There are some people who can’t help being extraordinary. If her work history is any indication, Thoraya Ahmed Obaid is one of those people.
In 2001, she was appointed as the Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund. That’s impressive on its own, but she was also the first Saudi Arabian to head a United Nations agency – talk about breaking boundaries.
“Today, all Saudi women are recognizing that you broke the ceiling one more time for Saudi women, and we thank you for that,” Obaid told Kofi Annan, secretary-general of the UN at the time, at a news conference.
The trailblazer also served as the Under-Secretary of the UN between 2000 and 2010, and as Chair of the UN committee that coordinates between agencies. She has held many other UN positions as well.
These are just the most recent in a long line of breaking boundaries – Obaid was the first Saudi Arabian woman to get a government scholarship to study at a U.S. university.
But what really sets her apart is her emphasis on culture. She strongly believes that the context of each society should be considered in order to aid it with development. Cultural and religious values inform people’s actions, and she wants that to be taken into consideration.
In that way, she has formed a bridge between the drive for human rights, some of which are seen as universal, and the values that are integral to different cultures. But some of her work is closer to home – she is a part of the Shura Council, and hopes to bring positive change to her country.
“There are key issues such as the employment of young people, who constitute 60 percent of the population under the age of 30, and income for households headed by women,” she told the Saudi Gazette. “We need to have our brothers involved in discussions and the formulation of recommendations because we all form one unit of citizens of our country.”
