Cairo: A Saudi woman is leading a vocational training enterprise aimed at training girls in carpentry as more females are engaged in the labour market amid a fast-paced drive to empower women in the kingdom.
Sara Al Mutairi said she has initiated the enterprise in collaboration with a programme for training girls in making heritage wooden products. The project seeks to promote the craft among girls and help them master its basics.
"I advise young men and women to work in the field of carpentry because it is highly profitable," Sara told the Saudi-owned TV MBC. She cited a high turnout among girls to learn the craft.
A trainee said that before attending the course she had thought it was too hard to learn. "But after I started working, I found out that the opposite is true. I've learnt a lot of things such as how to etch wood and its types," she said.
Empowering women
In recent years, Saudi Arabia has ramped up efforts to empower women from different walks of life and appoint them in leading positions as part of massive changes in the kingdom.
Last year, two female ambassadors were among 11 Saudi envoys, who took the oath of office before King Salman bin Abdulaziz. The appointments rose to five the total number of Saudi Arabia’s women ambassadors.
In 2019, Princess Reema bint Bandar was appointed as Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the US, becoming the first woman in the kingdom’s history to serve as ambassador.
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.
