Women speakers at Lipton's inspirational discussion meeting
The “Inspirational Dialogues” initiative for women, the first of its kind in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It aims to lay the foundations for an interactive dynamic platform gathering multiple generations of girls and women from Saudi society which is full of creative women who had overpassed social, economic and educational challenges during the journey of esteem-achievement and their belief in issues related to personal, individual, or community development topics.
The first meetings of the inspirational dialogues under the title " Your Success is Our Inspiration " adopted by Binzagr Unilever "Lipton", comes in line with the corporate social responsibility programs which the company is committed to, and it was hosted by Dr. Aisha Netto ,member of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Chief Broadcaster in the English section at Jeddah Broadcasting Station Samar Fatani and Captain Lina Al-Maeena, founder of the first women sports team in the Kingdom, where they shared their experiences and the obstacles they faced at the beginning of their careers and life. They also given many advices and guidelines to the audience of girls and women, and thanked Lipton for this real initiative which is the first of its kind geared specifically for girls and women in the Saudi society.
Tawfiq al-Akhrass, Director of Food and Beverages at Unilever Saudi Arabia, said: “We at Lipton share today with Saudi women and girls from different generations the opportunity to achieve success in various aspects of life through getting knowledge on the experiences of our guests and their contributions to serve their nation and their community. Lipton will do its best to continue to provide all forms of support, and within a long-term strategy that extends to all cities in the Kingdom.” He concluded by saying that the inspirational dialogues of Lipton provides a real platform for women to achieve success after another , and outline our belief in Unilever Lipton that small actions can make a big difference.
While speaking, Dr. Aisha Netto gave an advice for Saudi women to arm their selves with knowledge which have been and remain the most important need of women, to support their journey and achieve success.
According to Dr. Netto, its important to provide further support for the Saudi women in various sectors, she justified that by saying there is no enough support for the Saudi women in the financial and business sector, stating that all we see from the experience so far is an individual effort does not receive the full support of government agencies.
Dr. Aisha demonstrated that the time when the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz - may God protect him - took over the reins of power in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, was a turning point in the journey of Saudi women, as they got full support and appointed in a number of positions that were not occupied by the former, Now you can see women in the position of Deputy Minister and an active member of the boards in organizations. She urged the audience to exert more efforts, wishing Saudi women to find a place for her in the Shura Council and the Council of Ministers and Municipal Councils.
Dr. Netto gave six words of thanks the first of her husband Hamid Netto, thanking him for his support and patience on her practical and scientific life as she completed her studies while she was married; and the second for women and men of the Kingdom who trust us and were patient on us every day; and the third to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques for his support of women in my country, God bring him back to us safely and victoriously; and the fourth to my daughter, Dr. Ahlam; and fifth to my son Engineer Helmi, who works with me and share my successes and failures and be patient on the ideas of my generation and tries to explain to me the value of technology; and the sixth, to Lipton on this women initiative.
Chief Broadcaster Samar Fatani discussed the emergence of educated women who are equipped with same levels of qualifications and skills of other women in the world, which is one of the most important challenges that faced Saudi Women, where the starting point was Saudi women to enter the international community and the recognition of their existence between Islamic countries and among the ladies of the world. Where the participation of women in the media opened the doors for the consideration of many issues, to stand by the affected women in society, and to highlight the achievements of Saudi women.
Al Fatani added that women in the media faced all the challenges in a spirit of optimism and enthusiasm which is the secret of our success as journalists, difficulties didn’t disappoint us to urge officials to the need for the political decision to remedy the situation of women and create opportunities for women in various areas or secure women's sections in all government departments to ensure the service of women and enhancing their role in the society.
My enthusiasm will continue in the face of challenges that makes on obstacle to the empowerment of Saudi women in order to have a leading role representing Muslim women in an honorable way and makes them a good example for our daughters and the Muslim world, and I think, what distinguishes the successful women in the media today is their ability to make an impact and confront the thought which hampers development and keep pace with the age.
Fatani said that there are several attempts to revive the salons of literature in the Kingdom and these attempts still limited and faces several challenges in our society, although their objectives are literary and social, not political and that the anticipated role of women literary saloons is to spread awareness and education and the development of thought and exchange of views among women for the development of community and building a prosperous future for our sons and our daughters. Fatani also commended the initiative of inspirational dialogues of Lipton as they established a platform for women and girls in Saudi society for dialogue and exchange of different cultural, economic and community views.
Lina Al-Maeena, founder of the first women sports team in Saudi Arabia (Jeddah United) said that those who oppose women's sport in Saudi Arabia, base their ideas on the customs and traditions and to their misunderstanding of Islam, as our experience was the biggest example of Saudi women’s capacity and their ability to achieve excellence in many areas and overcome all the difficulties marked by the establishment of sports company to support sport in the Kingdom, and the establishment of a women sports team which started since 2003 and was faced by many criticisms of them describing it as satanic acts, and that our view established customs and traditions of Western and that we have turned away from our traditions and morals, to the extension they accused us of our religion.
Maena reiterated that after perseverance and unity of effort the team now has international sponsors, and officially cooperates with sports federations around the world and I am very happy that I was able to communicate a different picture of Saudi society in numerous conferences and meetings abroad, and to highlight the positive side played by Saudi women as a producer woman who can offer everything, and that the Kingdom is steadily moving in the field of women's sports. She expressed her thanks for the Lipton inspirational dialogues initiative of Lipton for its efforts in enhancing the role of women in Saudi society.
For those interested in the inspirational dialogues initiative and willing to communicate and express their views, please send email us on “Lipton.KSA@unilever.com”.
