Saudi Arabian women can now hold senior military ranks in virtually all combat battalions of the army, Saudi newspaper Asharq Al Awsat reported Thursday
DOHA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd October, 2019) Saudi Arabian women can now hold senior military ranks in virtually all combat battalions of the army, Saudi newspaper Asharq Al Awsat reported Thursday.
The Saudi Defense Ministry's recruitment wing has announced that the Kingdom's air force, navy, land force and others are options for military service for women, according to the newspaper.
"Women's admission into the most important ministry in the kingdom is a major step in the right direction," Hassan Al Shihiri, an ex-official at the Defense Ministry, was quoted as saying.
The announcement comes as the latest step in a series of sweeping changes aimed at involving women in the work force in what is otherwise regarded as the strictest nation for women. Recent years have seen the ban of women's right to drive lifted, as well as an easing of the guardianship system which forbade women to travel without a close male companion. All this is part of Vision 2030, an ambitious economic reform program implemented by Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman to diversify the Saudi economy and wean it off chronic oil dependency.
