When my clients commission a presentation on the Arab region, I cannot presume that they know where it is. I always start with an unmarked map of the world where a sizeable landmass, shaded green, represents the 22 countries of the Arab League. Then I ask my clients to name those countries and to place them all correctly on the map.

If I collected a dollar from every one in the room who cannot do both or either of those things, I could . . . set up a sizeable philanthropic fund to promote Australia-Arab engagement!

But there are reasons why so many Australians know so little about the Arab region. I think these reasons are simple and list them as follows:

1. Australia’s national carrier Qantas does not fly to any Arab country, so until the Arab carriers (Emirates, Etihad, Qatar Air) took up the slack, Australians’ traveling and trade destinations were always somewhere else.
2. Australia did not colonise any Arab country and doesn’t have any military bases in the region.
3. Australia’s Semitic religious schools (Jewish, Christian, Muslim) favour archaeological-historical annals over contemporary faith practice and seldom offer contemporary case studies in science, maths, arts, SOSE, or economics.
4. Australian media reports on Arab countries are rarely filed from within those countries.

The good news is that Australians’ innocence of the region can be turned to our advantage because we carry so little baggage in our approach.

Ignorance is one thing, while a mind made up is another altogether. The ignorant can become informed – a much simpler process than ‘unlearning’ inherited information, sometimes known as ‘received wisdom’.

Australia has the opportunity to approach the Arab region with something fresh, new and highly valued by the locals.

How we communicate that is a matter for serious contemplation.

Saudi women can now contribute fully by serving on the Shura Council and standing for election to Municipal Boards. Many believe this is a reaction to the so-called Arab Spring in the region. In this piece commissioned for The Conversation I argue that it has a much longer pedigree. Read the full article.

I am really proud to have been honoured recently for the work I do to bridge the knowledge gap about Arab and Islamic culture and worldview.

To my great delight it came from Saudi Arabian students in Australia – the end-users of the service I provide to education clients. The Saudi students tell me their experience in Australia improved so dramatically as a consequence of my work that they wanted to acknowledge it and encourage me.

This is great feedback for me and my clients, confirming that professional development for personnel not only enriches their ability to do their job but positively affects the business bottom line. No matter what your business, happy customers are the greatest reward.

Read the full article here – www.austarab.com.au/whats-new-1/saudi-student-honours-aacci-member

We all know KSA is rich with oil wealth, so quoting big money (about USD13 billion) is fairly ordinary. But if women in Saudi Arabia can’t drive, open a bank account without a male relative’s direct assistance, or interact with unrelated men, how can they be businesswomen in any economically meaningful way?

In fact KSA women do own and run about 20,000 SMEs nationally. These enormous funds sit idly in banks because female entrepreneurs are averse to investment when facilities in so many sectors are at worst completely closed to them, and at best grossly inadequate.

Female financial growth basically is blocked by a resilient belief at the most conservative level of the Arabian psyche that social, hence moral norms, and Islamic proper practice are one and the same thing and thereby immutable.

The Chairman Jeddah Chamber of Commerce & Industry, the most powerful in the entire Middle East, recently faced accusations of compromising moral values by promoting the interaction of men and women in work places. In his defence he argued “It is the regulations laid down by Almighty Allah, not the customs and traditions of any society, that we follow.”

Saudi social customs can come out of religious rules, but the link is not always direct. For example, traditional social norms in Arabia prohibit free mixing of the sexes – in much the same way as traditional Australian social norms used prohibit women driving heavy vehicles, leading corporate teams, or reading the television news – yet gender segregation in the workplace was able to be overturned by law in Saudi Arabia in 2010.

This faith=social practice nexus increasingly is debated in KSA. While the folk may take time to accept change, and its economic ramifications, international business ought take due notice of what matters most, and why, in this economically and politically powerful nation.