Saudi Arabia: Online document will help women to travel alone

Najah Alosaimi, Arab News

RIYADH: The Kingdom’s Passport Department will soon post an online document that will allow women to travel alone. The document will have to be filled out and cleared by the women’s “mahram” (her guardian under Saudi law). The presentation of this document at the point of embarkation will be enough for women to travel alone.

The decision to implement this online clearance has been taken, but the electronic document is still under examination and technical issues have to be resolved before it could be available to the public, said Abdulrahman Al-Ajlan, spokesman of the Passport Department.

The woman’s mahram will remain the one in authority to issue this online clearance. All the mahram has to do is use the secret code number given to him as a subscriber by the Passport Department to carry out online services, and provide the clearance on the e-document with that number. The woman then has to print the approval and take it with her to the airport before traveling.

Al-Ajlan said this effort to provide an online document corresponds to the Passport Department’s efforts to streamline all services on the Net.

Meanwhile, another source in the department told Arab News that the Passport Department is discussing making the guardian’s approval to issue a passport for the woman sufficient basis for her to travel alone. The source added that this idea was still under discussion with social and regulatory complications being envisaged. The major point of discussion is who will be the mahram when the woman comes of age and marries, is divorced and then marries again.

Under existing law, in order to travel alone whether for medical treatment, education or leisure, a Saudi woman —whatever her age — needs to present an approval document from her guardian that must be issued months in advance by the Passport Department. But some women have expressed difficulties in traveling even when they have the approval. Many told Arab News that despite the law being in force, its application varies from person to person.

Despite the fact that the law permits “older women” to travel on their own, Fowziah, 41, a high school principal, brings her husband to the airport each time to give her permission verbally to leave. She said that her husband was not willing to give her a valid paper for one year that would allow her to travel alone. The law does not specify at what age a woman becomes “older.”

Two sisters Najla’a and Jihan, in their late 20s, related their experience when they went to London for a short course. “My father was out of town and the airport staff refused to accept our 22-year-old brother as guardian who could give us permission to travel,” said Najla’a, who works in the media. “The airport staff insisted that my father go to the nearest police station and send a fax to the airport giving his approval!” she said.

While women have their tales, so do airport staff who have to make difficult decisions. A staff member at King Khalid Airport in Riyadh said that the staff generally went by the letter of the law. He said that he would not allow women to travel unless the approval of her guardian was explicit. “It’s the law and we have to follow it,” he said.

One reason he sticks to the letter of the law is that he was investigated for two of his three years of service because he permitted a married woman to travel with her father when her husband was supposed to be her mahram.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and Talal Bakri, chairman of Family and Youth Affairs at the Shoura Council, said that under the convention, women have equal rights in travel and movement.

He added that the government was trying to reform but that the refusal comes from within society. “Men want to hold on to the power to control women’s lives and this would become difficult if the women were given the right to move or travel alone.”

Many women feel the introduction of the online clearance document is too little. They say the document does not solve the problem as the clearance will still be given by the man. “Not all women will be able to get permission when the man is not convinced or just feels like not giving it,” said Amal Khalifah, a psychiatrist and women’s and children’s activist.

In a related development, the Human Rights Commission will be sending recommendations to the Shoura Council this month, focusing on women’s situation, particularly the complete guardianship and its impact. Human Rights Commission spokesman Zuhair Al-Harithy does not expect major changes regarding women’s travel rules unless guardianship is defined.

---Arab Times