Saudi Police Women : Remarkable & Unprecedented Role

Saudi women have been empowered under the wise leadership of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, HRH King Salman, and his Crown Prince, HRH Mohammed bin Salman.

One of the most prominent changes was allowing Saudi women to participate in the various tasks of the Ministry of Interior, including public security, passports, prisons, drug control, medical services, and others.

Also, Saudi women are now allowed to enlist as a soldier at the Security Training Institute of King Fahd College, as well as to study at Naif Arab University for Security Sciences (NAUSS).

600 Arab women in NAUSS

Naif Arab University for Security Sciences has been able, since 2009, to involve Arab women cadres in the Arab security system in its comprehensive sense. This came under the directives of the Arab Ministers of Interior.

Naif Arab University for Security Sciences has allowed the admission of female students into its scientific programs by a decision of the Supreme Council of the University.

This came in recognition of the importance of the role of women in society and in response to the need for qualified female cadres in the field of graduate studies specialized in security sciences. It also aims to prepare a generation of female hopeful researchers, in addition to providing female workers in Arab criminal laboratories with knowledge and skills technical accuracy through training and applied programs.

NAUSS has also Arab women to enroll in the training programs implemented by the University Vice Presidency for Training, to develop the university’s research capabilities, through studies presented by female researchers in the field of security and published within the university’s publications.

Since the beginning of the women’s admission, around 600 female students have graduated from the university, from several Arab countries in various security disciplines.

The university also issued 11 specialized scientific publications that dealt with issues directly related to women in the areas of factors driving violent extremism among Arab women, programs for the development of female breadwinners, domestic violence, women’s police, women’s prisons and social problems for female inmates, delaying girls’ marriage, in addition to women crimes, rehabilitation and training of girls in life skills, and the impact of women’s police work on their family relationships.

Saudi women beyond the security sector

Leaders MENA monitored the reform steps taken by Saudi Arabia to support and empower women in all important areas in the country and to involve them in Saudi Vision 2030 programs.

Saudi Arabia has witnessed a developmental movement in various fields since the launch of Vision 2030, which highlights its most important foundations in reviving the economy through 12 programs aimed at promoting Islamic values, developing and diversifying the economy, increasing employment rates, enabling social responsibility, and other goals that have been set to develop the state in all aspects and to bring about a developmental shift that will move the state to the ranks of the countries of the world.

Vision 2030 programs have also been keen to increase women’s participation in the labor market and to involve them intensively to be part of the developmental movement that Saudi Arabia is witnessing.

From this point of view, Saudi women’s steps towards empowerment have accelerated thanks to the issuance of many decisions, legislation and regulations that enhance their position in society.

Thus Saudi women became an effective partner In national development in all fields, including economic, social, scientific, cultural and others, and at all levels.

Legislation and reforms have continued over the past years to include women more in advancing development, due to their important role in contributing effectively through leadership and administrative roles. The Saudi government has been keen to place qualified women in high positions in several fields.

The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development in Saudi Arabia also launched the “Women Empowerment Scheme”, which contributed to increasing the participation rate of women in all government sectors. This is done through investing women investing their energies and capabilities, expanding their work options, and increasing their participation to ensure equal opportunities for both sexes.

In addition to holding senior structural leadership positions in government agencies through a number of support projects, such as the National Platform for Women Leaders, which serves as a tool that enables agencies to communicate, and nominate women leaders to leadership positions, boards of directors, or official delegations in international forums based on smart search criteria.

The Women Empowerment Agency seeks to find initiatives and projects that support the empowerment of women and people with disabilities in the Saudi labor market. It works to implement them in order to achieve the goal of increasing their participation in the labor market in order to achieve justice in equal opportunities. Moreover, the agency also works on improvements in Saudi labor regulations related to employment women like giving them the right to work in all fields that are consistent with their nature, with the prohibition of hiring them in dangerous jobs.

The “Leadership Training and Guidance for Women Cadres” initiative was launched to develop training and orientation programs aimed at improving the skills of working women and raising the percentage of their employment in leadership positions.

The initiative aims to contribute to the training and guidance of more than 500 working women, to hold leadership positions.

As for working mothers, the ministry has worked on mechanisms to regulate the establishment of children’s guesthouses in workplaces, an initiative to support and organize the establishment of child-hospital centers in government workplaces.

This is to create an attractive and stimulating work environment for working women, in addition to providing job and investment opportunities for applicants from the appropriate disciplines to invest and work in these centers.

During the last period, the Ministry of Commerce took a number of measures and programs to empower the role of women, which aim to activate the participation of women in the national economy, and help them easily start their commercial activities after the requirement of guardian approval was abolished, so that the system was amended with the aim of equal procedures between men and women.

These measures led to the Kingdom’s progress in a number of indicators related to women, most notably the index of women’s share in the labor market (out of the total workforce) to reach 31.8%, exceeding the 2020 target of 27.6%.

And the economic participation rate index for Saudi females, reaching 33.5%, exceeding the 2020 target, reaching 26.15%, and the “Women, Business Activities, and Law” index issued by the World Bank Group 80 points out of 100 in 2021.