• ‘Forget everything you think you know about Saudi Arabia,’ says Grant Shapps
• Kingdom has ‘women in the workplace at levels that would be unimaginable three or four years ago’

Arab News

LONDON: Saudi Arabia’s “incredibly quick” transformation is seeing women join the workforce at “unimaginable levels,” the UK’s defense minister has said.

Praising the Kingdom as a “strong ally” of Britain at an event on the sidelines of the Conservative Party conference, Grant Shapps lauded societal change in Saudi Arabia, The Times reported on Monday.

“Forget everything you think you know about Saudi Arabia. Actually, the country is changing incredibly quickly,” he said, citing “women in the workplace at levels that would be unimaginable three or four years ago.”

He added: “What you can’t underestimate is the impact that is having on their society and the way they govern.”

Saudi Arabia’s “society is moving very much in a way we have always called for societies around the world to move,” Shapps said.