Okaz

A few years ago, I read that Saudi Arabian Airlines had starting employing Saudi women in some of their internal departments, such as information technology and other divisions; jobs that have no direct contact with customers. At the time, I wondered why Saudi women were not being employed as attendants on domestic flights, since that is just like any other public job.

A female flight attendant will leave home to go to her place of work. When she is inside the airplane, she is not isolated with men, but is in a place that is full of passengers and in a situation that is governed by rules and regulations. She will return to the airport, get into her car and drive home at the end of the day. If she happens to be forced to stay in another city for emergency reasons, she will stay in a hotel where her privacy is protected until she returns home.

This sector of airline operations is full of foreign female flight attendants who receive high salaries and other benefits. We can easily replace them with Saudi women without any harm to families or society.

However, when I wrote an article about this subject, I was abused by people and had harsh words directed against me. It was an attack from extremists and enemies of the country. They accused me of betraying my country and trying to stain our society.

I recently read that Nas Airlines has graduated the first batch of Saudi female flight attendants to work onboard their flights, as of this month. Before the announcement of Nas Airlines, society was used to seeing ambitious and respectful Saudi women in airports, working in sales offices, in passports or providing services to passengers behind desks. These women are working with confidence. Nothing bad has happened despite the warnings of extremists in the past.

I hope that one day I will hear that a Saudi female captain is flying the plane that I am on. I will be more than happy to hear that all flight attendants are Saudi females. I will make 100 copies of the article I wrote that caused people to attack me, accuse me and defame me. I will hand out copies to Saudi female flight attendants and tell them that I bore the harm in the past to see them working on airplanes today.