Saudi Arabia’s rigid sex segregation, compulsory male guardianship of women and other “grossly discriminatory” policies are a denial of fundamental rights, a leading human rights watchdog said yesterday.
Women are treated like legal minors who have no authority over their lives or their children, finds a new report by Human Rights Watch.
The depth and detail of discrimination was laid bare in more than 100 interviews conducted during the group’s first fact-finding visit to the oil-rich, conservative kingdom, where King Abdullah is often described as a cautious reformist.
“The Saudi government sacrifices basic human rights to maintain male control over women,” said Farida Deif, a researcher for the Middle East at the rights group.
“Saudi women won’t make any progress until the government ends the abuses that stem from these misguided policies,” she said.
Every Saudi woman must have a male guardian, normally a father or a husband, who is tasked with making a range of critical decisions. And even when permission from a guardian is not mandatory, some officials still ask for it “because current practice assumes women have no power to make their own decisions” over medical procedures or discharge from hospital.
Women are “marginalized almost to the point of total exclusion” from the country’s workforce, the report says. And since Saudi women are banned from driving, a large proportion of their salaries goes on paying for transportation.
Saudi women are denied the right to make even trivial decisions for their children and are not permitted to travel with them without permission from the child’s father, it says.
Reforms are often not implemented in practice: despite a recent decision allowing women over 45 to travel without permission, most airport officials still ask all women for written proof that their guardian has allowed them to travel.
The kingdom applies Shariah as the law of the land and the religious establishment largely controls education, the all-male judiciary and the policing of “public morality” through the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. Segregation causes discrimination against Saudi women in voting, employment and education, the group said.
Segregation can also endanger lives: In 2002 a fire at an elementary school in Mecca resulted in the deaths of 15 girls because religious police would not allow them to leave without their headscarves.
While Saudi Arabia has seen progress in female literacy in the past 50 years, with 83 percent of females over 15 literate in 2005, the general framework of education continues to reinforce discriminatory gender roles.
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