Aisha Al-Mana

Aisha Al-Mana (Arabic: عائشة المانع) is a Saudi activist and feminist who participated in various demonstrations against the ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia. She also works as director of the Al-Mana General Hospitals, and is director of the Mohammad Al-Mana College of Health Sciences,^[1] as well as a board member of Ebrahim M. Almana and Brothers.^[2] Al-Mana participated in three different campaigns to protest the driving ban. The first was in 1990, during the Gulf War, and was documented in the book The Sixth of November.^[3] Al-Mana also participated in subsequent campaigns in 2011 and 2013 as part of the Women to Drive movement.

Early life

Al-Mana was born in 1948 in the Saudi city of Khobar. She consistently cites her father, Mohammad Al-Mana, as a source of inspiration. When Al-Mana was still in sixth grade, her father, a businessman, encouraged his daughter to act as head mistress of the elementary school due to the lack of qualified women at the time (women's education is segregated in Saudi Arabia.) Although she only performed the task for a single school year, this experience designated her as the first female school principal in the history of the Saudi city of Dammam, one of her many firsts, which set a precedent and helped pave the way for women to enter the Saudi work force.

Education

After completing her study of the Quran at Al-Kutab in Saudi Arabia,^[4] Al-Mana traveled to Egypt, where she finished elementary school. Then she traveled to Beirut, Lebanon, where she obtained her high school diploma. She enrolled in the American University of Beirut, where she pursued a bachelor's degree in sociology. In 1971, she obtained a bachelor's degree in sociology from the University of Oregon, followed by a master's degree in sociology from Arizona State University. She obtained her Ph.D from the University of Colorado in 1982, becoming one of the first Saudi women to do so.

"Firsts" in the life of Aisha Al-Mana

- Al-Mana was the first female school principal in the city of Dammam^[5]

- Al-Mana was the first Saudi woman to hold the position of Director of Women's Affairs in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia ^[5]

- Al-Mana was the first woman to participate in three separate driving demonstrations in Saudi Arabia (1990, 2011, 2013)^[5]

- Alongside the likes of Soraya Al-Turki, Soraya Obeid, Fatin Shakir and Samira Islam, Al-Mana became one of the first Saudi women to obtain a Ph.D in 1981. Her dissertation title was Economic Development and its Impact on the Status of Women in Saudi Arabia^[5]

- In 1985, Al-Mana established Al-Sharika Al-Khalijiah Lil Inmaa (Al-Khalijiah Development Company,) the first company in Saudi Arabia run completely by women.^[6] The company's mission was to offer computer training and technical education to women and to establish a research center with a focus on research on women in the work force ^[5]

- Al-Mana became the first female hospital director in Saudi Arabia in 1990, when she became Director of Support Services at the Almana Group of Hospitals in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia^[7]

- By establishing the Mohammad Al-Mana College for Health Sciences and becoming director and president of the board of trustees, Al-Mana became the first Saudi woman to establish a college for health sciences in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ^[5]

Challenging the driving ban

Aisha Al-Mana was one of forty-six women to organize a demonstration in Riyadh on November 6, 1990 to protest the Kingdom's ban on women driving. Prior to the demonstration, the women had sent a petition to then-Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz, the governor of Riyadh at the time, requesting that he and King Fahad move to lift the ban.^[8] They drove their cars in a convoy until they were stopped and detained by the police. Al-Mana and several other participants described their experiences in the 2011 book, The Sixth of November. The demonstration was also fictionalized by Saad Al-Dosari in his novel, Riyadh- November 90.^[9] Most of the participants received travel bans, and those who had government jobs lost their positions.^[10]

Years later, Al-Mana also participated in two other driving campaigns. The first, inspired by the Arab Spring, took place in 2011, while the other was organized in October 2013.

Working for gender equality

Al-Mana has fought gender inequality in Saudi Arabia for decades, through various means. Some of her relevant endeavors include:

- In 2011, Al-Mana worked to reform laws that pertain to "male legal guardianship," a concept in effect in Saudi Arabia that renders adult women as legal "wards" of their husbands, fathers or brothers, by conducting several workshops on guardianship in the cities of Riyadh, Jeddah and Khobar.^[5]

- In 2013, Al-Mana participated in a symposium titled Women, Commercial Inheritance and Family Rule during which participants called for “an independent body of a judicial nature”^[11] to protect women's inheritance. Saudi women are often pressured by family members, relatives, acquaintances and other members of society to give up any funds they may be entitled to inherit so that the inheritance may be divided up among male next of kin. Al-Mana says that, “Denying women their inheritance is one of the main reasons behind family feuds.”^[11]

- Al-Mana has consistently fought against laws she perceives as being biased against women in Saudi Arabia. For example, due in part to her efforts, it became possible in 2004 for Saudi women to participate in elections for membership in the boards of chambers of commerce. She has also worked on reforms in health services.^[5]

Supporting women's education

The fact that women's education is of paramount importance to Al-Mana can be gleaned from her many endeavors, especially the endowments she has provided for some of the institutions from which she has earned degrees. These endowments are as follows:

The Aisha Almana Global Health Program

Almana has established a scholarship program at the University of Oregon, where she obtained her bachelor's degree. The program "will provide scholarships for Saudi women to study global health at the UO, fund seed grants for faculty research, help implement an annual series of speakers and workshops, and support internships for UO students in the Saudi kingdom — the UO’s first fully funded international internships in global health."^[12]

The Aisha Al Mana Endowment for Women in Nursing and the Health Sciences

This endowment supports the education of women studying nursing and the health and medical sciences, including master's degrees in the School of Nursing, the Faculty of Health Sciences, and any future relevant Masters’ or PhD. Degrees in the health and medical sciences at the American University of Beirut. Since Al-Mana has a passion for women's education, priority is given to Saudi women. If there are no eligible Saudi women applicants, then women from other Arab countries are considered.

The endowment will support at least two students per year. "A committee (including representatives from each of the following departments: Graduate Council, Financial Aid, Advancement Services, Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Nursing, and a Member-at-Large) will be in charge of assessing potential candidates, determining eligibility, and allocating support based on criteria established by the committee and that includes academic excellence, financial need, and other factors deemed relevant by the committee on a case by case basis." ^[13]

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