BY JEFF CHU Davos
| JANUARY 29 |
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Assilah al-Harthy is managing director of Al-Harthy Group and one of the
only female executives in Oman. After al-Harthy graduated from high
school, she asked her father to let her go abroad for university. He
refused. So she studied in Oman, gaining an education degree before
joining the family firm-a rare move in Omani society. After several
years, her father permitted her to enroll in Harvard Business School,
from which she graduated in 1999.
Traditionally a real-estate concern, Al-Harthy Group is expanding into
information technology-related services, particularly tech training,
under al-Harthy's leadership. "Oman's population needs a lot of training
after high school," she says. She also believes that young people need
examples to help redefine the role of women in the business community.
She is organizing a forum, scheduled for next autumn in Oman, to bring
businesswomen together to network among themselves and interact with
students.
Al-Harthy sat down in Davos to talk with TIME's Jeff Chu about her
experiences as a woman in a male-dominated business environment and her
thoughts on the future for Oman and its young people. Excerpts from her
comments:
On the special challenges facing her as a businesswoman:
I was the first [woman to work for the family business] for about four
years in the whole country. Nobody else let their daughters work . For my
father to take me seriously, it took me some time. If I were my brother,
he would have clapped his hands. With my education, if I had been allowed
to travel, I would have done much better at this stage. Needless to say,
I demonstrated I could work. I joined the Harvard Business School and my
father allowed me to go at that stage. But it was like I had to
constantly prove that I was worthy of as much as my brothers were.
On interactions with the Omani business community:
I am currently also the only female member of the Chamber of Commerce. I
was appointed by His Majesty the Sultan to this board 1 1/2 years ago.
For me, that was a dramatic change. I was going from my isolated world of
my father's company to a political, more interactive place. In the
beginning, that caused me to think, "What are they expecting of me?"
because I was really dealing with tribes that are very, very old.
It was like, "We have to work with her because she is from His Majesty.
We have to behave ourselves. We don't know how to react to her. Maybe she
doesn't know what she's talking about, but we'll find out." And they
found out that I would go to meetings and I would ask questions and I
changed the committee I was responsible for. Now the chairman of the
committee says to me, "Whatever you want, I will sign off on." So that's
how far we have come after a year and a half.
On perceptions of working women in Omani society:
They tend to tell you, "We have no problems [working with women]," but in
reality, you can feel it. It's not an open statement. It's like, "Yeah,
we believe in women," and so forth, but in the middle of the meeting,
they say things like, "Many women don't know what they are cooking at
home today." You sit there and you think to yourself, "This is
contradictory to what you said in the beginning. Do you really believe
that I have to know what's cooking at home to be a good woman?" There is
more in life than that!
I think for many, they do not even know that they are thinking on two
tracks. They believe in you, they want you to succeed, but [they think],
"Please don't come near us. Don't come near my home. Do it in your own
space and don't interfere with my life." It's something that scares many.
On conservatism in the culture and interaction with the West:
I would say we are medium. We are not very conservative like Saudi Arabia
is, and we're not very open, like Egypt is. That's too open for us. We
are in between. We have no problems with the West. One of the good
reasons why we see them as that is because we have lots of people working
in our countries who are from the West. We have learned to deal with
them. Now we are able to communicate with anyone we want, anywhere in the
world. Living in an oil country and attracting all these people who have
migrated to Oman to work has taught us as Omanis to integrate much more
with the international community.
On her message for Omani girls:
I'll tell you a story. I was invited by a girls' college in Oman, and I
spoke to them about what it means to run your own business. I gave them
experiences from around the world. I didn't know who the girls were. It
turned out that one of them was the daughter of the president of the
Chamber of Commerce. The next time I met him, he said, "My daughter was
in the room you were speaking in. She came back and said she wants to
become like you." And he looked down, and I looked down. But I wanted to
have a look at his face because I could just imagine [the expression].
Things do change. I want to be a role model for them. When I was growing
up, I didn't have a role model. I just started on my own. I think I was
strong enough to do it on my own. But many girls want to have someone to
look up to, to say, "If she can do it, I can do it."
On her message to the world regarding Oman, perceptions of the
traditional culture and change:
It's very difficult to talk about Arabia as one culture, but I break it
down into two categories: 30 years and below, that's the new generation.
30 years and above, it's a different age. There was no oil then. Whatever
you see today is only the outcome of 30 years . Arabia is not somewhere
where transportation was there. There was no such thing as a country. It
was desert all around, with different tribes all around. Now give me a
country where, in 30 years, they have been able to fully educate girls
and boys, provide for both at the same time, health care and everything.
Tell me that this was immediate within 30 years . Now you're talking
about civilized society. What do you expect?
You need a long time for change. I invite you to come and see. Whatever
you see is the reality, not just those things you hear. When I see with
my own eyes and my ears, then I am seeing and listening at the same time.
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