Saudi Arabia allows women to travel without male 'guardian' approval

Saudi Arabia will allow women to travel abroad without approval from a male "guardian", the government said Thursday, ending a restriction that drew international censure and prompted extreme attempts to flee the kingdom.The landmark reform erodes the longstanding guardianship system that renders adult women as legal minors and allows their "guardians" -- husband, father and other male relatives -- to exercise arbitrary authority over them. The decision, following years of campaigning by activists, comes after high-profile attempts by women to escape their guardians despite a string of reforms including a historic decree last year that overturned the world's only ban on female motorists. "A passport will be granted to any Saudi national who submits an application," said a government ruling published in the official gazette Umm al-Qura.

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The regulation effectively allows women over the age of 21 to obtain passports and leave the country without their guardian's permission, the pro-government Okaz newspaper and other local media reported, citing senior authorities. Women in the kingdom have long required permission from their male "guardians" to marry, renew their passports or exit the country. The reform grants women greater autonomy and mobility, the pro-government Saudi Gazette newspaper said, hailing the decision as "one giant leap for Saudi women". The decision was met with jubilation on social media, with the hashtag "No guardianship over women travel" gaining traction and many posting humorous memes of women fleeing with suitcases and being chased by men. "Some women's dreams were aborted due to inability to leave the country for whatever reason... to study abroad, a work opportunity, or even flee if so desired," Saudi businesswoman Muna AbuSulayman said on Twitter.

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"This change means women are in a way in full control of their legal destiny." The changes announced Thursday also grant Saudi women what has long been a male entitlement -- the right to officially register childbirth, marriage or divorce and to be recognised as a guardian to children who are minors. - Crackdown and reform - The reform comes as Saudi Arabia faces heightened international scrutiny over its human rights record, including an ongoing trial of women activists who have long demanded that the guardianship system be dismantled. That includes Loujain al-Hathloul, a prominent rights activist who marked her 30th birthday this week in a Saudi prison, campaigners said.

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Alongside a sweeping crackdown on dissent, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman -- the kingdom's de facto ruler -- spearheads a wide-ranging liberalisation drive that is aimed at transforming the conservative petro-state, long criticised for its treatment of women. His reforms include the much-celebrated decision allowing women to drive in June last year, allowing women to attend soccer games alongside men and take on jobs that once fell outside the narrow confines of traditional gender roles. But while transforming the lives of many women, critics said the reforms will be cosmetic for many others until the kingdom abolishes the "guardianship" system. Some have undertaken perilous attempts to escape overseas despite the reforms. They include 18-year-old Rahaf al-Qunun, whose live-tweeted asylum plea from a Bangkok hotel in January after she fled her Saudi family drew global attention.

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Later, two Saudi sisters who sought sanctuary in Hong Kong from what they called family abuse were allowed passage to a third country that was not named for their safety. And subsequently, two other Saudi sisters fled to Georgia. The latest reform, which weakens but does not completely dismantle the guardianship system, could lead to family clashes in the deeply patriarchal society, observers warn. Saudi officials have expressed committment to fighting guardianship abuse, but have warned the system can only be dismantled piecemeal to prevent a backlash from arch-conservatives. In a one-off case last year, a Saudi court ruled in favour of a 24-year-old woman who challenged her father's decision to not let her have a passport. But until Thursday's ruling, she would have still required his permission to travel.

We are undertaking a survey to help us improve our content for you. This will only take 1 minute of your time, please give us your feedback by clicking HERE. All responses will be confidential. </s> Saudi Arabia announced a landmark change to its legal system Friday that grants women the right to work and allows them travel independently without getting permission from a male guardian. The changes aimed at empowering women in the deeply conservative society loosen the country’s “guardianship” system that restricts women to the legal status equivalent to that of minors. Women will now be able to apply for passports and travel abroad without needing their male guardian’s approval. Women will also now be able to serve as legal guardian to their children. The changes approved by the Saudi cabinet and published in the government gazette Friday also declare that “work is the right of the citizen,” formally outlawing workplace discrimination based on gender.

The changes are part of an economic and cultural overhaul by Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Last year, the women were issued drivers licenses for the first time after a ban on women driving was abolished. Under the guardianship system, all women have a male guardian, usually a husband, father or brother, that have legal authority over them. Women, for instance, still need permission from their guardian to get married or divorced, along with a host of other important personal decisions, including getting some medical procedures. Previously, women needed permission to travel and if they didn’t have a passport of their own, they were given a page in their male guardian’s passport.

“These new regulations are history in the making. They call for the equal engagement of women and men in our society,” Reema Bandar Al-Saud, Saudi Arabia’s first female ambassador to the United States said on Twitter. “These developments have been a long time coming.” </s> RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has allowed adult women to travel without permission and granted them more control over family matters, further eroding a heavily criticized male guardianship system at a time of heightened scrutiny over its human rights record.

A series of royal decrees published by the official gazette on Friday stipulated that a Saudi passport should be issued to any citizen who applies for it and that any person above the age of 21 does not need permission to travel.

The amendments to regulations also grant women for the first time the right to register child birth, marriage or divorce and to be issued official family documents and be eligible as a guardian to children who are minors.

Riyadh has long endured international censure over the status of women, who rights groups say are often treated as second-class citizens under rules requiring them to get the consent of a male guardian for important decisions throughout their entire lives, regardless of age.

Muna AbuSulayman, a prominent Saudi influencer and a former talk show host, took to Twitter along with thousands of Saudi women to celebrate what many described as a new era.

“A generation growing up completely free and equal to their brothers,” she said, referring to the freedom to travel.

The kingdom’s de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has eased social restrictions, such as lifting a driving ban for women last year, as part of a push to open up the conservative Muslim kingdom and transform the economy.

Last year’s murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the hands of Saudi agents caused a global outcry, however, and the Gulf Arab state has been widely criticized for the arrest and alleged torture of nearly a dozen women activists.

Several high-profile cases of young women seeking asylum abroad on claims of gender-based repression have added further pressure on Riyadh over the male guardian system.

Guardianship’s status between law and custom makes it a thorny issue for Prince Mohammed, who indicated last year he favored ending the system but stopped short of endorsing its annulment.

Other parts of the system remain intact. Women still need permission from a male relative to marry or live on their own.

A hashtag calling for marriage without a guardian’s consent was among the top trending along with a hashtag thanking the crown prince and another touting the new travel rules.

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The decrees published Friday also covered employment regulations that would expand work opportunities for women, who represent a big portion of unemployed Saudis. They stipulated that all citizens have the right to work without facing any discrimination based on gender, disability or age.

Prince Mohammed unveiled an ambitious plan in 2016 to transform the economy by 2030, which envisages increasing women’s participation in the workforce to 30% from 22%.

Saudi Arabia ranked 141 of 149 countries in the 2018 Global Gender Gap, a World Economic Forum study on how women fare in economic and political participation, health and education.

Many Saudi officials say the fault lies in implementation and not government policy.

Without a codified system of law to go with the texts making up sharia, or Islamic law, the Saudi police and judiciary have long cited social customs in enforcing prohibitions on women. Many aspects of guardianship stem from informal practice.

“Mohammed bin Salman has dedicated himself to fixing what extremists broke ... This is not about openness as some call it, it is about equal rights for all,” a user called Wael tweeted.

The prince has pushed back against the religious establishment, including by arresting scores of clerics and dissidents.

FILE PHOTO: Saudi students walk at the exhibition to guide job seekers at Glowork Women's Career Fair in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia October 2, 2018. REUTERS/Faisal Al Nasser/File Photo

Many citizens remain wary of the fast pace of change.

“We are a Muslim community not a Western one, may God keep our daughters safe from all evils,” said Sarah, a Saudi woman in her late 40s who declined to give her surname.

“Imagine if your girls grow up and leave you and don’t return, would you be happy?” she told Reuters. </s> Women in Saudi Arabia can now travel abroad without a male guardian’s permission, royal decrees has said.

The new rule announced on Friday allows women over the age of 21 to apply for a passport without authorisation, putting them on an equal footing to men.

Women are also being granted the right to register childbirth, marriage or divorce.

The decision follows a series of high profile attempts by women to escape abroad from the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia has long come under scrutiny over its treatment of women in the kingdom, with activists saying they are often treated as second-class citizens.

The de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has sought to ease social restrictions on women, including lifting a driving ban last year, in a bid to open up the conservative kingdom.

But he has also cracked down on women’s rights activists, putting a number of them on trial in recent months.

Saudi’s male guardianship system gives husbands, fathers and other male relatives the authority to make critical decisions about women.

Until now, this has meant women there were required to seek those relatives’ permission to obtain or renew a passport and exit the country.

But the royal decrees published in the kingdom’s official weekly Um al-Qura gazette on Friday stipulate that Saudi passports should be issued to any citizen who applies for it, and that anyone over the age of 21 does not need permission to travel.

The changes allow women for the first time to register their children’s births, as well as marriages and divorces.

They also cover employment regulations that expand work opportunities for women. Under the rule, all citizens have the right to work without facing any discrimination based on gender, disability or age. </s> Women without a passport of their own were given a page in their male guardians' passports making it impossible to travel alone.

Saudi Arabia published new laws that loosen the guardianship policy the kingdom has imposed on women on Friday. The new law allows women to apply for a passport and travel without the consent or companionship of men, according to CNN.

The new laws are a huge deal for Saudi women’s rights. They are to go into effect by the end of the month.

The kingdom has been criticized around the world for its treatment of adult women as minors.

Women were required by law to have a man’s consent to obtain a passport or travel abroad. Women without a passport of their own were given a page in their male guardians’ passports. Often a woman’s guardian is her father or husband and in some cases a son. Male permission was also required to get a job or seek certain medical procedures under the old laws.

Men had a government-sponsored app, named Absher, through which they could enforce the permissions. Activists have called on Google and Apple to remove the app from their store saying that it facilitates the abuse of women’s rights, according to Time.

The new regulations are the latest in a series of steps by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman intended to rid the kingdom of their image as one of the most oppressive places for women in the world.

In June 2018 the kingdom lifted its prohibition on women driving. He’s also loosened some rules on gender segregation and brought concerts and movie theaters to the country.

The crown prince has also been responsible for the crackdown on women’s rights activists, some of whom are facing trial and allege they were tortured in prison, according to The Associated Press.

The changes were widely celebrated by Saudis on Twitter, with many posting memes showing people dashing to the airport with luggage.

Ivanka Trump tweeted out her congratulations to the kingdom on Friday morning.

Despite the new rules, harsh restrictions still remain. Saudi Arabia follows a strict form of Wahhabi Islam with rules enforced by religious police.

Women will still need male permission to get married or divorced, open a business, and access some forms of health care.

Conservative critics of the new laws, including Muslim clerics, feel that the guardianship rules should stay as they are based on a Quran verse that states that men are the protectors and maintainers of women.

Other Islamic scholars argue this misinterprets fundamental Quranic concepts like equality and respect between the sexes.

The crown prince continues to face international criticism over the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul last year. Saudi Arabia has denied any involvement by the prince but the kingdom’s own investigators stated the operation was planned by two of the prince’s top aides. </s> Just over a year since women were granted the historical right to drive, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has now passed another monumental reform to enable females to finally obtain passports and travel alone.

According to the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Information, the amendment – which was signed by the Saudi Cabinet on Thursday – overturns the longstanding regulation that women must gain approval from a male guardian to receive a passport or were granted a page in their guardian’s passport, rendering it illegal for them to travel abroad independently.

Effective as of the end of August, the new law gives Saudi women access to passports without male approval and those over the age of 21 will be able to travel without male supervision.

The amendment marks the latest in a slow but steady effort by officials to introduce a number of sweeping reforms in the Gulf country, as part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s effort to “promote women’s rights and empowerment, equal to men.”

Aside from the landmark decision to allow women to get behind the wheel last year, in 2015 women were able to vote for the first time in municipal elections and campaigns have been bolstered to urge women into higher positions in government and the workplace.

“These developments have been a long time coming. From the inclusion of women in the consultative council to issuing driving licenses to women, our leadership has proved its unequivocal commitment to gender equality,” Reema Bandar Al-Saud, the newly-appointed Saudi female ambassador to the United States tweeted on Friday.

Riyadh in recent years has opened movie theaters and invited Hollywood entertainers to perform in large-scale concerts for all, and has additionally opened some sectors of work – including air traffic control, passport control and investigators in the public prosecution – of which women were previously barred.

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However, activists and critics continue to point to the mass divisions in gender equality and the number of stringent measures that still hamper women’s progress, in particular, the notion that females still being required by law to obtain male authorization to get married or divorced. Those who qualify as guardians to make decisions on a female’s behalf include a husband, father, brother, son.

“Women in Saudi Arabia face formal and informal barriers when attempting to make decisions or take action without the presence or consent of a male relative,” Human Rights Watch surmised in its 2019 World Report, underscoring that women face potentially unfair trials and that prior to lifting the driving ban, many female activists were detained “under dubious legal pretenses.”

The World Economic Forum’s “Global Gender Gap Report 2018” – which uses the markers of economic opportunity, political empowerment, education options, health and survival – ranked Saudi Arabia as the ninth-worst country to be female, ahead of Iran, Mali, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan and Yemen which took the bottom spot.

Nonetheless, Saudi officials told Fox News recently that the Kingdom to absolutely committed to the quest for equality – but stressed the importance of steady advancements and that while it is impossible to make changes overnight that many critics demand, change is and will continue to happen. </s> This post was originally published on this site

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iStock(RIYADH, Saudi Arabia) — Saudi Arabia is touting new relaxed laws for women — including traveling without consent from their husband or male relative, equal pay and the ability to open and run independent businesses — as part of “sweeping legal changes to enhance the role of women in society.”

The kingdom has long been one of the most restrictive for women in the entire world, though Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman has attempted to remake the image of the country in recent years as part of an initiative called Vision 2030.

Saudi Arabia announced the changes aimed at women on Friday, led by the lessening of travel restrictions. Women will now be allowed to apply for passports “independently in the same manner that men apply,” according to a release from the government. Women will also be allowed to travel freely, without the permission of a male “guardian,” including internationally.

The new travel rules will go into effect by the end of August, the country’s government said.

The lifting of male permissions on travel could be a step toward stopping the practice in other areas as well. For decades, the system has proven dangerous — and even deadly — for women. Domestic violence wasn’t a criminal offense until 2013 in Saudi Arabia.

“The Saudi state essentially treats women as permanent legal minors,” a report by Human Rights Watch said last year. “Saudi Arabia has done very little to end the system, which remains the most significant impediment to women’s rights in the country.”

In addition to changes in travel, women will now be allowed to open businesses and run them independently.

Women also can no longer be fired from employment while they are pregnant, and have been granted equal pay to men in the workplace.

“The knowledge, skills and capabilities of Saudi Arabia’s women are among the greatest assets of the country, and the government is committed to putting women at the center of the social and economic transformation taking place under Vision 2030,” the country said in a statement.

The World Economic Forum’s 2018 Global Gender Gap Index painted a grim picture of Saudi Arabia’s inequality. Only eight countries in the world — Yemen, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali and Iran — rank lower on the group’s gender gap scale (141st out of 149). The index factors in political empowerment, health, education and economic opportunity.

Bin Salman has opened movie theaters, brought in sporting events, courted tourists and glad-handed with world politicians in a bid to make the country more open to the west and less dependent on its top export: oil.

The 33-year-old de facto ruler of the kingdom has also wooed popular western musicians as part of a bid to change opinions. While artists such as Janet Jackson, 50 Cent and Future performed at a concert in Jeddah earlier this month, Nicki Minaj pulled out of the scheduled performance after pressure from fans upset at human rights violations.

Last year, Saudi Arabia allowed women to get driver’s licenses for the first time in a much-celebrated move. But that didn’t stop authorities from arresting almost a dozen Saudi women who got behind the wheel in protest a month before the ban was lifted.

The country also continues to receive widespread condemnation for human rights abuses unrelated to gender. The kingdom executed dozens of people who protested the government following alleged sham trials, and bin Salman has yet to accept any responsibility for the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018, despite U.S. and U.N. evidence of guilt. </s> Saudi Arabian women will no longer require a permission from a "male guardian" to travel or obtain a passport, according to a royal decree signed by King Salman bin Abdulaziz.

The decree, issued three days ago, clearly stresses the right of every Saudi citizen to obtain a passport, and limits the need for a guardian's approval to minors only, Arab News reported late Thursday.

The decree is written in a gender-neutral manner, and does not state any restrictions specific to women.

Until now, Saudi women have had to seek permission from a male guardian - a husband, father or other male relative to obtain a passport or travel abroad.

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Since the launch of Saudi Vision 2030, the Kingdom's authorities have addressed all flaws in the system that prevented women from living their lives securely and free from unnecessary hassles.

Princess Reema bint Bandar, Saudi Arabia's Ambassador to the US, on Friday morning said she was "elated" to confirm the new changes to the country's labour and civil law.

In a series of tweets, she said the amendments were "designed to elevate the status of Saudi women within our society, including granting them the right to apply for passports and travel independently", Arab News reported.

"These new regulations are history in the making. They call for the equal engagement of women and men in our society. It is a holistic approach to gender equality that will unquestionably create real change for Saudi women.

"Women have always played an integral role in our country's development, and they will continue to do so moving forward on equal footing with their male counterparts," she tweeted.

A number of international media outlets reported earlier this year that the decision to remove all restrictions on women travelling was being discussed at the highest levels of government and was due to be implemented before the end of this year.

Saudi Arabia's ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has eased restrictions in the country such as a ban on women driving as part of a big push to open up the country, the BBC reported.

In 2016, he unveiled a plan to transform the economy by 2030, with the aim of increasing women's participation in the workforce to 30 per cent from 22 per cent.

ALSO READ | Saudi Arabia becomes 1st Arab country to get FATF membership </s> Women aged 21 and above in Saudia Arabia can now travel alone and obtain a passport without the consent of a male guardian.

The new amendment was approved on Thursday by the Saudi Cabinet. Previously, women had to gain approval from their male guardian to obtain a passport or travel.

Women without a passport had to share a page with their male guardian in their passport. This made it impossible for women to travel alone, which rights campaigners criticized as women oppression.

The reform will come into effect at the end of August. The Ministry of Information called the amendment an effort “to promote women’s rights and empowerment, equal to men.”

Saudi Arabia has been a conservative society for many years. However, pressure from activists have urged the government to change the policies.

Women were granted driving rights in 2017 and were issued their driving licenses in 2018. The last few years also saw the introduction of the Kingdom’s first movie cinemas and first concerts.

Earlier today, Reema Bandar Al-Saud, Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to the United States of America tweeted that the updated travel and driving laws “are designed to elevate the status of Saudi women”.

However, activists claim that Saudi Arabia has a long way to go. Women still need a male guardian’s consent to get married or divorced, open a business or in some cases access health care.
Saudi Arabia grants women the right to travel without permission from a male guardian, and expands their marriage and custodial rights in a series of royal decrees.