Cairo: The King Abdulaziz airport in Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea city of Jeddah has become the kingdom’s first to get women medics to handle medical emergency cases.
The medics are attending the first course launched at the level of airports in the kingdom to qualify them to serve at the King Abdulaziz airport, a hub for overseas Muslims arriving in Saudi Arabia to undertake pilgrimage.
The course runs for three months and comprises theoretical and practical training, a participant told Saudi-owned television Al Arabiya.
Launched by the Jeddah Airports Company, the course aims to qualify the trainees to deal with emergency and critical cases among the airport passengers, mainly the Hajj and Umrah pilgrims.
Saudi Arabia is getting ready to receive more than 2 million pilgrims at this year’s Hajj season due in late June as the kingdom has lifted pandemic-induced limits on the numbers of pilgrims.
In recent years, Saudi Arabia has vigorously pursued a drive to empower women in different walks of life as part of dramatic changes in the kingdom.
Women accounted for 37 per cent of the kingdom’s overall labour market last year, Saudi Minister of Human Resources Ahmed Al Rajhi said in January.
In 2018, the kingdom allowed women to drive for the first time in its history, ending a decades-old ban on female driving.
In another move enhancing women’s empowerment, Saudi Arabia allowed women to travel without a male guard’s approval and to apply for a passport, easing long-time controls on them.
Two female ambassadors were among 11 Saudi envoys, who took the oath of office before King Salman bin Abdulaziz last month.
