Women rev up in Saudi Arabia

For more than eight years LANDER has been operating and working in Saudi Arabia, the Persian Gulf's main exponent of growth and a benchmark for all other countries in the region.

Saudi Arabia, a nation frequently in the news, is nevertheless a country which is largely unknown to most of us. With a culture very similar to Spain's, firmly based on personal relations and trust, for some time now Saudi Arabia has been evolving and experiencing a change of paradigm in many of its customs as it opens up to the world outside - for example, with immediate plans for tourism to cash in on its geographic and historical potential.

One such change, and perhaps the major change to date, was announced midway through 2017 by heir apparent Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the man behind all recent changes in the country, declaring that after mid-2018 all Saudi women would be allowed to drive also. Driving had hitherto been restricted to men only, and this decision was therefore a change of paradigm which opened up a number of opportunities in the region.

This meant that since the end of 2017 several associations, schools and universities began to take an interest in extending their instruction schedules to address the new need for driving lessons for the country's more than seven million adult women (the total female population is more than 40%). The process comes to a head this week, because as of Sunday 24 June (Sunday is the first day in the Arab working week) women can officially drive cars around the streets with the very first driving licences issued in recent weeks.

LANDER is extremely pleased with this new development in a country with which we enjoy excellent relations. We hope to be able to call on our experience to assist, and learn from the new reality and this opportunity now emerging for all Saudi women.

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