LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Saudi Arabia, which is considered one of the most conservative countries in the world, especially in regards to women’s rights, has in recent months taken some steps to grant its women more freedoms.
Here is a look at the latest developments in women’s rights in the kingdom.
* POLITICS- In February, King Abdullah swore in the country's first female members of the Shura Council, an appointed body that advises on new laws, in a move that has riled conservative clerics in the Islamic monarchy.
King Abdullah announced that women would be able to vote and run for office in municipal elections in 2015, the only public vote in the country.
* EDUCATION - In April, Saudi Arabia allowed the first woman in to train as a lawyer. In 1965, the country's female literacy rate was 5 percent. The figure now is 70 percent. Sixty percent of college students in Saudi Arabia are women and their employment rate has nearly tripled from 5.4 percent. But there is still a lag between the education rate of Saudi women and their employment rate. Only 15 percent of Saudi females were employed (in 2009). Women constitute many of the students sent overseas on Saudi’s massive scholarship programme.
* SOCIETY - In April, women were allowed to ride bikes and motorbikes, albeit with significant restrictions, but they are still banned from driving cars and to travel without being accompanied by a male guardian.
In February 2009, King Abdullah appointed the country’s first woman minister. She became a deputy in the education ministry.
* VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN – In April, the kingdom launched its first advertising campaign against domestic violence, designed to encourage women to report abuse to the authorities.
* SPORTS – Saudi women were allowed to participate for the first time in the Olympic Games in July 2012, when the kingdom agreed to send two female athletes to compete in the London Olympics. In March this year, local media reported the kingdom was to license women's sports clubs for the first time and, in May, it was announced that girls in private schools, but not in public ones, will be allowed to play sports for the first time. Powerful Saudi clerics denounce women for taking part in sport, saying it goes against their nature.
Sources: Reuters/Thomson Reuters Foundation/HRW
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