São Paulo – There was certain concern regarding the reception in Saudi Arabia to the women in the delegation travelling in the company of the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, promoted from November 28th to December 6th. After all, the country is the most conservative in the region. There, interaction between people of opposite sexes, with no blood relationship, is not encouraged, and women must wear abayas, a black garment that covers their clothes, and a head scarf.
The Brazilian delegation arrived in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, on December 3, a Friday, a resting and community prayer day for the Muslims, equivalent to the Sunday of Christians. On the following day, business roundtables were scheduled with local businessmen, at Al Faisaliah hotel, in an important business complex in the central area of the city.
Dressed according to the local customs, the Brazilians got down to business as they did in other stops of the mission: Damascus, in Syria, Kuwait, Doha, in Qatar, and Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates. The anxiety, however, was soon overcome, when they noticed that the treatment granted to them was no different from that in other countries and that the businessmen who showed up wanted to do business, no matter the gender of the negotiator.
"I was very surprised as it was very hard last year, I was stopped at the entrance to the fair," said executive Marlucia Martire, from trading company ALM Brazil, the only woman in the group who had been to Saudi Arabia before. In 2009, she travelled to Riyadh aiming at participating in Saudi Agro-Food, a food and agricultural product sector fair, but she could not enter the event, where there were only men.
Marlucia explained that all the businessmen with whom she spoke at the roundtables have already made contact with her by e-mail or telephone since she returned to Brazil. One, for example, is interested in buying coconut water and grated coconut from Ducoco, a brand represented by her company.
In the same line, Simaia Zonta, from TTBG Foreign Trade, from Santa Catarina, which exports teas, said that the greatest difference she felt in comparison with other countries, which have more liberal customs, was the need to cover herself up. "With all respect to the local culture, I couldn’t wait to remove the abaya and scarf," she said. "But the personal treatment was the same, I did not feel excluded," she pointed out.
The clothes
Denizy Alves, from Govidros, was participating in an international trade mission for the first time. She said she feared for the meetings in Saudi Arabia, but that it all went by peacefully. As was the case with Simaia, Denizy said that the main problem was the attire. "It bothered a little, we do not know how to put on the scarf as the Saudi women do, so it falls off. It was not so hot, so I didn’t suffer too much," she said. "I like living the moment, it was different, so I liked it, it was a great experience," she said. Marlucia, in turn, asked the local women to help her put the scarf on correctly.
In the case of Fernanda Tavares, from Ruette Spices, which sells black pepper, the scarf would not stay on her head. "One businessman after another sat in front of her and I had no time to get ready," he said. "I feared someone would not stop by, to talk, as I was wearing no scarf, but there was no problem. Nobody ignored me," she said.
Regarding wearing the abaya and the scarf, Cristina Guerreiro, also of the Campinas city-based Ruette Spices, said: "At first I felt outside of my ‘natural habitat,’ as if I were heading for a costume party. But later I realized that if I were to dress as I do in Brazil, that would have made me feel different. Even though the scarf kept falling off, I made a point of wearing it out of respect for local culture."
Local businesswomen
More than women offering the Brazilian products, the roundtable featured local businesswomen seeking deals. Cristina not only spoke with one of them, but she also had lunch with the potential client. "She was an importer of various products, a person who knows the market, and her phone kept ringing throughout the entire lunch," she said. "She knew what she was seeking, it was not like she had gotten there randomly," she claimed. "She was a highly skilled negotiator," added Simaia, who also spoke with the Saudi. By the way, the local businesswoman made contact with a significant share of the Brazilian companies.
In addition to the abaya and the scarf, the Saudi businesswoman also wore a "niqab," a veil that covers the face and leaves only the eyes showing. Over luncheon, attended by the businessmen from both countries, the Saudi woman claimed that she could not show her face in public, so she invited Cristina to eat lunch in a separate room.
She told the Brazilian woman that she comes from a very traditionalist family, but her father, a merchant and speaker of several languages, ended up influencing his daughter’s taste for doing business. Married and a mother of three, the Saudi businesswoman claimed that she must reconcile work and household chores. "She talked a lot about business and [local] culture, and I told her a lot about Brazil," said Cristina.
Other women also attended the roundtables, such as Iara Silva, from Rio, who converted to Islam and went to live in Saudi Arabia with her husband and son. She owns a trade representative company and attends several events with Brazilian businessmen in Saudi Arabia. Yet another Brazilian went to the meeting alongside her husband, a Saudi who speaks Portuguese.
Analyses
To Cristina, the professional treatment that the Brazilians were dispensed in Riyadh is a consequence of the very medium in which they work. "People who work in foreign trade are used to dealing with other cultures. I have no bad remarks to make at all," she said, but added: "The delegation [of the Ministry of Development] was the only reason I had the opportunity of being in the country to do my job." She claimed that she had never felt so comfortable as she took a walk in a shopping centre by the hotel.
Marlucia hear from Saudi businessmen that the country is beginning to offer a certain degree of openness, granting access to certain places to foreign women on business trips, and that native women, accompanied by their husbands, are also engaging in business activities.
"As long as cultural boundaries are respected, women can go anywhere," said Marlucia. "In 2009 [at Saudi Agro-Food], I tried to go beyond and I was shocked," said she, adding that for those travelling on business, it is best not to push the boundaries imposed by the culture of the visited country.
*Translated by Mark Ament and Gabriel Pomerancblum
