A Saudi Arabian court has ruled in favor of a woman who challenged her father’s decision to not let her have a passport, reports said on Thursday, stirring an online debate on the male guardianship system.
The kingdom requires women to seek permission from male “guardians” to travel, get married and do other tasks.
In a rare case, an unnamed 24-year-old woman in western Jeddah City sought to disown her father as her guardian after he refused to let her seek a passport to study abroad, local media, including the pro-government Okaz newspaper, reported.
A civil court this week ordered the father to obtain a passport for the woman.
The newspaper also said that the woman had been living with her mother for 10 years and had not seen her father for six years.
Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 reform plan seeks to elevate women to nearly one-third of the workforce.
However, the kingdom has also long faced criticism over the male guardianship system, which allows men to exercise arbitrary authority to make decisions on behalf of their female relatives.
“If a woman had the right to get her own passport — just like men — we wouldn’t need a court” to rule on the matter, Saudi Arabian Shura Council member Latifah Ashaalan said on Twitter.
The case also prompted a raft of comments on social media.
“I am surprised by the contradictions in the system,” a Saudi Arabian Twitter user wrote. “In the end the father was forced to seek the passport against his will. Why not allow women to get their passports themselves without losing time and going through all this trouble?”
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