It might be hard for us to imagine not having a woman police officer or a woman detective, but Nadeen Alsayat says she’ll be the first woman in Saudi Arabia to do police work when she goes back home next month.<\/p>\n
“I would like to work with criminals,” Alsayat said with a big smile on her face.<\/p>\n
In 2010, she and her husband decided to expand their education in America. She recently graduated with a master’s degree in criminal justice from CU Denver.<\/p>\n
Alsayat says she wasn’t sure, at first, if she would be able to use her degree at home.<\/p>\n
“In Saudi Arabia, our government does not allow the woman to work in dangerous jobs, so we don’t have criminal justice for female[s,]” she said. “Now, the government changed their minds. They’re looking to have a female in criminal justice, because in our culture in Saudi Arabia, the public places are separated, female together and male together. When they have a female crime, the detective[s] are male who interview these criminals. The government realize[d] that they should have female detective[s] to interview these female criminals.”<\/p>\n
Alsayat said there are women detectives studying in Saudi Arabia to become detectives, but those women will not be graduating until this summer, making Alsayat the first. She’s already had a couple of job offers and can’t wait to go home.<\/p>\n
“I feel this is my turn to serve my country, to try to improve my country with experiences I got from the United States and from the degree,” she said.<\/p>\n
Alsayat recently finished an internship with the Commerce City Police Department.<\/p>\n
“Sometimes when I look at the pictures I took with the detectives, with the officers, I couldn’t imagine I did it,” she said. “To be honest, the sixmonths I spent inside the police department, I think are the best days I spent in the United States.”<\/p>\n
She said the hardest part of that internship was when officers asked her to be serious and have a straight face during interviews. Alsayat said she was so excited to be doing the work. She couldn’t wipe a smile off her face.<\/p>\n
“I was so happy, and when I’m happy I just keep smiling and laughing,” she said. “They asked me to have a serious face like police officers, but I couldn’t imagine that I’m working with police.”<\/p>\n
\u00a0 It might be hard for us to imagine not having a woman police officer or a woman detective, but Nadeen Alsayat says she’ll be the first woman in Saudi Arabia to do police work when she goes back home next … Continue reading ![\"Saudi](\"http:\/\/www.w-t-w.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Saudi-Woman-Detective-a-first.jpg\")
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