SUNDAY TIMES WEB DESK: Some freedoms have been granted under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who ended a ban on women driving, eased restrictions on gender mixing, and championed firsts such as allowing women to serve in the armed forces.
Yet those changes have been accompanied by a crackdown on dissent, including the arrest and alleged torture of some of the activists who campaigned for decades to improve women’s rights — as well as Muslim preachers who opposed them.
Many activists are calling for an end to the guardianship system, which has been chipped away at slowly over the years but remains in force.
Under the system, every Saudi woman is assigned a male relative — often a father or husband but sometimes an uncle, brother or even a son — whose approval is needed if she is to marry, obtain a passport, and travel abroad.
The plight of Rahaf Mohammed al-Qanun, who slipped away from her family last weekend during a holiday in Kuwait, recalls the cases of other Saudi women who fled mistreatment only to be forcibly returned to the kingdom and never heard from again.
Amid global outrage at Saudi Arabia over last year’s murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, al-Qanun’s tweets from Bangkok airport sparked an online campaign. She barricaded herself inside a hotel room for hours until the Thai government reversed its decision to send her home.
In some countries, her adult age would have prevented the authorities from telling her family anything about her. In Saudi Arabia, her gender meant she was her father’s ward.
“Remove guardianship and we won’t all migrate” trended this week on Twitter in Saudi Arabia.
Mai, who identified as a 36-year-old physician, said she was embarrassed to have two children and a degree from Harvard University but still be viewed as a minor.
“I am trusted to make life and death decisions for patients, trusted to raise kids … but not trusted to make my own decisions regarding MY life