Women members will be appointed to the boards of directors of Tawafa organizations starting from the next sessions of these organizations, an official of the Ministry of Haj said recently.

“Women directors will be nominated and not elected as in the case of male members of the board of directors of Tawafa organizations. Their names will be announced after the election of male members are completed and the final results have been published,” Undersecretary at the Haj Ministry Hussain Al-Sharif said.

Al-Sharif added that the elections to the Tawafa boards would be on an individual basis and not by group representation, Al-Madinah daily reported.

“This is the first time women are getting an opportunity to sit on the boards of directors fulfilling their desire to have their own representatives to voice their concerns and views besides their participation in the development of Tawafa organizations,” he said. The new statutes empower the minister to appoint two women members to the boards with the system being reviewed every five years.

Al-Sharif said women directors’ work would be in the administrative sector. They need not take up any field task. The minister has paid considerable attention to the new statutes governing the elections beginning from the setting up of an experts committee to identify the best election method after studying elections in establishments inside and outside the Kingdom, the official said.

The team did extensive studies and met with board members of these establishments and Tawafa officials in addition to taking an opinion poll from the members of the establishments in order to learn the views of all concerned parties and the officials of the ministry who witnessed the past three elections before the drawing up of the new statutes. Prior to the submission of the draft statutes a workshop was conducted with the participation of the Tawafa workers, experts in the field, supervisors of elections for municipal councils, the chambers of commerce and industry, and members of the boards and ministry officials.

 
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