I am not an advocate of the Saudi Mahrem (male guardian system) for women. According to a recent poll on American Bedu’s blog, the majority of readers are not in favor of the mahrem system either. However I do take umbrage when the mahrem system is misquoted such as in the Jerusalem post. I guess I should not be surprised for it is certainly not the first time it has happened; I’ve even been misquoted in the past from this publication.
While I agree with many points of the Jerusalem post article in that it condones the mahrem system, the facts need to be straight. According to the article, Saudi women “are not allowed to drive, inherit, divorce or gain custody of children; and cannot enter most public spaces without a male guardian.”
To begin with, it is against the law for women to drive in Saudi Arabia, period. Even if a male mahrem said it was okay to drive, that does not mean the law can be circumvented. Thereby even the wording of the statement in the article is misleading.
Saudi women can inherit. In fact it is clearly stated within the Quran on how assets and inheritances are to be divided. I have widowed women within my own extended Saudi family and they have inherited their share and in some cases, even more.
Saudi women can certainly get divorces. Divorces between Saudi couples have increased in Saudi Arabia and many of the divorces were initiated by the woman instead of the man.
Gaining custody of children does depend on the husband as otherwise children of divorced couples do go to the father.
Where the writer got the idea that women cannot enter MOST public spaces without a male guardian is beyond me. The women in my own extended Saudi family, Saudi female friends and colleagues all routinely went to public places on their own. These places included the numerous shopping malls, grocery stores, hospitals, parks and more.
Last but not least the supposed thrust of the article seems to be how Saudi Arabia has chosen to use today’s technology to further track the activities of women. For example, if a Saudi woman boards an international flight without a mahrem, then a text message (SMS) is sent to her mahrem advising him of her travel. I’d not heard of this before but it could be a new system in place. I’ll give that statement the benefit of the doubt although it does seem odd and makes you wonder how an airline would have and know that specific data. Just ask anyone who has routinely traveled in and out of Saudi’s airports or on Saudi airlines.
However, many women do need to have documents from their mahrem which provide concurrence to travel unaccompanied. Because I had an American passport, I was not subjected to any questions or difficulties when traveling by myself. Yet when another female family member came to the USA unaccompanied when my husband was receiving medical treatment, we had to arrange documentation for her travel.
In closing this article, I implore representatives of official media avenues to not mislead or print false information. This applies to all media and not only the Jerusalem post.
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Always good to clarify. Let the truth speak for itself. No need to conceal or embellish.
American Bedu, I thought all women had to be accompinied by men either a brother, father or such. I have seen many women who have come to the clinic I worked at and ALWAYs did they have a man (or man soon to be) with them. Lots of times they even sat in the extra chair we had just for them. Or they had a sister, daughter or mother (female) with them while the man sat in the men’s waiting room. Though at mall you see a great deal of women walking in small groups with no men with them but I thought it was just that the men were someplace else as long as the women were not alone.
So I would have believed the story.
There is a posting on Saudiwoman’s blog about the texts her husband received as she moved from one European country to another and when she left KSA so it does happen.
All women in Saudi Arabia can go into any place without male guardian while they are in the city. The one who should bring with him a female guardian in malls is someone like me, single ): otherwise I am not allowed to enter some places specified for families. Mahram system is ONLY for women who are travelling more than two hours by car.
Its NOT against the LAW for women to drive in Saudi…its against the culture. Big distinction…which makes it even worse that women are treated so horribly and as if they have broken the law when in fact they havent.
Saudi woman wrote it is a new thing that the husband gets a text message whenever the wife and/or kids leave the country. A friend in Abu Dhabi told me last year that this is normal there as well. Before she gets on the plane her husband gets a text message that she is leaving. They both hate it.
I think not allowing women to drive is so unfair. In old Arabia, women worked in farms, markets and as teachers. They used to ride camels and walk to get their daily food and necessities.
I am from the UAE and I drive a car, and I find nothing wrong with it. I really need to drive because my father is not free to drive me to and from work, and I do not want anyone other than a member of my family to take me to work.
Extreme restrictions on women in the KSA should be eased.
i think the driving is not a big deal if you have the means .. whenwe were there i was fortunate enough to have a car anddriver at my disposal, so i flit in and out withotu trouble, again i never crossed the city limits .but i have on occasion gone to bahrain and back with just my kdis andthe driver. ( i did have papers on me at all times) but i guess they just thougtht i was the maid
but i have freinds who didn’t have this convience have to wait all day for their husbands to come back to drive them. and as far as i could tell it’s not easy for a single woman to just walk down the intersection and hail a cab.. atleats it wan’t then.. but times change and i have absolutely NO idea how it has changed now.
The Jerusalem post makes a mistake but the bulk of the article in correct (if I can judge by what the Saudi Woman blog posted recently). Given the careless edition of so many news outlets, I think it one can give JPost a pass on this one.
*Given the careless editing
I wonder if women in the KSA should approach the government for prisoners’ rights. What a nasty place to live – for women.
May one day women enjoy equal treatment as men.