The plan would end the travel law forcing a woman to travel with a man if she is over 18-years-old.
Riyadh (Pakistan Point News – 14th July, 2019) Audi Arabia is planning on easing travel restrictions for women, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
The plan would end the travel law forcing a woman to travel with a man if she is over 18-years-old. This loosening of restrictions would also allow woman to leave the country without the consent of a male relative.
Currently, women of any age and men under 21 need a guardian’s permission to travel internationally.
The approach would leave in place laws requiring a guardian’s consent for women to marry, leave prison or even exit a shelter for abuse victims.
The move to change guardianship follows international scrutiny after a series of young Saudi women fled the country and sought asylum, complaining the kingdom’s laws and customs made them slaves to male relatives. Human-rights groups say the guardianship laws turn women into second-class citizens, depriving them of basic human and social rights and enabling abuse against them.
Saudi authorities this year tasked a government committee with revamping guardianship laws.
A senior Saudi adviser said the travel restrictions would be changed this year as a result of the committee’s work, saying the directive had come “from the top.”
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has tried to make empowering women an important theme running through his efforts to modernize his kingdom.
He had earlier lifted a ban on women driving, suggested that women no longer need to wear traditional neck-to-toe dresses called abayas and curbed a religious police force that often harassed and even jailed women for how they dressed.
