Saudi women can now own businesses without male permission

It’s not always easy for a woman in Saudi Arabia, especially when it comes to doing things that require the approval of a male guardian- like working, or even setting up a business. I’ve set up a business in my country (New Zealand) with a female Saudi colleague for precisely this reason.

 According to the article in the UK’s Daily Mail that came out yesterday the rules are changing. Women will be able to establish their own businesses without requiring the permission of a male. This is well and good but many women will still depend on men, nonetheless.

 The aim, evidently, is to increase the percentage of women in the work force from 22 per cent now to one third by 2030.

 This reminds me of an occasion when I was in Riyadh for a conference and a man stood up and argued for more women in the workforce because “women are no less moral than men”.

Saudi women to start own busines without male permission

By Afp

Published: 21:56 AEDT, 18 February 2018 | Updated: 21:56 AEDT, 18 February 2018

Saudi women tour a women-only car showroom on January 11, 2018 in the Saudi Red Sea port city of Jeddah after King Salman approved the end of a decades-long driving ban which goes into effect in June

Women in Saudi Arabia can now open their own businesses without the consent of a husband or male relative, as the kingdom pushes to expand a fast-growing private sector.

The policy change, announced by the Saudi government on Thursday, also marks a major step away from the strict guardianship system that has ruled the country for decades.

"Women can now launch their own businesses and benefit from (governmental) e-services without having to prove consent from a guardian," the ministry of commerce and investment said on its website.

Under Saudi Arabia's guardianship system, women are required to present proof of permission from a male "guardian" -- normally the husband, father or brother -- to do any government paperwork, travel or enrol in classes.

Long dependent on crude production for economic revenue, Saudi Arabia is pushing to expand the country's private sector, including an expansion of female employment under a reform plan for a post-oil era.

While women still face a host of restrictions in the ultraconservative Muslim kingdom, Saudi Arabia's public prosecutor's office this month said it would begin recruiting women investigators for the first time.

The kingdom has also opened 140 positions for women at airports and border crossings, a historic first that the government said drew 107,000 female applicants.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the powerful heir to the Saudi throne, has been leading the drive to expand the role of women in the workforce in recent months.

His father, King Salman, in September approved the end of a decades-long ban on driving, which goes into effect in June.

The 32-year-old prince pledged a "moderate, open" Saudi Arabia in October, breaking with ultra-conservative clerics in favour of an image catering to foreign investors and Saudi youth.

Prince Mohammed is widely seen as the chief architect behind Saudi Arabia's "Vision 2030" reform programme, which seeks to elevate the percentage of women in the work force from 22 percent to nearly one-third.