But the problem is there is no answer
A petition signed by more than 14,000 Saudi women calling for an end to the country’s male guardianship system is being handed to the government.
Women must have the consent of a male guardian to travel abroad, and often need permission to work or study.
Support for the first large-scale campaign on the issue grew online in response to a trending Twitter hashtag.
I’m sure the government will be very conscientious about exactly how it cuts the petition into strips.
Many workplaces and universities also demand a guardian’s consent for female employees and students, although it is not legally required.
Renting a flat, undergoing hospital treatment or filing a legal claim often also require a male guardian’s permission, and there is very little recourse for women whose guardians abuse them or severely limit their freedom.
No recourse, really, but the BBC is being cautious in case there’s one woman somewhere who managed to get her brother to persuade her husband to let her get hospital treatment.
In July, an Arabic Twitter hashtag which translates as “Saudi women want to abolish the guardianship system” went viral after a Human Rights Watch report was published on the issue. Saudi women tweeted comments, videos and artwork calling for change. Bracelets saying “I Am My Own Guardian” appeared.
Human Rights Watch researcher Kristine Beckerle, who worked on the report, described the response as “incredible and unprecedented”.
“I was flabbergasted – not only by the scale, but the creativity with which they’ve been doing it,” she said. “They’ve made undeniably clear they won’t stand to be treated as second-class citizens any longer, and it’s high time their government listened.”
It’s been high time for a long time, but will the government listen? My bet is no.
However, there has been opposition from some Saudi women, with an alternative Arabic hashtag, which translates as #TheGuardianshipIsForHerNotAgainstHer, gaining some traction, and opinion articles, like this one on the Gulf News website, arguing that the system should be reformed and applied better.
The government will just point to them – or it will just ignore the whole thing.
She and other activists first raised the issue five years ago. “We never had a problem with campaigning, but the problem is there is no answer. But we always hope – without hope, you cannot work,” she said.
There has been no official response to the petition yet.
Nor will there be.
Sorry to be Debbie Downer, but this is Saudi Arabia we’re talking about. The oil has to dry up before anything will move there.
The thing that worries me is that the government (or the other patriarchs) will punish the women for signing the petition. I hope they are able to remain safe.
If other governments would put real pressure on them,and refuse to treat them as a viable trading partner (or treat them as a failed state) until they fix the problem, that might actually have some benefit, because it would hit them where it hurts – in their pocketbook. The women could choose to do Lysistrata on them, but since men have permission to beat women who don’t obey, that could be extremely dangerous.
Yep. That’s why I say until the oil dries up.
Of course, at the point the oil dries up, we will have changed the climate of the earth drastically enough that who knows what our civilization will be up to?
Saudi Women should definitely get the same rights as men. Imagine you had cancer and your son woul not let you go to hospital, how would you feel!