University of Sheffield - Beyond the veil

The first academic forum for female Saudi Arabian students has been held in the UK. The inaugural forum, at the University of Sheffield, brought together more than 100 women from the Middle Eastern kingdom studying in the UK and Ireland at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The forum was organised by Ahlam Al-Zahrani, a PhD student from Sheffield's School of Nursing and Midwifery, who said that Saudi Arabia had invested heavily in the education of women. Sheffield has a long-established relationship with the conservative kingdom: its first Saudi student graduated in 19.