Saudi Arabia will let women become paramedics after anger at the recent death of a female student denied immediate medical treatment, the Australian reported.
About 100 female nurses would be retrained as paramedics and assigned to sites restricted to women only, Saudi health officials said Tuesday.
The move marks another small but significant step for women’s emancipation in Saudi Arabia, although it raises significant logistical questions.
Most obviously, the women will not be able to drive themselves to emergencies because of the kingdom’s ban on female drivers.
They will have to be based on-site or escorted to emergencies by men.
It is unclear whether the new paramedics will be allowed to treat male patients, raising questions about their usefulness where men and women are injured.
The move follows the death in February of a female student at King Saud University in Riyadh. Male paramedics arriving at the scene were blocked from entering the women’s campus for more than an hour. The incident caused national outrage.
Amna Bawazeer, 27, collapsed and later died of a heart attack on the women’s campus.
For many, the incident recalled the tragedy in 2002 when 15 young girls died and more than 50 were injured when a fire swept through their school in the holy city of Mecca.
Saudi religious police prevented pupils from fleeing the blaze because they were not wearing correct Islamic dress.
Despite the incident in February, conservative attitudes to women’s dress prevail in Saudi Arabia.
In a survey of female dress codes published this year, 63 per cent of Saudi respondents said they preferred women to wear the niqab or veil that covers their hair and much of their face.