Women in Saudi Arabia still can’t drive, but if a local newspaper is to be believed, a big step forward for divorced and widowed is forthcoming.
“Saudi Arabia will let divorced women and widows manage family affairs without approval from a man or a court order,” Reuters reported Wednesday. “The Al Riyadh newspaper said the Interior Ministry will issue family identity cards not only to men, but also to divorcees and widows, granting them powers that will include accessing records, registering children for schools and authorizing medical procedures.”
While no date has been provided for when these powers will be enacted, the move is a progressive step for a country where women are legally controlled by male guardians. Even divorced women were required to get their divorced husband’s permission or a court order to perform basic tasks.
“It is difficult being a divorced woman in Saudi Arabia but this is a very big change. These changes will solve both the legal and cultural problem,” Dalia, a Saudi divorcee with one child, told the Guardian. “At the moment a woman is still related to her husband after they divorce as her name is written in the family ID card with the name of the husband and kids. If the woman needs to go to the hospital or anything she has to get the family card.”
Salwa al-Hazza, a member of the government advising Shura council, said, “If you asked me which was more important, this or driving, I would tell you a hundred times this. It gives Saudi women the right to identify herself as head of the family, to put her children through school, get them married.”
While Saudi women feel the new decision is a step in the right direction, they are still not afforded many of the rights granted to their male counterparts. For example, Saudi women are still banned from driving — a hindrance that impedes economic opportunities and other life chances, while married women must still gain a male guardian’s permission on issues pertaining to travel, education, residency, and employment. These latest rights granted to divorced and widowed women are described by Dr. David Weinberg, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and self-described ardent feminist, as “low hanging fruit.”
“Some changes are naturally going to occur in part due to people of good conscience,” he told ThinkProgress by telephone. To give praise to a country for providing such basic rights, he said, “would be doing women’s rights a disservice.”