Saudi Ambassador to the United States HRH Princess Reema bint Bandar Al-Saud visited the U.S. state of Wyoming this week and sat down with the local news outlet, the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, to talk about her visit to the state, the state of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia and the potential for business partnerships in Wyoming.
In the interview, Princess Reema lauded the state of Wyoming’s status as the first to grant women the right to vote and noted that, when planning the trip, “I learned not only was it the first state to grant women the right to vote, they were voting even before joining the union. And that was one of the preconditions to join it. I thought that was sensational,” she said.
Princess Reema told the Wyomingnews.com, “I needed to come here and get a lay of the land, understand what exists, so that I can then invite the kingdom to come to Wyoming and say, this may be somewhere you want to do business.”
“It’s one of the seven states that has a majority women state Supreme Court, and I’m just fascinated by that experience. As the first female ambassador, what I’m hoping to learn from this is – who are the women, who are my contemporaries who walked this path before me, and what can I possibly learn from them, and how can I highlight the work that they did to the women back home and what lessons learned are there? As more women enter government in the kingdom, I think it’s critical for us to find our compliments. And if those women happened to be in Wyoming, that’s phenomenal,” the Ambassador noted.
Princess Reema talked more about women’s rights in Saudi Arabia, and noted that while progress is not a “straight line,” that it is a similar track as the United States experienced. “[A] woman in the kingdom not only can drive herself to work, she can have any job that she wants. She has equal pay, which is something in many places in the rest of the world is not a true statement. For us, we have equal pay today. By law, maternity leaves are guaranteed. Women no longer need anybody’s permission, neither to travel, to go to the hospital when guardianship law abolished and that’s massive,” Princess Reema said.
HRH Princess Reema also discussed her upcoming meetings with some Wyoming business leaders, and said her “personal interest is always in health care and women’s affairs, but I’m looking to see young entrepreneurs.”
“I’m looking to understand, also, is a Wyoming businessman limited to Wyoming, or is their impact and footprint across the United States of America?” Princess Reema said. “We have a very young SME (medium-sized business) environment in the kingdom, and I’m looking for mentors for these young people. I’m looking for parallels and experiences … What microbusinesses exist here that could be replicated there? Who do I need to introduce our young SMEs to over here for them to have those learnings also? If you want a thriving economy, you have to have the small and medium-sized businesses.”
[Click here to read the full interview from Wyomingnews.com]
