It’s believed to be the first all-women municipality branch in the kingdom.
It’s been a year jam-packed with changes and firsts in Saudi Arabia—and there’s now another one to add to the list.
The kingdom has opened its first-ever municipality branch staffed by females, according to reports.
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The office, located in the western city of Madinah, provides services such as business licence issuance, construction permits, inspection campaigns and investment opportunities, the Saudi Gazette reports.
“In compliance with the National Transformation Program 2020 and the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, we worked on empowering women and facilitating our services for them. There are many qualified women to run the women branch,” the head of Madinah Municipality, Mohammad Al-Amry, said according to the publication.
Not only is the branch run by women, it’s targeted at serving the female population, a move described as a positive step for the “empowerment of women” by Hamdah Al-Enizi.
Women “deserve equal employment opportunities”, said the former Shoura Council member and adviser to the minister of labour and social development.
The municipality branch is just the latest move under Vision 2030, the kingdom’s post-oil economy plans.
In September, a royal decree revealed women will be able to secure driving licences from June 2018, with the news widely celebrated around the globe.
The kingdom also recently announced women will soon be able to attend sports events in stadiums in three cities, with the changes set to come into place next year.
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As part of the Vision 2030, the government also aims to increase the percentage of women in the nation’s workforce from 23 per cent to 28 per cent by 2020.
The kingdom also recently held its first-ever women’s day, a ban on women voting or taking part in elections lifted in 2015, and in 2016 the strict religious police were stripped of their power to stop, question, pursue or arrest people.
Image: Getty
