Dalal Moheealdin Namnaqani has been made rector of Taif University's medicine faculty in Saudi Arabia and is the first female department head at a Saudi public higher education institution, the embassy in Rome said on Friday.
Namnaqani, a lecturer in medicine, was recommended for the job by Saudi education minister Ahmed al-Issa on the basis of her "impressive scientific qualifications", the Saudi embassy stated.
Taif is located in the western Saudi province of Mecca.
Saudi Arabia has three private women's universities whose rectors and faculty are all female: Effat and Dar Al-Hekma in Jeddah and Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman in Riyadh.
