{UAH} Thousands of Saudis sign petition to end male guardianship of women

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Thousands of Saudis sign petition to end male guardianship of women
Protest movement seeks to end Saudi Arabia law requiring women have
permission of a male guardian to travel, marry or do other fundamental
tasks


Saudi women hold national flags during Saudi National Day in Riyadh,
Saudi Arabia Friday. Photograph: Faisal Al Nasser/Reuters
Mazin Sidahmed

Monday 26 September 2016 22.56 BST Last modified on Tuesday 27
September 2016 01.13 BST

Thousands of Saudis have signed an online petition calling for the
government to abolish the country's guardianship system, which
prevents women from engaging in fundamental tasks without the
permission of a male relative.

"Women should be treated as a full citizen," said activist Aziza
Al-Yousef who, along with other activists, has been fighting against
the guardianship system for a decade.

"This is not only a women's issue, this is also putting pressure on
normal men ... this is not an issue for women only," she told the
Guardian.

Saudi Arabian divorced women and widows to get greater legal powers

Under Saudi law, women require the permission of a male guardian to
travel, marry, or exit prison and it may be needed to be granted
employment or access to healthcare.

A guardian is typically a woman's father or her husband if she is
married; a widow may have to seek permission from her son if she has
no other men of age in her life.

But in recent years, a growing protest movement has sought to end the
system. Yousef and other prominent activists started holding workshops
and performing studies on the religious validity of the guardianship
system five years ago. The campaign picked up steam this summer after
Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a blistering report on the system.

The report gave birth to a hashtag #IAmMyOwnGuardian, which spread
awareness on the issue.

Hala Aldosari, researcher in women's health, who wrote the petition
and worked on the HRW report, said the hashtag gained support among
women of all ages and backgrounds.

On the two days leading up to the petition, an estimated 2,500 women
sent direct telegrams to the Saudi King's office imploring him to end
the guardianship system. The petition racked up 14,682 signatures
after promoting it on Twitter, Aldosari said.

Saudi Arabia's government agreed to abolish the guardianship system
twice – in 2009 and 2013 – after a review by the United Nation's Human
Rights Council. It instituted some reforms by, for instance, making it
easier for women to work, appointing women to the King's advisory
board, and allowing women to vote and run as candidates in municipal
elections. However, these reforms had limitations and stopped short of
providing women basic rights.

Earlier this year, the government outlined its Vision 2030, an
economic plan to reduce the country's dependency on oil, which called
for more involvement of women in the labor market. However, the
guardianship system runs counter to that, as some employers require
women to submit permission from their guardians. Engaging Saudi women
in the economy is vital as they currently outnumber men in higher
education and will be key to weaning the country off oil.

According to Hamid M Khan, deputy director of The Rule of Law
Collaborative at the University of South Carolina, many members of the
Saudi royal family are open to the idea of reform but senior clerics
in the country – whose approval would likely be needed to deconstruct
the system – are averse to change.

"Many in the royal family – not all but there is a significant number
in the royal family – actually view this is as a bit exhausting," Khan
said.

According to Khan, the law stems from an understanding of the Qu'ran
which dictates classes of males which one is forbidden to marry. Some
Islamic jurisprudence scholars have made the case that any woman
should be accompanied by a guardian when in the presence of any man
not on that list.

"This notion of guardianship is not necessarily embedded in the Qur'an
but it's based upon the jurist view that there are certain patriarchal
understandings about the necessity of guarding a woman from these
men," Khan explained. Beyond laws dictating marriage contracts, no
other Muslim majority country employs guardianship laws similar to
Saudi Arabia's.

Yousef said some prominent Saudi clerics have also signed the
petition, to indicate their belief that the system is not derived from
Islamic law. Aldosari said that many more clerics came out after the
26 October 2013 movement, where Saudi women pushed for the right to
drive.

"They all declared that this is not religion, this is all government
rules and it should be changed," Yousef said.

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