Saudi Arabia has extremely restrictive laws governing the lives of women and curtailing their autonomy. “Under Saudi Arabia’s discriminatory male guardianship system,” Human Rights Watch says, “every woman must have a male guardian — a father, brother, husband, or even a son — who has the authority to make a range of critical decisions on her behalf. Women are required to receive guardian approval to apply for a passport, travel outside the country, study abroad on a government scholarship, get married, or even exit prison.” Since April 2017, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has taken several measures toward ending many aspects of male guardianship, including directing government agencies not to bar women from accessing services that don’t explicitly require a male guardian’s consent to the most famous directive: the September 2017 royal decree to allow women to obtain driver’s licenses without male consent and to drive without being accompanied by a male guardian, to be implemented June 24, 2018, the Guardian reported. Ali al-Ahmed, director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs, spoke with Radio Sputnik’s Loud & Clear about the development and what it means for the image, so popular in the West, of Salman as a reformer. “It was not a surprise for me,” Ahmed noted. “It was a surprise, maybe, for some people in the West, embarrassing to the Thomas Friedmans of this world … who are touting this guy as a revolutionary. It’s disgusting… Read full this story
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