Saudi young women are now aspiring for more and they set no limits for their ambitions. As more doors open to Saudi women they want to explore new opportunities at different fields including research, engineering, medicine and most recently screenwriting. ‘About Her’ spoke to number of young talents who all expressed their passion to be part of the change in their country.
Afnan Linjawi a translator, poet and a screenwriter said she sees the decision to have cinemas in Saudi Arabia as “is the happiest decision I ever heard and I can’t wait to finally see my words on the big screen”. Linjawi who is doing her MA now in Screenwriting is hoping to convey stories untold and show the world the beautiful city of Jeddah and the amazing stories of men and women around me. She believes that being a Saudi woman puts her in a very powerful position in the world. “I feel like I have a strong hand in pushing my country forward and a strong voice of reason in the world.”
Afnan Linjawi
Linjawi is also into language learning she has acquired French and German in addition to my English and Arabic. “The chapters of the book of my life are still being written but in every chapter, I aim for excellence just as Aristotle said Excellence is not an act but a habit.”
Danya Mohammedali Al-Turkistani, I am an ophthalmology resident doctor, specialized in the medical & surgical eye diseases. Al-Turkistani says her ambition has always been to enrich and develop her skill set and consolidate her career. She wants “to be a pioneer in my specialty, so I can help whomever in need.”
She advises all the women out there who want to succeed in life to believe that “not everyone can become exceptional but an exceptional person can come from anywhere”.
Danya Al-Turkistani
Salma Al-Ghafis a fresh engineering graduate believes that the change opened wide doors of opportunities for females. “Private sector is eager to hire females not just in administrative positions, but in technical positions too. I am getting plenty of job interviews and job offers, probably more than a Saudi male engineer who graduated from a reputable university. This was not the case few years ago.” Al-Ghafis sees more female leaders in high managerial position. “These women inspire me and I look up to them as true role models and amazing success stories.”
Salma Al-Ghafis
Meznan Bahri, a student majoring in engineering and doing now her last semester at Effat University said her ambition is to continue her education and to reach even beyond professorship. “My passion has always been doing and doing experiments and writing researches.”
Meznan Bahri
Bahri believes that It was not easy to continue in this domain in Saudi Arabia but after the Saudi vision she now sees that she can continue her education here. “As I see my society changing and developing intellectually I now feel extremely happy that I can build my future here next to my family and society.” She now hopes that the public will accept her views and researches. Bahri added “I look forward to receive support from the people of my country so I can introduce my works at different conferences to serve different parties.”
Rola Mosaed Al-Ghamdi a computer science student said she can’t describe her feelings of how happy it makes her to be lucky enough to witness all of these changes going on, “sometimes this makes me just pause and think: Wow, what a time to be a Saudi woman.” To her what is going on now is all just the beginning for Saudi women “we have a very bright future ahead of us filled with beautiful life-changing surprises.” She tells her peers “to stay strong and faithful, keep your dreams limitless, set goals without boundaries. And always remember; A Saudi woman, is an unstoppable woman.”
Rola Al-Ghamdi
According to Al-Ghamdi she believes in the Martina Navratilova who once said “I think the key is for women not to et any limits.” As Saudi women she added they have always stayed faithful. She elaborated, “Somehow we were always certain that someday we would be steering the driving wheel, we knew that someday we would be rooting for our favorite Saudi football club in a Stadium. And before we knew it, it is all coming to life.”
