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Middle East | Saudi Arabia | Culture

Saudi Arabia grants women right to obtain own passports, travel without male guardian

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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,
Middle East | Saudi Arabia | Culture

Saudi Arabia Lifts Travel Restrictions On Women

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The gradual liberalization of Saudi Arabia's repressive laws and social mores continued on Thursday with WSJ reporting that Crown Prince MBS plans to drop restrictions barring women from traveling out of the country without a male guardian's permission. Though we suspect that this time, there will be no glowing NYT op-ed praising the young crown prince - the kingdom's de facto ruler - for his reformist tendencies and his respect for human rights. It won't happen right away: WSJsays the kingdom plans to end the ban some time this year. The plan would end guardianship laws relating to travel
Middle East | Saudi Arabia | Activism

Saudi women’s rights activist Samar Badawi appears in court

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Prominent women's rights activists including Samar Badawi appeared in a Saudi court on Thursday over charges linked to their human rights activism. Badawi is the sister of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2012 for criticism of officials in the kingdom. It was the first time Samar Badawi had appeared in court since her arrest on July 30, 2018. She was apprehended along with Nassima al-Sadah, a women's rights activist from Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, and Amal al-Harbi
Middle East | Saudi Arabia | Culture

A year on the road: how life has changed for Saudi women since taking the wheel

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Ammal Farahat has been driving in Saudi Arabia for a year. To celebrate, she’s finally registering her car under her own name. She bought her VW Passat five years ago, but had relinquished control of it to her drivers – until now. A year on from the historic decision to lift the ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia, thousands of women across the kingdom have spent 12 months leading a freer existence. The move came as part of a series of reforms implemented by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman since he assumed the role of heir apparent last year. It comes as part of a larger pla
Middle East | Saudi Arabia | Culture

The Saudi government is hunting down women who flee the country by tracking the IMEI number on their cellphones

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Women who flee Saudi Arabia expect to be chased. They expect their friends to be interviewed, their social media to be scoured, their passports to be frozen. They mostly do not expect Saudi government agents to hunt down the old box for their iPhone. But according to multiple sources who spoke with INSIDER, this is what has been happening in Saudi Arabia's quest to track down the growing number of women who flee the country every year. Cellphone packaging can provide information that could — with the help of spy-grade tracking equipment — trace a Saudi runaway to within a few feet of her
Middle East | Saudi Arabia | Activism

Pull ‘inhuman’ women app, Saudi sisters tell tech giants

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Two runaway Saudi sisters have urged Apple and Google to pull an "inhuman" app allowing men to monitor and control female relatives' travel as it helped trap girls in abusive families. Maha and Wafa al-Subaie, who are seeking asylumin Georgia after fleeing their family, said Absher - a government e-services app - was bad for women as it supported Saudi Arabia's strict male guardian system.
Middle East | Saudi Arabia | Technology

Saudi app criticized for feature to control women’s travel

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The Saudi government app Absher is mostly a way for people to pay traffic fines and complete other administrative tasks electronically. But one feature isn’t sitting well with civil-rights advocates: the ability for men to grant or deny a woman permission to travel. Regardless of their age, women in Saudi Arabia must have the consentof a male relative to obtain a passport, travel or marry. In the past, a travel permit was a paper document issued by the Interior Ministry and signed by a male relative. The Absher app replaces the need for a paper document.
Middle East | Saudi Arabia | Leadership

Saudi Arabia names Princess Reema bint Bandar as its first female ambassador

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Saudi Arabia has appointed Princess Reema bint Bandar as its diplomatic representative to the US – the first female ambassador in the history of the kingdom. Princess Reema’s appointment marks the first ambassadorship for a Saudi woman. She is familiar with US politics and society, having lived in Washington when her father Prince Bandar was ambassador and studied at US universities.
Middle East | Saudi Arabia | Culture

Apple and Google Accept Saudi Smartphone App Which Tracks Women’s Movements

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Apple and Google are facing criticism for hosting a Saudi Arabian smartphone app on their platforms which allows men to track women’s movements and “stop them leaving the country.” According to Insider, the app, named Absher — which is available on Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store — is “a government web service which allows men to specify when and how women can cross Saudi borders, and to get close to real-time SMS updates when they travel.” The SMS feature reportedly notifies men “when a woman uses her passport at a border crossing or airport check-i
Middle East | Saudi Arabia | Culture

Stop portraying Arab women as victims, leading Saudi filmmaker says

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Acclaimed Saudi Arabian filmmaker Haifaa al-Mansour has a message for Western audiences: stop seeing Arab women as victims. Portraying the women of her region as strong and resilient is one of the missions of her highly-awarded films, al-Mansour — who is one of Saudi Arabia's most famous, as well as most controversial directors — told CNBC's Hadley Gamble during a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday. "Whether it's coming from the region, or internationally, I really enjoy portraying strong female protagonists, women who don't see themselves as victims," al-Mansour
Middle East | Saudi Arabia | Culture

Saudi Arabia’s enduring male guardianship system

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Saudi Arabia drew international plaudits last year when it lifted a longstanding ban on women driving. However, restrictions on women remain - most notably, the "male guardianship system", a woman's father, brother, husband or son has the authority to make critical decisions on her behalf. These restrictions were highlighted in early January, when a young Saudi woman fleeing her family barricaded herself in a hotel room in Bangkok saying she feared imprisonment if she was sent back home. A Saudi woman is required to obtain a male relative's approval to apply for a passport, travel out
Middle East | Saudi Arabia | Activism

Saudi human rights activist who broke ban on women driving arrested again

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Saudi Arabian women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul was arrested again on Sunday at King Fahad International Airport in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, for an unspecified offense. Samah Hadid, director of campaigns at Amnesty International in the Middle East, has spoken out in support of Loujain al-Hathloul and against what he considers to be a travesty of justice on the part of Saudi Arabian authorities. “The Saudi Arabian authorities’ continuous harassment of Loujain al-Hathloul is absurd and unjustifiable,” Hadid said. “It appears she is being targeted once again because of her pea
Middle East | Saudi Arabia | Politics

Doubts over Saudi order that ‘eases’ control over women

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Saudi women no longer need a man's consent to carry out certain activities, local media reported on Friday, but activists said the royal order does not go far enough. Saudi Arabia has some of the world's tightest restrictions on women, and is the only country where they are not allowed to drive. Under the guardianship system a male family member, normally the father, husband or brother, must grant permission for a woman's study, travel and other activities. But the Arab News said a royal decree issued by King Salman ordered that women are no longer required to obtain a guardian's cons
Middle East | Saudi Arabia | Law

Saudi women to get copy of marriage contracts

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Saudi women tying the knot will now get a copy of their marriage contracts, a privilege that has been exclusive to men in the ultra-conservative kingdom, justice ministry said Monday. According to a directorate issued by Justice Minister Walid al-Samaani, clerics who register marriage contracts in the Muslim kingdom will now have to hand a copy to the bride "to ensure her awareness of her rights and the terms of the contract". The decision aims to "protect the rights of the woman and facilitate procedures for her," the ministry said in a statement carried by SPA state news agency. It

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