Nahed Taher: Saudi women should work harder

“Do you mind working with men?” Nahed Taher recalls being asked before taking a job as the only woman amid 4,000 male employees at Saudi Arabia’s largest lender, National Commercial Bank. Less than four years later, the Saudi-born Taher, 43, became the first Arab woman to set up a bank, and the only woman in the Gulf to run one - Gulf One Investment Bank, which is gathering $10bn for infrastructure projects and doubled first-half profit this year. She still isn’t allowed to drive, even though she’s financed the air terminals that handle Hajj pilgrims visiting Islam’s holiest cities. Though almost half her staff are women, Taher says too few of her gender are willing to defy Saudi cultural norms and earn a living. “Women need to work harder,” Taher said in her Jeddah office, dressed in a black trouser suit, red shirt and no headscarf or veil as there were no men in the room. “I have a very open-minded family that respects men and women as equal.” Though Saudi Arabia last month granted women the right to vote in some local elections, Taher’s career path remains exceptional in the oil-rich kingdom, where mixed-gender offices are rare, some government buildings are off-limits to female visitors and women need permission from a close male relative to work, travel and get an education. The Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2010 Democracy Index ranked Saudi Arabia the least democratic country in the Middle East. Although Gulf One is based in the more liberal nation of Bahrain, Taher works from Jeddah, the Saudi commercial capital, to tap economic growth in the world’s biggest oil exporter. First-half profit more than doubled to $3.2m at the end of June from $1.2m a year earlier, according to Gulf One’s financial statements, published in June. Revenue rose 51 percent to $10.3m. Taher, who says her investors have nicknamed her “Desert Rose” as she raises funds, usually wears the mandatory black abaya, or cloak, when she goes out in Saudi Arabia. She favours Western clothes when travelling abroad. “Even if you go to the UK, it’s difficult to find a female CEO of a bank,” said Taher, who turned down a job at the International Monetary Fund to return to her native country. “It’s not just rare in Saudi. It’s globally. I’m used to dealing with men as human beings and colleagues. That’s why I don’t have a problem being amongst men.” At NCB, Taher says she hired 50 more women to join the ranks. As chief executive officer of Gulf One, Taher has hired some 30 female staff among the total workforce of 75. Ranked 72nd in Forbes magazine’s list of the “Most Powerful Women in the World” in 2006, Taher earned master’s and PhD degrees in economics from Britain’s Lancaster University and a master’s in economics from Saudi Arabia’s King Abdul-Aziz University.  “I really would love to see more professional women coming up,” she said. “Everybody I meet is supportive because they see that I’m professional.”