End to ‘absolute male control’ sought

Saudi women activists have presented a memorandum to the Shoura Council seeking its support to curb the “absolute authority” of male guardians over women in the Kingdom, a signatory said.
Activist Aziza Yousef told AFP that rights activists have presented their petition to the consultative body on the occasion of the International Women’s Day, which falls on March 8.
They have demanded “measures to protect (women’s) rights,” in their petition to the Council, she said.
Laws in the Kingdom enforcing such restrictions on women “are not based on religious” teachings, said Yousef.
The petition, signed by 10 female activists, also calls for allowing women to drive. Women in the Kingdom must obtain permission from a male guardian to perform “certain surgeries” and to “leave the university campus during study hours,” she added.
She cited a recent case in which a pregnant student had to give birth on campus after a women-only university in Riyadh denied access to paramedics.
And a university student died in February after paramedics were prevented from entering her campus because they were not accompanied by male guardians.
Earlier this year, Saudi Arabia suspended a SMS notification program that had been running since 2012, which alerted men once their female relatives left the country, even if they were travelling together.
In October, three female Shoura members presented a recommendation that women be given the right to drive, but the male-dominated 150-member assembly blocked the proposal.