SAUDI ARABIA

• • Male guardianship is the right and duty of fathers or male family members to exercise guardianship over their dependent wards (female or male). 
• • This system is said to be derived from the Saudi religious establishment’s interpretation of a Quranic verse that states: ‘men are the protectors and maintainers of women, because God has given one more [strength] than the other, and because they support them from their means.’ 
  • This enabled the government to justify and subsequently restrict the ability of women to travel, attend university, marry, or obtain medical care without the permission of a male guardian. 
• • In 2018, the CEDAW Committee called on Saudi Arabia to remove ‘discriminatory provisions regulating legal capacity, polgamy, divorce, the guardianship system and inheritance’. 
  • In August 2019, reforms marked a major turning point in Saudi women’s rights,
• REFORMS INCLUDED

  • able to make medical decisions about their own body, related to birth and pregnancy (article 12 of CEDAW to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of healthcare in order to ensure…access to health care services, including those related to family planning)
  • able to travel abroad without being accompanied by a guardian. (article 15 (d) law relating to the movement of persons). 
• Saudi Arabia has ratified CEDAW with the following reservations:

  • In case of contradiction between any term of the Convention and the norms of Islamic law, the Kingdom is not under obligation to observe the contradictory terms of the Convention.