As society opens, Saudi women surge into job market

Yahoo – AFP, Haitham El-Tabei, April 28, 2020

The number of Saudi women who have entered the job market has surged on the
back of social and economic changes that have swept across the strictly
conservative Muslim kingdom (AFP Photo/FAYEZ NURELDINE)

Riyadh (AFP) - Like thousands of Saudi women, Rouaa al-Mousa entered the workforce as reforms sweep the ultra-conservative kingdom and is certain that neither grumbling male bosses nor the coronavirus will change that.

Armed with a college degree but bound by conservative Saudi attitudes to women working, the 25-year-old was expecting to wait years before finding a suitable job.

But Mousa graduated in the midst of changes in the kingdom that have seen women flood the labour market.

She got a job working the evening shift as a receptionist at a government institution in Riyadh -- part of a mixed team of 10 women and six men.

And although the coronavirus has threatened a global recession and put Mousa in lockdown for now, she is confident the long-term trend of getting women into the workforce is here to stay.

"I wanted to do my best during my studies so that I could get a job in academia afterwards, because that was the best option available for us. But big changes happened during the past four years," she told AFP.

"Almost all of my friends are now working, and when one of them doesn't get a job, it seems strange."

For decades, straitlaced Saudi society offered limited opportunities for women seeking a paid job and the few who did find work were mostly restricted to the health and education sectors.

The number of working women in Saudi Arabia has reached 1.03 million in the third 

quarter of 2019 or 35 percent of the total workforce, compared to 816,000 in 2015, 

according to official figures (AFP Photo/FAYEZ NURELDINE)

An oppressive "guardianship" system also gave male relatives the right to object to the women's professional aspirations.

But change came in mid-2016 when Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman unveiled his "Vision 2030" plan aimed at diversifying the kingdom's economy and ending its addiction to oil.

The national blueprint promotes the tourism and entertainment sectors, while opening wide the doors of the labour market to millions of women by paring back the restrictions that had constrained them.

'The crisis will pass'

Fatima al-Dakhil got her big break as a sales manager at a French company in the Saudi city of Khobar after months of job hunting, but just weeks later Saudi Arabia took strict measures to combat coronavirus.

The kingdom has so far recorded the highest number of cases in the Gulf with more than 17,000 infections and 139 deaths.

Despite being frustrated by the lockdown, which has forced her and hundreds of thousands of others to abandon their offices and work from home, Dakhil is confident that women across the country will continue to pursue careers.

"All my girlfriends have joined the labour market," the 25-year-old told AFP, solemnly expressing hope the virus "crisis will pass".

Rodina Maamoun hired 19 young women to work in stores selling women's 

accessories, almost entirely replacing male employees (AFP Photo/FAYEZ 

NURELDINE)

Saudi women have now penetrated professional spheres at all levels -- they are bankers, business owners, heads of financial institutions, border crossing officers, civil defence members, food cart vendors and shoe sellers.

Male employees report that their workplaces have changed dramatically -- among the many small revolutions are women's toilets which have been introduced for the first time in some places.

Saudi saleswoman Sarah Al-Dosari, 23, works at a clothing store run by three women at the Panorama Mall in the centre of Riyadh.

"People's perspective towards working women was bad," said Al-Dosari.

But this attitude has been consigned to history, she said. "Now customers say they are proud of us."

The number of working women in Saudi Arabia reached 1.03 million in the third quarter of 2019, 35 percent of the total workforce, compared to 816,000 in 2015, according to official figures.

Rodina Maamoun has been tasked by the owner of five stores selling women's accessories with introducing women onto a formerly all-male staff.

"Customers, especially women, feel more comfortable with female assistants -- sales and profits have risen," said the Saudi who employed 19 young women, almost entirely replacing the men.

Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has sought 

to shake off his country's ultra-conservative image (AFP Photo/Fayez Nureldine)

A woman's world?

Since the rise of Prince Mohammed, Saudi Arabia has witnessed major social and economic changes.

Women are now allowed to drive cars, cinemas have reopened and genders are permitted to mix at events, including concerts, and in public places.

The reforms have also been accompanied by a crackdown on dissent that has drawn widespread criticism.

Some of those detained and allegedly tortured in custody are women's rights activists who were prominent in the campaign to end the driving ban.

Although the changes have been uneven, they have emboldened Saudi women to address decades of discrimination and marginalisation, including graduates who are returning from Europe and the United States to seek jobs at home.

"Empowering Saudi women means empowering the Saudi family," said Rania Nashar, CEO of Samba Financial Group, the first Saudi woman to hold such a senior position.

Saudi women "are ambitious and passionate about playing a role in shaping the future of their country", she said

Japan offers $930 virus stimulus payment to all residents

Yahoo – AFP, April 17, 2020

Abe said the next two weeks were crucial for containing coronavirus (AFP Photo/STR)

Japan will offer a cash payment of 100,000 yen ($930) to every resident, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced Friday, as measures to contain the coronavirus decimate the world's third-top economy.

"We are moving quickly to deliver cash to all people," Abe said in a televised news conference to explain his decision to expand a state of emergency nationwide.

An initial plan to provide three times that amount to households, which have seen incomes slashed because of the coronavirus, was ditched and Abe apologised for the confusion.

Japan has seen relatively few cases and deaths compared to hotspots in Europe and the United States but a recent spike in Tokyo -- which logged a daily record 201 new cases on Friday -- has sparked concern.

Abe initially declared a state of emergency in seven regions of the country but expanded this on Thursday to include the entire country.

He said this decision was taken in a bid to restrict domestic travel during the Golden Week holidays in late April and early May, when many Japanese leave cities to visit family elsewhere.

The state of emergency hands regional governors the power to demand people stay indoors but stops far short of restrictions seen elsewhere as there is no punishment for transgression.

Abe said authorities would reassess the situation on May 6 at the end of the public holiday, saying: "If we can all refrain from going out, we can drastically reduce the number of patients in two weeks."

"The future depends on our behaviour," said the prime minister, saying his goal for everyone to reduce social contact by at least 70 percent was not yet being achieved.

The Japanese economy was heading for recession even before the coronavirus crisis, contracting by 1.8 percent in the final quarter of last year.

Since then, tourism has dropped by as much as 90 percent, industry and trade have ground to a halt and the virus forced the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics that was seen providing a boost to the economy.

Last month, Abe unveiled a package of stimulus measures worth around $1 trillion to protect jobs, bolster the medical sector and ease the pain for working families.

A delivery of two masks to each household also began on Friday, although the move has been greeted with much derision online.

Ex-North Korean diplomat wins parliamentary seat in South

Yahoo – AFP, April 16, 2020

Defector and former North Korean diplomat Thae Yong Ho celebrates his election
in the Gangnam constituency on behalf of the conservative United Future Party
(AFP Photo/Ed JONES)

A former senior North Korean diplomat won a parliamentary seat in Seoul Thursday, becoming the first defector to be directly elected by South Korean voters.

Thae Yong Ho, who was Pyongyang's deputy ambassador to London before fleeing to the democratic South in 2016, shed a tear as he sang South Korea's national anthem after his win was confirmed in the early hours.

He stood for the main conservative opposition United Future Party (UFP) and took 58.4 percent of the vote in his Gangnam constituency, the wealthy Seoul district made famous by rapper Psy.

"Today is a very historic day not only for me but also for the history of Korea," Thae told AFP shortly after his victory was announced.

Officially he ran as Tae Ku-Min -– a pseudonym he registered under on arrival in the South to initially make it harder for Pyongyang's agents to track him down.

Thae comes from a family with good revolutionary credentials, but fled his post in London in August 2016 after becoming disillusioned with Kim Jong Un's regime.

He has since become a prominent and outspoken critic of Pyongyang and the engagement approach pursued by South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

Moon's Democratic party secured the largest absolute majority in the National Assembly since the advent of democracy in 1987, on a turnout of 66.2 percent -- the highest at a parliamentary election for 28 years.

Thae said his victory will give hope to the North Korean people and the elite, and demonstrate the "real nature of free democracy of South Korea".

His election could be a window to enable North Koreans to "understand how free and democratic election would go", he said.

North Korea holds an election every five years for its rubber-stamp legislature, known as the Supreme People's Assembly, but the ballot papers for the vote each only have one name.

"One day in the future I'm sure North Korean people will adopt the same method of election process in North Korea," Thae told AFP in an interview during his campaign.

Ji Seong-ho, the crutch-wielding defector hailed by US President Donald Trump in his 2018 State of the Union address, won a proportional representation seat for the UFP in Wednesday's vote.

About 33,000 North Koreans have fled to the South in the past two decades, but it is rare for high-level officials to defect.

The North's state media has denounced Thae as "human scum" and accused him of embezzling state funds, raping a minor and spying for South Korea in exchange for money.

North Korea's Kim reshuffles top governing body

Yahoo – AFP, Claire LEE, April 13, 2020

Kim has established an iron grip over the levers of authority in his nuclear-armed
country since inheriting power in his late 20s in 2011 (AFP Photo/STR)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has carried out a major reshuffle of his State Affairs Commission, official media reported Monday, replacing more than a third of its members.

Kim has established an iron grip on the levers of authority in his nuclear-armed country since inheriting power in his late 20s in 2011.

He is chairman of the SAC -- the North's highest decision-making body -- and five of its 13 other members were replaced at a meeting of the country's rubber-stamp Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) parliament on Sunday, the state KCNA news agency reported.

"This is a rather large scale of SAC membership shuffle," said former US government North Korea analyst Rachel Lee.

Pictures carried by the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper showed hundreds of lawmakers sitting in close proximity to each other without wearing protective masks.

A cabinet report reiterated the North's insistence that "not a single case" of the coronavirus pandemic that has swept the world since emerging in neighbouring China has been reported in the country.

Pyongyang put thousands of its own people and hundreds of foreigners -- including diplomats -- into isolation and mounted disinfection drives as it sought to prevent an outbreak, which experts say could be devastating given its weak health sector and widespread malnutrition.

"State emergency anti-epidemic campaign will continue to be intensified to prevent the spread of COVID-19," the cabinet report said.

There was no mention on KCNA of Kim presiding over the meeting himself, and he did not appear in photos of it.

"The fact that North Korea went ahead with the SPA suggests the country's confidence in managing the coronavirus situation," Lee told AFP.

"The fact that the attendees were not wearing masks only reconfirms that."

'Serious mistakes'

The new SAC members include Ri Son Gwon, a former senior army officer named as foreign minister earlier this year, while his predecessor, career diplomat Ri Yong Ho, was removed.

Another former foreign minister, Ri Su Yong, was also taken off the committee.

Under Kim the North has made rapid progress on its nuclear arsenal, launching missiles capable of reaching the whole of the US mainland, and has been subject to increasingly stringent UN Security Council sanctions as a result.

Talks with the US have been largely deadlocked since the collapse of the Hanoi summit last year over sanctions relief and what the North would be willing to give up in exchange.

A budgetary report submitted to the SPA said 15.9 percent of state spending this year would be devoted to defence, KCNA said, a marginal increase on 2019.

The cabinet report acknowledged that "serious mistakes" were found in its work last year.

"They taught a serious lesson that if the officials in charge of providing economic guidance fail to fulfil their duty," the authorities' economic goals will not be achieved, it said.

North Korea "apparently wants to show its institutions are working and national safety is under control, while trying to lower public expectations about the economy by blaming the ongoing global pandemic," Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, told AFP.