PNG Chiefs CEO Lorna McPherson says a fatwa was issued against her while she worked in Saudi Arabia, prompting her to leave the country. The Scottish-born telecommunications executive also described strictly enforced rules for women at the time as “much strict
Lorna McPherson didn’t have to be “run out” to feel she had reached her limit in Saudi Arabia.
The PNG Chiefs CEO. the Scottish-born head of the Port Moresby-based NRL club. has revealed she fled after religious officials put her at the centre of a fatwa while she was working in telecommunications and living in the country with her then-11-year-old son. She said the conditions for women were so restrictive that she felt she needed to keep a close watch on herself.
McPherson told The Australian: “You basically get a fatwa [a formal ruling on a point of Islamic law] when you’re doing something that’s not quite right in a religious way. I was told that I needed to watch myself.”
She said her experience stood in stark contrast to how Saudi Arabia later changed. “Saudi wasn’t how it is now. If you look at the transformation that country has had, it’s been an amazing journey,” McPherson said.
But when she was there, she insisted, it was “much stricter.” And for her, that strictness didn’t sit comfortably alongside the work environment she found herself in. “But when I was there, it was much stricter. I was a woman working in a man’s world.”
The rules, she said, weren’t simply inconvenient. They shaped daily life in ways that left her describing a workplace split along gender lines. “It was segregated. You didn’t have men and women working together in one environment. It wasn’t acceptable.”
The turning point. McPherson said. came around the simple act of driving—something that. at the time. women in Saudi Arabia weren’t legally allowed to do. She previously said her desire to “drive change” contributed to her leaving the nation. and in her latest comments she described how the inability to drive felt like a form of separation.
“Not being able to drive at the time was unique,” McPherson said. “It was like segregation as well where we had men working in some areas and women working in others and it was genuinely very surreal.”
She said there were meetings with men, but the structure of those interactions fed into why she eventually changed jobs. “There were meetings with men but that was part of the reason I left in the end, it was causing issues about the fact I was a female trying to drive change.”
McPherson summed up the decision in plain terms. “I wasn’t run out of the country, but I thought it was better for me to change jobs. That’s what led me to PNG.”
Back in Port Moresby, the consequences of that earlier life disruption are now written into the momentum of the PNG Chiefs. Under McPherson’s leadership, the club has made waves with major recruitment and bold moves that have quickly elevated its profile in the NRL.
The Chiefs’ signature statement has been the signing of Wests Tigers star Jarome Luai, described as stunning the league when he “put pen to paper.” The deal will see Luai play out of Port Moresby in 2028 and 2029.
The club has also secured Souths star Alex Johnston, Roosters utility Connor Watson and English international Matty Lees, with McPherson now focused on taking the same fearless energy into building the club further.
To describe her coaching-style confidence, McPherson pointed to legendary Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson. “I liked his honesty. He was a real person. He was never frightened to say things people didn’t like,” she said.
That blunt approach, she added, is personal. “That’s how I am as a person. I don’t have enough time in my day to bulls**t or listen to it from other people.”
For McPherson, the story of a fatwa in Saudi Arabia and the choices that followed isn’t just a past chapter—it’s the start of the path that brought her to the PNG Chiefs, and to a new battleground where she believes she can keep pushing for change.
Lorna McPherson PNG Chiefs NRL Saudi Arabia fatwa Port Moresby Jarome Luai Alex Johnston Connor Watson Matty Lees women driving Saudi Arabia telecommunications
Fatwa fear?? Sounds like she got dramatic, idk.
Wait so she said she had to watch herself… but isn’t that just like normal rules? I mean women always had restrictions there, right? Still, crazy that it followed her to PNG Chiefs.
Driving being the turning point makes sense I guess. Like if you’re stuck in a segregated life and can’t even do regular stuff, what else can you do. But also how does a fatwa even get issued to a telecom CEO?? Sounds like politics or someone just hated her, not like religion.
I don’t buy the ‘Saudi later changed’ part like it fixes everything. People act like because something improved, the old stuff wasn’t horrible. Also Port Moresby NRL chief?? How is this news even connected to football? Feels like headline bait but still makes me mad.