Thousands of Saudis sign petition to end male guardianship of women

Almost 15,000 Saudis have signed an online petition calling for the government to abolish the country’s guardianship system, which prevents women from engaging in fundamental tasks without the permission of a male relative.

“Women should be treated as a full citizen,” activist Aziza Al-Yousef said.

Along with other activists, Al Yousef has been fighting against the guardianship system for a decade.

“This is not only a women’s issue, this is also putting pressure on normal men ... this is not an issue for women only,” she said.

Support for the first large-scale campaign on the issue grew online in response to a trending Twitter hashtag #IAmMyOwnGuardian which spread awareness.

Under Saudi law, women require the permission of a male guardian to travel, marry, or exit prison and it may be needed to be granted employment or access to healthcare. A guardian is typically a woman’s father or her husband if she is married.

In recent years, a growing protest movement has sought to end the system. Yousef and other prominent activists started holding workshops and performing studies on the religious validity of the guardianship system five years ago.

On the two days leading up to the petition, an estimated 2,500 women sent direct telegrams to the Saudi King’s office imploring him to end the guardianship system, the Guardian reported. The petition racked up 14,682 signatures.

Saudi Arabia’s government agreed to abolish the guardianship system twice – in 2009 and 2013 – after a review by the United Nation’s Human Rights Council. It instituted some reforms by, for instance, making it easier for women to work, appointing women to the King’s advisory board, and allowing women to vote and run as candidates in municipal elections.

According to Hamid M Khan, deputy director of The Rule of Law Collaborative at the University of South Carolina, many members of the Saudi royal family are open to the idea of reform but senior clerics in the country are averse to change.

“This notion of guardianship is not necessarily embedded in the Qur’an but it’s based upon the jurist view that there are certain patriarchal understandings about the necessity of guarding a woman from men,” Khan explained.

Yousef said some prominent Saudi clerics have also signed the petition, to indicate their belief that the system is not derived from Islamic law.

“They all declared that this is not religion, this is all government rules and it should be changed,” Yousef said.