Saudi Arabian women finally allowed to apply for passport and travel independently

Women in Saudi Arabia will finally be allowed to apply for a passport and travel without gaining the consent of a male guardian in a historic move.

The new amendment was approved by the Saudi Cabinet on Thursday and will allow all Saudi women to apply for passports “like all citizens” and for women aged 21 and above to travel independently.

Under the kingdom’s restrictive guardianship system, women are deemed legal minors and cannot marry, divorce, travel, get a job, be released from prison or have elective surgery without permission from their male guardians. Often a woman’s male guardian is her father or husband and in some cases a woman’s own son.

Most elements of the guardianship system remain in place despite the newly announced reforms – women still need the permission of a male guardian to get married or divorced, open a business or, sometimes, even to access healthcare.

They also require permission from a male relative to live on their own, as well as leave prison if they have been detained, or exit a domestic abuse shelter. Unlike men, they still cannot pass on citizenship to their children, nor can they provide consent for their children to marry.

Women also have little authority and autonomy over their own life due to a Saudi woman’s legal position being equal to that of a minor, and their testimonies in court being granted less weight than those of men.

Women had to get permission from a male guardian in order to obtain a passport or travel abroad before the new reforms. Those women who did not have a passport of their own were instead given a page in their male guardians’ passports – meaning it was impossible for them to travel without accompaniment.

The decree announced on Friday was celebrated on Twitter – with many sharing memes of women fleeing with suitcases and being chased by men. The hashtag “No guardianship over women travel” gained traction.

However, the move also provoked a backlash from conservatives who posted clips of senior Saudi clerics in past years arguing in support of guardianship laws.

Critics have been wary of the new reforms on Twitter – with a hashtag calling for marriage without a guardian’s consent among the top trending.

Harsh restrictions on women in the kingdom are likely to remain in existence despite the reforms. The guardianship system makes it almost impossible for victims of domestic violence or sexual abuse to seek justice or protection, because the police often insist that women and girls obtain their guardian’s authorisation to file complaints even if the complaint concerns the guardian.

Women are forbidden from mixing freely with members of the opposite sex. Saudi Arabia imposes a very strict interpretation of Islam known as Wahhabism.

Abortion is illegal in the Middle Eastern country unless a woman’s health is at risk and sexual relations outside of marriage are criminalised – with unmarried women faced with prosecution and even jail if they are found to be pregnant.

Campaigners argue Saudi Arabia profoundly discriminates against women – with women’s marital rights being effectively non-existent and marital rape not explicitly defined as a crime.

Women in Saudi Arabia, according to Amnesty’s latest human rights report, face “systematic discrimination in law and practice and were inadequately protected against sexual and other violence”.

In the wake of the reforms, critics have drawn attention to the crackdown over the last year on some of the country’s leading women’s rights activists who had campaigned for the right to drive or gain equal rights to men.

These women, including prominent campaigner Loujain al-Hathloul, who defied the kingdom’s recently overturned ban on female drivers, are currently facing trial and several of them say they have been tortured while in detention.

Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty International’s Middle East research director, said the reforms were a “significant but long overdue” step forward for women’s rights.

“These changes are a clear testament to the tireless campaigning of women’s rights activists who have battled against rampant discrimination in Saudi Arabia for decades,” she said.

“If Saudi Arabia wants to show the world it is truly serious about improving the rights of women, the authorities must drop all charges against the defenders of women’s rights who have been crucial in pushing for these kinds of reforms through their activism. They must immediately and unconditionally release all those who are in detention for fighting for these most basic of rights.”

Saudi Arabia has faced extensive scrutiny and criticism over its human rights record in the wake of its detainment of women’s rights activists – as well as having been criticised for its role in the war in Yemen. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman also faces widespread international criticism over the killing of Washington Post columnist and critic Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October.

Saudi Arabia has denied any involvement by the prince, while the kingdom’s own investigation acknowledged the operation was planned by two of the prince’s top aides.

As noted by the Saudi newspaper Arab News, the decrees outlining changes to travel are written in gender-neutral language removing prior restrictions specific to women, rather than outright stating that women no longer need male consent.