WHEN Cecille El Beleidi, the British Deputy Consul General and Head of Trade & Investment Section, agreed to an interview for the Saudi Gazette, she confessed to being rather shy and anxious about it. However, from the moment she began to talk about her years and work in Saudi Arabia, the shyness and anxiety were forgotten. She has spent a total of nine years in the Kingdom – an unusually long time for an officer in the British Foreign Office – and is due to leave later this month. El Beleidi's first posting was to Riyadh where she was the Press & Public Affairs Officer as well as being the External Political Officer. “I really enjoyed Riyadh. Perhaps because the society there is a bit more restricted, you feel as though you have to make that extra effort to do things, but it is only because of my positive experiences there that I said yes to Jeddah.” With an Egyptian family name, you might think that El Beleidi could speak Arabic. Not so. When you speak to her on the telephone, she sounds perfectly English. Even more confusing is that when you meet her, she looks Oriental. Her ethnic background is, in fact, Chinese. Born in Singapore, she was adopted by British parents and raised in England, and then later married a UK national with an Egyptian ethnic origin. After nearly two years in Riyadh, El Beleidi spent a year in London dedicated to studying Arabic. “It was the 1st year of a 2-year course, but I didn't do the 2nd year, because I had to come to Jeddah. So I have good conversational Arabic – I can get by and I can read & write.” El Beleidi has found that being able to speak some Arabic has added an important extra dimension to her work and has made her feel much closer to the people – an aspect of her work that she particularly enjoys. “When I meet ladies who don't speak much English it is so nice to be able to have a conversation and to laugh and joke and find common topics in that language. I have found that people are much the same wherever you are – everybody wants the best for their children, they all want to live in a certain way and have food on the table. I am really lucky to have met such a wide range of people in Saudi Arabia.” She has found that many people have said to her that it must be difficult for a woman to work in Saudi Arabia. “Actually, the secret is that it is much better to be a woman than to be a man,” she said with an amused twinkle in her eye. “You get to see both sides of the society. The families open out to you; even if your main contact is a man, he doesn't mind introducing you to his wife, and especially to his children. And the other half of society is so much fun – the women's side I mean,” she says laughing, “yet they have got a huge gender issue that they want to get right. Some of the things that we think are important aren't necessarily important to them – such as driving. That is all the West thinks about – the women driving issue. When I was in Riyadh, driving was the least of their issues; they were more interested in whether or not they could have an ID card. They wanted to be recognized as being half of society who are living, working and raising families.” She has been following women's progress in Saudi Arabia closely. “It is all positive, particularly in business, and women are garnering a lot of support from the government. I saw that my role as coming in from another government was to support them as much as I could and to encourage them when they needed it. But they set the agenda, and they are absolutely clear on what their agenda is, and the pace they want to go. The present King has been very good to them – he listens to them, and they respect and love him very much.” On the education side, El Beleidi has seen some of the private Saudi schools and has been impressed from what she has seen there and the curriculum. “They seem to be very popular, but the State system needs some looking at.” She goes on to speak emphatically about the young people in the Kingdom. “As you may know, 60% of this country's population is under the age of 21. They are a huge resource and this country really must get it right – and it has got to start now. These young people and young minds can take this country so far – where everyone else is aging, in Saudi Arabia you have this young power to drive the country forward.” She also speaks about the differences between Riyadh and Jeddah. “A lot of people ask me which I prefer and I can't answer that because the two places are completely different. I have made some very good Saudi friends in both places. I really enjoyed Riyadh - yes, it is a little bit more staid and rigid, but the people are committed and very determined. In Jeddah, they are much more relaxed and they are fortunate to be away from the spotlight. They have a bit more freedom to do what they want – and if you want to test something out, you try it in Jeddah first, take note, and go from there. Jeddawis are very welcoming and they see a lot more visitors and tourists – although mainly religious tourists. Every year, they organise the Haj – it is like having an event three times the size of the Olympics. To manage that is no mean feat.” El Beleidi was particularly enthusiastic about the progress in the Commercial Section which has really taken off. “We went through a very difficult period but now a lot of British companies are beginning to come out here. We have had some fantastic successes. We have asked the Saudis to try and issue multiple visas to business people and they are very open to it.” Does she think she will ever come back here? “Oh gosh, I hope so! I have so enjoyed Saudi Arabia because it has promise of something in the future. It is so interesting along the way to see these things – it is like a series where each chapter ends on a ‘cliff hanger' – you want to see what is going to happen next. So I will be watching from the UK.” __
