Civil rights - Saudi Women

I am unsure whether this is more human rights than civil rights or if they are the same thing but either way this is a “rights” issue so I went ahead and blogged about it. The civil rights of women in Saudi Arabia are almost to completely neglected under their oppressive male guardianship system. Saudi women’s lives are controlled by a man from their birth to their death, allowing them no rights to individual opinions or decisions. Their civil rights are slighted in multiple aspects such as healthcare, education, voting, free speech, and safety. As Saudi Arabia is a male dominant society, the woman have little say in their own lives and much less on political affairs. They have no freedom of speech and their vote is considered insignificant. Furthermore, women’s education is compromised in the sense that, unlike the men, the women require guardian approval to study abroad and in many cases must then be accompanied by a male guardian throughout their studies abroad. The women often can’t even receive medical treatment without the confirmation of a guardian, a regulation that is upheld in many Saudi hospitals. Even more shocking is that domestic violence was not criminalized until 2013 in Saudi Arabia and still lacks implementation, amongst others. Saudi regulations, requiring and allowing all of the women's actions to first be presented to the men, jeopardizes their safety by causing a delay in their urgent medical needs and creating an environment where it is difficult to seek help. Saudi Arabia has, relatively recently, passed laws about domestic violence, medical code of ethics declaring that a woman’s consent should be sufficient to receive health care and other rules to accommodate women’s civil rights. However, this is not enough. Although there, these laws are in no way implement enough as the predicament of these women is mostly regarded as irrelevant. I find this extremely upsetting that as much as our world has advanced, certain groups, not only women, continue to face discrimination because they are seen as less important. I think that society has yet a lot of work to do to close the gap between individual differences and equality. For starters, we need to enforce the existing laws and rights for everyone.

source: https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/01/30/saudi-arabia-10-reasons-why-women-flee