The reform was announced on August 1st. Since Tuesday, August 20 in Saudi Arabia, women have the right to obtain a passport and travel abroad without the permission of a male "guardian".
The Saudi administration has begun "to receive applications from women aged 21 and over to obtain or renew a passport and travel outside the kingdom without permission," the passport department announced on Twitter.
The measure undermines the Saudi system of "male guardian", which equates women to minors all their lives by subjecting them to the arbitrary authority of their husband, father or other male relatives.
Liberalization measures
Several cases of foreign escapes of young Saudi women claiming to be the victims of violence by their "guards" have hit the headlines in recent months.
This reform is part of the series of liberalization measures of the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, strongman of the ultra-conservative kingdom. The most emblematic was that allowing women to drive a car since June 2018.
Other changes which, without dismantling, weaken the mandatory "guardian" system for women: Saudi women can now formally declare a birth, marriage or divorce, and have parental authority over their minor children, prerogatives hitherto reserved for men.
Suppression of dissent
These changes have been widely praised in Saudi Arabia, but also criticized as "anti-Islamic" by ultra-conservatives on social networks.
This societal openness was accompanied by a crackdown on dissent, including the arrest and alleged torture of more than a dozen activists in the cause of women.
The reforms announced Friday come ten months after the assassination of the journalist and opponent Jamal Khashoggi, which provoked the turmoil of the international community and a growing concern over the practices of Saudi Arabia with respect to fundamental freedoms.
With AFP