'We feel empowered': Saudi women relish their new freedoms

AKIPRESS.COM - Saudi women have largely embraced new laws allowing them to travel, divorce, and apply for official documents without the permission of a male guardian, and claimed conservative resistance to the sweeping decrees is doomed to fail, The Guardian reports. The measures, announced late on Thursday, amount to a partial dismantling of guardianship laws that have long confined women in Saudi Arabia to narrow gender roles and marginalised their role in society. Such moves have been long awaited and are a centrepiece of the kingdom's much-touted reform programme, which has pledged to overhaul rigid laws and customs that have made the country one of the most oppressive in the world.
In the capital, Riyadh, women responded enthusiastically to questions about the changes, with some saying they heralded a "renaissance", and others claiming they would profoundly improve their status.
"It means a lot to me and about time," said Azzah, a woman in her mid-30s. "I have been to hell and back each time I needed my passport renewed, since my father passed in 2000. In 2018, I was able to renew passport without a guardian. The personal fight and standoff at the passport office was not pleasant. More freedoms, I'm sure, will be coming.
"Any pushback, if they dare, from conservatives will be beaten down. The snowball has just started [rolling]. Most of Saudi Arabia is young and ready. It won't always be smooth sailing; when has the fight for equality ever been easy? But the process has started. I have a feeling we are arriving at a Saudi renaissance. The future looks bright ... We have the spirit, the motivation and the will."
Dr Maha al-Muneef, the executive director of the National Family Safety Program (NFSP) and a recipient of the 2014 international women of courage award, said: "This takes the dependency on men out of women's lives. We feel very strong and empowered, and it is completing me as a woman.
"It means not only we are equal to men from a human rights perspective but on a practical level it will help women move, do their businesses, attend conferences and learn and be empowered further. It will also improve the situation of abused women dramatically because those who are affected most by the guardianship law usually suffer from domestic violence."