13 Saudi students pave way in quest for women's rights
Tufts alliance opens door to diplomacy career
MEDFORD - Saudi women were barred from diplomatic careers, and until recently could not even study international relations or political science at Saudi universities. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs opened jobs to women in 2005, but few landed coveted foreign policy positions.
That could soon change because of a unique partnership launched this year by The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and Dar Al-Hekma College, the first private college for women in Saudi Arabia. This week, 13 Saudi women completed a crash course in international diplomacy, blazing a brazen path for the future of their country, where women still can't drive or vote - nor, in many cases, travel, work, or see a doctor without permission from a male guardian.
"As graduates, we become pioneers by taking the road less traveled and pave it for others to follow," Dina Madani said in a graduation speech urging her peers to become pioneers not only in education, but also in the workforce and society. "We want to be the catalyst that hastens the development of our country."
The six-month program - split between Dar Al-Hekma in Jeddah and the Fletcher School - is the first known journey by an American university into training Saudi women to become diplomats. The new opportunity for women to represent their country could spur further gains in women's rights in Saudi Arabia, a key US ally, and allow the kingdom to become more competitive in a global society, officials at both schools said.
The Fletcher School has also agreed to help the women's college start an undergraduate program in international relations and diplomacy as early as fall 2009 to propel more Saudi women into diplomatic postings.
"We want women ambassadors, women officials, women leaders - not women working in the office," said Suhair H. Al Qurashi, president of Dar Al-Hekma, who asked Fletcher School to train the women. "My efforts here will push the ministry to make serious steps. Now they have no excuse. We have a prepared group, and they are not secretary material."
The women already spent four months at Dal Al-Hekma taking courses taught by Fletcher doctoral students in international security, business relations, law, and environmental policy. Many left families and full-time jobs behind to complete the last two months of training at Tufts, where they learned about Islamic banking and finance, international negotiation and conflict resolution, and the globalization of Southwest Asia.
They range from their late teens to their 30s, and have varied academic and professional backgrounds. Some studied in the United States or England. Others graduated from Dar Al-Hekma. One helped found the college nearly a decade ago. A couple are doctoral students, researching women and leadership issues and carbon management. Another is a published poet who runs her own business selling head scarves.
"This group is the leading edge of modernity for women," said Andrew Hess, professor of diplomacy at Fletcher and the director of its programs for Southwest Asia and Islamic civilization. "They're going to become models for the other women, unless we have a huge conservative reaction."
The aspiring ambassadors have already learned to speak diplomatically about the sensitive issue of women's rights - rights that Saudi King Abdullah has said he supports expanding to enhance the country's image abroad, but that their countrymen may not be ready to embrace.
"Saudi women tend to think about their community more than they think about their own issues," said Sarah Baghdadi, who helped start Dar Al-Hekma and is now executive director of public relations for the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce & Industry. "Our religion motivates us to continually improve things."
They are also eager to dispel stereotypes of Saudi women as repressed, cloistered at home with no access to education.
"Education is always a main factor in the development of any society, especially an education with a global perspective," Baghdadi said in an interview after a recent class in which they discussed the politics surrounding gas pipelines through Eurasia and investment opportunities in Pakistan.
Baghdadi pulled up pie charts on her laptop computer of government statistics showing that women make up a higher percentage of college graduates. Although women make up 56.5 percent of college graduates, they account for only 14 percent of the workforce.
A spokesman for the Saudi Embassy in Washington, D.C., said he did not know the number of Saudi women hired by the Foreign Ministry. But of the 26 Saudi diplomats in Washington, three are women, he said; all three were from the United States.
"If education is available, they will have a greater opportunity in competing with men," said Abdulmohsen Alyas, deputy director of the Saudi Information Office. "We hope this training [at Fletcher] will get women to the ministry."
Tracy Jan can be reached at tjan@globe.com. 