Saudi Women Allowed to Obtain Passports, Travel
The Saudi government has amended
some regulations to allow adult women to travel or obtain a passport without
the permission of their guardians.
Dr. Haya al-Mani, a former member of
Saudi Arabia's Shura Council, told Asharq Al-Awsat on Thursday that “the amendment
of the system on obtaining travel documents is part of the project to
continuously empower women.”
“The real empowerment of women
starts with changing regulations and amending any system that does not grant
them rights as citizens,” she said.
The amendments to regulations also
grant women for the first time the right to register child birth and marriage
and to be issued official family documents and be eligible as a guardian to
children who are minors.
This means Saudi women have now the
right to apply for and obtain a family register from the Civil Status
Administration.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin
Salman said last October that the Kingdom would review the guardianship system
that was issued in 1979.
The decrees, issued Wednesday, were
made public before dawn Friday in the Kingdom's official weekly Um al-Qura
gazette.
They came a year after lifting a
driving ban for women.
