Last month, three female pilots landed a Boeing 787 Dreamliner in Saudi Arabia, a country where women just recently got the right to vote and aren’t supposed to drive a car.
According to The Independent, “Although there is no law that prohibits women from driving, it is a rule imposed by conservative Muslim clerics.”
The three women are pilots for Royal Brunei Airlines, and this is the first ever female crew for the airline. In the photo above, from left to right: Captain Sharifah Czarena Surainy, Senior First Officer Dk Nadiah and Senior First Officer Sariana.
The comment on the Instagram photo says, “We are the Nation’s ‘Generation with a Vision’; we are the tomorrow.”
Royal Brunei Airlines also has a campaign underway targeting female engineers.
If you think about it, how often do you see women flying planes in the U.S.? According to Air & Space Magazine, only 4% of pilots in the United States are female.
In regards to women growing their presence in a male-dominated industry, Captain Sharifah Czarena Surainy said to The Brunei Times, “As a woman, a Bruneian woman, it is such a great achievement. It’s really showing the younger generation or the girls especially that whatever they dream of, they can achieve it,”
Let’s hope this serves as a great example to attract more women into the industry.