A woman has been appointed editor-in-chief of the Saudi Gazette, the first female editor of a national newspaper in the conservative kingdom.



Somayya Jabarti took the reins of the English-language newspaper from Khaled Almaeena, who became editor-at-large.

“There’s a crack that has been made in the glass ceiling. And I’m hoping it will be made into a door,” Jabarti told Al Arabiya News. “This is a first for a Saudi daily… A mold has been broken where editors-in-chief of Saudi daily newspapers are concerned.”



Jabarti spoke of the responsibility she feels in the new position, given that her success may have a bearing on other women’s careers. “Being the first Saudi woman [newspaper editor] is going to be double the responsibility... One’s actions will reflect upon my fellow Saudi women,” she said.



Jabarti was previously the paper's deputy editor. Prior to that, she was deputy editor of Arab News, a Saudi English newspaper based in Jeddah.



"Today I proudly leave my nominee, a female journalist - Somayya Jabarti - who will take the helm of the paper," Almaeena wrote in a farwell letter to the paper's readers. "She has been associated with me for almost 13 years, and I’ve had the goal almost as long of wanting to see a Saudi woman enter the male-dominated bastion of editors-in-chief. It was not a question of gender but of merit that decided and earned her this opportunity."



Almaeena took over the editorship of Saudi Gazette in April 2012, having twice been editor of Arab News, from 1982 to 1993 and from 1998 to 2011.

