The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil and natural gas producer, enjoyed a dominant position among the members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Aramco, the Saudi Arabian state-owned company emerged, over a period of time, as a 'fully integrated petroleum company' with operations extending to exploration, production, refining, marketing, and petrochemical manufacturing. Aramco already had a 550,000 barrel-per-day refinery. Under a joint venture with Dow Chemicals of US, Aramco was set to double its refining capacity: 4.5 million tons a year of basic chemicals and 7 million tons of plastics were estimated to be produced. The company appointed a woman executive, Nabilah Al-Tunisi, to head the project. In Saudi Arabia, women can't vote, drive or appear in public with their heads uncovered. However, several initiatives have been taken to reform society and to give educational and employment opportunities to women, which yielded good results, and these efforts needed to be sustained and stepped up.

Questions:

What is your stance on the women empowerment issue in Saudi Arabia?

How you would compare the status of women empowerment in Pakistan relative to KSA?

Do you believe that in the era of such multinational environment, women must not be inducted on managerial post in Aramco? If yes, why?