Dubai, UAE, June 27, 2018: In the wake of Saudi Arabia lifting its female driving ban, Executive VP of the Saudi Sports Authority Princess Reema Bint Bandar Al-Saud joins CNN’s Christiane Amanpour to discuss the future of women’s rights in the country.
Key quotes below:
On the lifting of the female driving ban:
“To be able to experience in my home country what I experienced growing up in The States: movies, socialising, mobility those are monumental shifts that yes obviously we would have liked to have seen sooner but the fact that we’re doing it today for me is wonderful because there are conversations and they’re so old and they’re so tired for us and there are so many things that we as women, as the community would like to focus on that to no longer have to talk about women’s driving and to be able to be active participants, it’s a relief and now honestly the onus is on us to take the next step forward in the growth of the inclusion of women in our community… We’re taking control but we’re taking control collectively, this isn’t a singular activity this isn’t an anomaly, this is our current state and this is our future state. This isn’t something you go back from”
On the protests and arrests of female activists:
“It was a matter of national security, yes several individuals were arrested but the majority were released and from my understanding only four are under questioning currently”
On the attitude of the Crown Prince:
“One of the things I personally appreciate about the Crown Prince is he will give the directive ‘go do’ and if you come back and say I’m doing but however to get to where I need to go may I please reiterate, can I shift to make this better, he will say if the numbers make sense and the plans make sense go do it”
On whether there is a need to address guardianship law:
“Yes and honestly Christiane it’s a critical conversation to have and it’s a conversation that’s being had in the consultative council almost daily. This is a topic of conversation and I can tell you as a divorced mother of two, this is urgent…Is it going to happen today? I couldn’t tell you. Would I like to see it in the near future? Absolutely, and as a woman in government my role is actually to keep highlight the issues that will keep pushing women forward holistically not just as an elite community or as a small community it’s for a national interest and part of the changes you see today everyone says is there even a strategy, of course there is a strategy and the strategy is based on economics. The economics say you can’t have 50% of your community not participating... I need women working. Everyone is having this conversation, the women in government are having the conversation, the timeline of this change is not what I’m in control of but the dialogue and the narrative is there”
On the progression of women in sport:
“A lot of people ask me is this schizophrenic are you really moving forward and what I have to tell you is I work in the sports authority, I’ve been there since 2016, the monumental leaps that we have taken, we went from a community saying no do not participate in sport, to women entering the stadiums, to travelling the world with your female athletes and that’s just in my small sector- that’s sports. What you see as this constant change I would say today we are operating in agile, if the path we are going on does not seem to be the one that’s going to take us to a long term sustainable solution we are going to shift and we are going to shift repeatedly”
