First all-women media team to be set up in Saudi Arabia

MAKKAH: The first female media and public relations company in the Kingdom’s history has been set up with the aim of highlighting the role of women in serving the Two Holy Mosques.

The General Presidency for the Affairs of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque announced the move.

Dr. Mohammed Hindiya, head of the media department at Umm Al-Qura University, said: “It is a great step we have been longing for for so long since half the pilgrims are female. This is a good reason to establish this completely independent department to highlight the role of women in Islam and the services they provide in serving pilgrims.”

Dr. Salem Arija, director general of public relations and media department at the General Presidency for the Affairs of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque, said they wanted to highlight the important role Saudi women play in serving the Two Holy Mosques.

“This initiative stems out of our deep belief in its pivotal role in serving pilgrims,” he added.

Dr. Arija underlined that the pioneering step aims to empower women in various media fields. “It is a vital role that will highlight the leading role of women in serving pilgrims and achieve the objectives of providing the best services in the field of media and public relations,” he said.

The female appointees will be highly qualified and multilingual so that they are able to serve pilgrims from inside and outside the country.

“Some of the duties assigned to this specialized department include receiving media delegations from abroad, communicating with women’s media outlets, (they will need to) provide proper media and journalistic content in several languages,” explained Dr. Arija.

Dr. Hindya noted that the establishment of this type of media department requires concerted efforts to be successful, stressing that the Umm Al-Qura university was the first university to have a department dedicated to public relations.

“This would give a varying image of media in Makkah, especially that both Makkah and Medinah abound with rich historical heritage, in which women have played prominent roles, some of which have been documented, while others have not been properly covered,” he said.