A female journalist has made history by becoming the first woman to anchor the main news bulletin on Saudi Arabia’s state-run TV channel. Weam Al Dakheel co-presented Al Saudiya’s 9.30 PM news bulletin on Thursday along with a male colleague. The journalist was hailed on social media, where people praised her appearance as a milestone in the deeply conservative kingdom.
Previously known as Saudi TV Channel, Al Saudiya is run by the Ministry of Culture and Information and was recently relaunched to highlight various progressive initiatives associated with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s ‘Vision 2030’. Saudi Arabia has already rolled out its modernisation plan by allowing women to drive, to attend football games and introducing more flexibility for women to choose jobs that lie outside existing gender specific career choices. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman hopes to promote women to take over nearly one-third of the workforce by the end of the next decade, up from the current 22 per cent.
Weam has previously been employed as a reporter for CNBC Arabia and as a presenter for the Bahrain-based Al-Arab News Channel.
