This piece from Saudi Gazette/Okaz points out one of the problems that faces Saudi Arabia and its efforts toward modernization and reform: the bureaucracy. While the highest levels of government may propose and encourage new directions, lower level bureaucrats drag their feet and change remains unaccomplished. Here, the issue is of a woman’s obtaining a license to undertake contracting, permitted by the Ministry of Commerce, but run into the sand by the Municipality of Taif, which claims to ‘not have gotten the memo’. Whether this is truly a bureaucratic snafu or the result of a lower level bureaucrat simply not liking the new direction and therefore stalling it, is a fair question. Both are plausible, unfortunately, though patterns of behavior suggest one more likely than the other.

Businesswoman refused license
Abdul Aziz Al-Ruba’e

TAIF – The municipality of Taif has refused to issue a contracting office license for a businesswoman despite her obtaining the Ministry of Commerce’s permission to start her business.

Sources explained that there was an old circular banning women from practicing some businesses such as real estate and contracting. The sources said that the municipality was waiting for the Ministry of Rural Affairs to decide whether to issue the license or not.

The businesswoman objected to the refusal to issue the license because she has already obtained other licenses from the Civil Defense and furnished her office. She said that she was issued a commercial register in contracting from the Ministry of Commerce but the municipality refused to issue the license for opening the office because of their claims that women are not allowed to get a contracting license.

She is insisting on the license or else is threatening to sue the municipality for compensation for closing the office. – Okaz/SG