Restricted in many ways
Human Rights Watch urges Saudi government to stop requiring adult women to seek permission from men.
DUBAI – Human Rights Watch accused the Saudi government on Thursday of not honouring a pledge to end a male guardianship system which curbs the freedom of women in the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom.
“Saudi officials continue to require women to obtain permission from male guardians to conduct their most basic affairs, like travelling or receiving medical care, despite government assertions that no such requirements exist,” HRW said in a statement.
The New York-based watchdog said in June that Saudi representatives at a UN Human Rights Council review in Geneva had committed to take steps to end the male guardianship rule, give women full legal identity, and ban gender discrimination.
“The Saudi government is saying one thing to the Human Rights Council in Geneva but doing another thing inside the kingdom,” said HRW Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson.
“It needs to stop requiring adult women to seek permission from men, not just pretend to stop it.”
HRW said Saudi daily Al-Watan reported last week that Saudi doctors have confirmed that health ministry regulations still require a woman to obtain permission from her male guardian to undergo elective surgery.
It also said Saudi border guards at the causeway linking Saudi Arabia to Bahrain refused in June to allow renowned women’s rights activist Wajeha al-Huwaider to leave because she did not have her guardian’s permission.
Much of life in the desert kingdom is governed by the strict Wahhabi branch of Islam, and law is heavily based on sharia, or Islamic law.
Women are required to have male guardians to move in public, travel abroad, get married or even access many public services. They are also prevented from driving, making the country the only one in the world with such a restriction.
In February, Saudi officials submitted their rights record to the scrutiny of the UN Human Rights Council for the first time, defending some of the religious concepts behind Saudi law but arguing that conditions were improving.
Tags: Human Rights Watch, Saudi government, women
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