Over 14,000 women in Saudi Arabia have signed a petition sent to King Salman on Monday, September 26, calling for an end to the kingdom’s guardianship system, which requires women to have male permission for most of life’s tasks, the Middle East Eye reports.
Saudi activist Hala Aldosari wrote the petition and said it gained 14,682 signatures after it was promoted on Twitter using an Arabic hashtag that translated as #IAmMyOwnGuardian.
Aldosari, who is a researcher in women’s health, wrote the petition after Human Rights Watch released a report earlier this year heavily criticizing the male guardianship system.
The system requires women to have permission from a male guardian – who is either a husband or relative – to exit prison, leave the country, take up a job, receive medical treatment, or get married, among other things.
Aziz al-Yousef, who worked on the petition, said the petition “is not only a women’s issue” and that it was designed to put “pressure on normal men”.
“Women should be treated as a full citizen,” she told the Guardian.
“I decided to submit my name. I didn’t care about the repercussions. The demands were reasonable enough in my opinion,” one female Saudi Twitter supporter told MEE.
Aldosari said in the days running up to the petition being submitted, an estimated 2,500 women sent direct messages to the king via messaging application Telegram calling for the guardianship system to be abolished.
The Saudi government has twice before agreed to abolish the system – once in 2009 and the other in 2013 - both times after the United Nations Human Rights Council called for it to come to an end.
However, the system has continued to remain in place, although some reforms were instituted under the late King Abdullah, who passed laws allowing women to stand in municipal elections and be appointed to the royal advisory board.
Despite these reforms Saudi Arabia remains the only country in the world where women are not allowed to drive.
