You can’t travel abroad. You can’t move freely inside your own country. You’re an adult, but your male guardian has denied you permission to do these things.
This is the absurd reality for many women across the Middle East and North Africa, where countries have discriminatory rules allowing men – typically a woman’s father, brother, or husband – to dictate whether a woman can travel, obtain a passport, or even work.
A new HRW report gives country-by-country details on these restrictions. And while authorities often claim these rules exist to protect women, what the rules actually do is deprive women of their rights and enable men to control and abuse them at will.
Some countries have thankfully eased these restrictions after much campaigning by women’s rights activists. Saudi Arabia now allows women over age 21, like men, to obtain passports and travel without guardian permission.
But women’s rights activists are still fighting for women’s freedoms. In Qatar, for example, rules still require unmarried women under age 25 to show permission from their male guardians to travel abroad, while Qatari men from age 18 do not.
In Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, many women can be arrested or forced to return home if a male guardian reports them “absent.” In Saudi Arabia and Yemen, women are still not allowed to leave prison without a male guardian’s approval.
Even as women’s rights activists win some freedoms, authorities across the region are working to take others away. But rolling back women’s rights doesn’t just harm women – it also hurts children, families, and society.
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