Saudi Women Enter U.S. Diplomacy Program

Thirteen Saudi women took a small step towards independence by enrolling in Dar Al-Hekma College, the first private, women-only college in the country, to study international diplomacy.

By Kathryn Hawkins. Posted on August 07 2008

Though plenty of countries have elected female presidents and prime ministers, Saudi Arabia is a little bit behind the curve when it comes to women’s rights. The country’s extremist Islamic law forbids women from voting, driving, or even leaving the house without a male chaperone, and as few as fourteen percent of Saudi women are employed. But this month, a group of thirteen Saudi women took a small step towards independence by enrolling in Dar Al-Hekma College, the first private, women-only college in the country, to study international diplomacy.

The program is a partnership between Dar Al-Hekma and The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Boston, and women will have the opportunity to spend three months studying diplomacy in each location, returning home with a broad cultural understanding of diplomatic relations between the East and West.

The thirteen women range in age from teenagers to thirty-somethings; one is a published poet, others are doctoral students. Despite their differences, “this group is the leading edge of modernity for women,” Andrew Hess, a professor of diplomacy at Fletcher, told the Boston Globe. “They’re going to become models for the other women, unless we have a huge conservative reaction.”

Dar Al-Hekma College is hoping that the new program will provide a springboard for Saudi women to gain real leadership roles in their society: “We want women ambassadors, women officials, women leaders - not women working in the office,” said Suhair H. Al Qurashi, the school’s president. “We have a prepared group, and they are not secretary material.”

Filed under: Arts and Culture, General Interest,

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