Heritage of Female Workforce Participation

    In fact, female workforce participation has its roots in Arabian heritage, and Saudi society has undergone some unusual decades since the late twentieth century when women were not given enough opportunities. Women are only now returning to the workforce.

  • Saudi Arabia Appoints First Female Head To Tabuk’s Regional Council

    Saudi Arabia has just appointed Dr. Khulood Mohammed al-Khamis to become the head of Tabuk’s regional council. A historical moment in the Kingdom as al-Khamis is the first woman to reach this position. After approval from Saudi Arabia’s Interior Minister,  al-Khamis officially became the Secretary-General of Tabuk’s regional council.

  • Female participation in sports up 150% in Saudi Arabia

    February saw the SFA launch the country's first-ever Women's Football League (WFL). SFA special projects manager Rawh Abdullah Alarfaj said that 'Having a women's football league is a huge boost for female football. We have been playing football, forming leagues and training since 2007, without any tangible support.'