Male ‘guardianship’ boxes in Saudi women

Saudi Arabian laws requiring women to have male guardians have been reformed in recent years but continue to restrict and endanger them, obstructing government plans to reform the economy, US.-based Human Rights Watch says in a report.

The report drew criticism on Sunday from a government rights official, who said the system was designed to protect and help women, and was less restrictive than portrayed by HRW.

Women in Saudi Arabia must usually obtain permission from a guardian — father, husband, or son — to travel, study or marry.

These laws, making women legal wards of a male relative and backed by a powerful clerical establishment, have in recent years been reformed, with women no longer needing to obtain male guardian permission to work, HRW said in the report, Boxed In: Women and Saudi Arabia’s Male Guardianship System.

But the system remains largely intact and an impediment to realising women’s rights, it said.

Mufleh al-Qahtani, chairman of the government-licensed National Society for Human Rights, told Reuters the report confused tradition with state policy that was improving women’s status.

“It conflates the laws on women’s guardianship that authorities are being asked to amend or develop with customs prevailing in society that may... take time to change,” he said.

Dozens of Saudi women interviewed by HRW said their lives were subject to male supervision when it came to applying for a passport, leaving the country, getting married and accessing courts and medical treatment.

A 25-year-old woman referred to as Zahra, whose father used to beat her and later refused to allow her to travel overseas to study, was quoted as telling HRW: “Whenever someone tells me, ‘You should have a five-year plan,’ I say I can’t. I’ll have a five-year plan and then my dad would disagree. Why have a plan ”