today i'm meeting four Saudi women to learn about life here in the kingdom.
are you happier to be working? with a long list of human rights issues in the country
i'm curious to see for myself if life is changing here for women. in 2018 women were
granted the right to drive a car. if i wanted to travel i needed permit for my husband.
the next year they were granted the right to travel overseas without permission from a male guardian.
how can i become a tour guide they said it's only for men. and most recently women are
now allowed to live alone without permission from a male guardian. i'm talking with four women today
saudi's first female tour guide. saudi ladies are tough ladies.
a woman working in finance. it's exciting for everyone. this chef at my hotel breakfast
and finally a tour company startup founder there is this minority or the older generation
they don't like what's going on i have no bias or agenda and politics aside i'm just curious to hear
firsthand from the people on the ground it's also worth mentioning that the four women in this video
represent a progressive side of saudi whom are not just willing but excited to talk to me and this
short video can't represent the entire situation and complexities for all women here i did not plan
to become a tour guide i was in the ministry of education i was a supervisor then i wanted to
register to help in the registration of this area in the unesco so i started to tell people come see
it it's a nice place and that was the starting and they said people why don't you become a tour guide
you like to tell stories i said yeah okay i'll try then i asked please how can i become a tour
guide they said it's only for men i don't take a no for an answer i said no it will be for women
and so it there was not a written law not to let people not to let women to become tour guide but
even men at the beginning they didn't understand why do i want to do it
but i like to meet people to talk to them to show them our beautiful city
and here we go now in our vision 2030 tourism is the most important thing is to have more
tourists yes and you need females what about your family or husband were they supportive yes yes
and my children even they helped me so the ladies are tough ladies there's a big push
vision 30 30 the government is investing a lot to encourage people to come do you think it will work
yes already in 2019 we had more than a million tourists so what about now after corona where
the vision says that by 2030 we will have hundreds of million of tourists sorry and are
you educating other females or any males too just in terms of yes yes i'm a trainer with the wftga
world federation of tourist guide association i train them to be tour guides and i'm really proud
of them and do you have daughters or just yes yes i have two daughters how does it feel to know that
you know they're gonna have they have so many opportunities than your mother what
my dreams were a reality for my daughters it's exciting for everyone a lot of people are opting
to to move to saudi now with all the changes happening the most major change we could say is
the driving that a couple years ago a lot of changes happened uh regulatory changes uh
enabled us to have uh more control or basically yeah take control and
and travel easily freely make our own decisions renter and buy our own houses did you expect
this to happen or it caught you by surprise i mean we were all we were hoping for it since we
were kids but yeah it took some time but eventually it's here this is cool saudi
and food with the smoke i've had it in lebanon too is it similar different little bit for the
ingredients where are you from from oh cool so you've only been working for a few years
right yeah yeah i work in asila hotel five years oh but i thought women weren't working before not
yet before not but this is three years now it's all ladies they were everywhere oh wow
are you happier to be working of course yeah working driving cars nice yeah it's all things
yeah everybody like five years ago they said women can work yes in restaurants yes so some families
like to lay this work with the men gentlemen the hotels before no ladies working
now in the hotel in a supermarket you can work everywhere i have catching business for for
home we make a buffet full buffet and then i work and also i teach the kids from 8 to 40. teaching
for our culture the people they can see this is my dream to our fourth saudi food
everywhere in the world in the hotel because every every hotel outside in like london like
america there is no arabic food this is my wish really in i put my in every hotel in arabic menu
for dishes if i wanted to travel i needed permit for my husband like he needs to sign a paper
that i allow my wife because this concept does not exist because they feel overprotective here
the society is very overprotected especially the parents the husband the men in general now you
don't need a permit you can just travel wherever you want uh over the age of 21 i guess i don't
like to be honest the image that we used to have about saudi all over the media for years and years
and years when it comes to terrorism and all of that because all that feedback or writing camels
how come you're not wearing that ninja thingy how come do you do you still write camels do you have
oil in your backyard these are like the very typical question typical question you get when
you travel around so it was kind of my mission as an ambassador of my country to spread that
awareness uh as a traveler like for the last 15 years to change that perspective to show them like
you can see the shock on their faces when they when i say i'm i'm from saudi arabia yeah yeah yes
and sometimes then i go like i'm from saudi and i come in peace and they just laugh we were not
selling any tours for one year and then in 2018 we started this first trip it was it was really scary
for me i had to wait for the group in zanzibar and i was at the airport waiting for everyone and i'm
very anxious it was all females saudi arabia no no we had a mixed group and then later on
mainly they were female we have like 80 percent of our travelers are females okay um most of
them they want to travel solo but not solo yeah yeah yeah they want that group yes i want to go
alone but with people exactly but not my friends exactly exactly i want to go do whatever i want
but i want to feel like i have someone who's taking care of me yes exactly and with what
made it amazing to me that every trip when i come back i get this amazing feedback from them
and then they started traveling on their own so i was like yes this is the window for them to open
that door these places to discover on their own so the first step is with us the second step go ahead
and discover the world you can do it now so this was like this is exactly what i wanted it's it's
it's not easy to be honest at the beginning but um here in saudi it it became very helpful having the
government having your back even when you're facing the society not everyone is accepting
what's going on not everyone is really happy there is this minority over the older generation
exactly they still hold on to these values and these like standards and they don't like what's
going on but the majority like 70 percent off of saudi are the younger generation between 30 and 35
so basically we've been waiting for these opportunities for so long um and then when
mbs came he's just like us he's this young prince who's one who wants to open everything
concerts festivals cinemas ladies can drive he wanted this so having that on your back you can
face the society and face who ever is against that