Saudi Arabia’s stance on women and their place in society remains firmly under the spotlight – with many questioning if anything has changed – that’s despite the countless female engineers, managers and boardroom directors that the Kingdom so proudly boasts of.
Consider Shihana Alazzaz, the general counsel and Secretary-General to the board at the Public Investment Fund PIF.
She was the woman sitting across from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as he addressed a historic meeting on Sunday night.
Women’s status in Saudi society has been on the up since the launch of Vision 2030 in 2016, enabling them to pursue professions and positions of power they had only previously dreamt of – and Alazzaz’s story acts as a beacon of this achievement.
Impressed by her credentials, many took to social media to voice their appreciation of her presence at the otherwise male-dominated table.
Twitter user @ibrahimaljallal described her as “An excellent model for Saudi women. Her competitiveness at work is the same as any man.”
Alazzaz first joined PIF as the head of transactions in the legal division in 2017.
She is now a member of the management committee at PIF, as well as other executive committees in the fund.
Alazzaz also chairs and serves on several boards and board committees of PIF portfolio companies.
Her rise to success was not an easy one.
Her father’s death in 2002 saw her in the Saudi courts at just 16-years-old where – filled with grief – she fought for her family’s inheritance.
Armed with a handwritten note by her father, she fought long and hard to fulfill her father’s final wishes – that their guardian be her mother’s brother.
Despite her hardships, she refused to be a victim, instead choosing to chase her goals, pursue her education and make her life a success.
With her mother’s support she travelled to the UK, where she achieved her bachelor’s degree in law at Durham University.
Years later in 2019 the Kingdom’s guardianship laws saw a major overhaul as part of the ongoing Vision 2030.
The changes allowed Saudi women over 21 to be allowed to apply for passports and travel freely without the permission of a male guardian.
Other changes issued in the decrees permitted women to register a marriage, divorce, or child’s birth and to be issued official family documents – and most relevantly to Alazzaz – women were equally allowed to be their children’s guardian.
Alazzaz continued with her studies and achieved her license to practice law at the Supreme Court of New York and Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Justice.
This in itself was major achievement as women lawyers were only allowed to be granted a license to practice from 2013 by the Ministry of Justice.
Non-conformity seems to have run in her family.
Her father, Saleh Alazzaz, chose an equally unconventional career path for a Saudi, as a photographer and author – both fields previously deemed taboo in the Kingdom – having dropped out of college where he was studying engineering.
He was diagnosed with cancer when he was 40-years-old – previously seen as a healthy man – his illness shocked the family – his death 18 months later left them devastated.
Saleh was celebrated for originality, his keen eye and passion – some of his most acclaimed pieces were conceived when he was ill.
Prior to joining PIF, Alazzaz was a practicing lawyer for nine years at various international law firms where she gained exposure to legal advisory services, transactions, and litigation across multiple sectors.
She has received recognition for her work locally, regionally and internationally.
She made Forbes Middle East’s 100 Most Powerful Women of 2020, and received multiple awards including Finance Monthly Deal Maker Awards 2016, and the Women in Business Law award presented by the International Financial Law Review (IFLR).
In an interview with KRCL RadioActive in 2017 Shihana said, “My role is to ensure that I’m not the only one. And to ensure that I encourage a lot of other females to pursue this convoluted path.”
“I think we’ve accomplished quite a lot in a very short period of time,” she added.
