When Shahd Attar applied for part-time work as an undergraduate in Saudi Arabia five years ago, she was told by her prospective employers: “I’m sorry, we don’t hire women – we don’t have rules or regulations to govern that.”

Since then, the kingdom has introduced regulations that cover the employment of women, making it easier for companies to take on female staff and Ms Attar, now armed with a masters degree in business studies, has been appointed by Cisco Systems as the computer network company’s first female account manager in Saudi Arabia.