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A job announcement for 30 female train drivers in Saudi Arabia has attracted 28,000 applicants, highlighting the sheer volume of demand for women’s employment as the conservative Muslim kingdom is boosting economic opportunities for them.
Spanish-based Spanish railway company Renfe said today that its online assessments of English-language education and skills had helped halve the number of candidates and are expected to complete the selection by next month.
The 30 women who will run high-speed trains between the cities of Mecca and Medina will undergo a year of paid training, authorities said.
Renfe says she wants to create opportunities for women in local businesses. The company says it employs 80 men to run trains in Saudi Arabia, while it has 50 others under construction.
Employment opportunities for Saudi women are currently limited to teachers or health workers, due to strict gender segregation rules.
Only in 2018 did women gain the right to drive a car.
But in the last five years the mass of women in the workforce has doubled as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman seeks to open up and diversify the economy.
The gender issue process for Saudi Arabia comes at a time of meticulous analysis by the West especially of the human rights record against women rights activists and the macabre murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi by state intelligence assassins in 2018.
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