Report: Saudi Women Stuck in 'Permanent Childhood'

DUBAI, U.A.E., April 22, 2008 — -- A new report has called on Saudi Arabia to drop its system of male guardianship that requires Saudi women to obtain a man's permission for everyday activities like work, study, travel and medical care.

New York-based Human Rights Watch spoke with more than 100 Saudi women and interviewed officials in the kingdom, concluding that male guardianship deprives women of basic rights, limits their educational options, hinders their professional advancement and puts them at risk of potentially deadly abuse.

"The male guardianship system is treating women like perpetual legal minors. It's causing real suffering," Farida Deif of Human Rights Watch told ABC News.

Under the current laws an adult woman is legally the charge of a male relative, usually her father, husband or brother. In the case of widows and divorcees, the woman relies on her son.

For women's rights activist Wajeha Al Huwaider, her guardian is her 17-year-old son.

"My 17-year-old is the one in charge of my life. He's the one who has the control if I want to travel. Even if I want to have surgery I have to get permission from him," Al Huwaider told ABC News last month, after posting a YouTube video of herself driving in Saudi Arabia as a form of protest for greater women's rights.

Driving is against the law for women in most parts of the kingdom.

In its report on male guardianship Human Rights Watch lists other activities that require a man's permission, including a woman's ability to obtain medical treatment for her children, to take on certain jobs, to study abroad, to obtain an identity card and to file a case in court.

The report also takes issue with the perceived effects of sex segregation, such as limitations from entering the work force and inferior facilities and academic programs at some of the kingdom's universities.

It expresses concern for victims of domestic abuse, sometimes prey to physical risk at the hands of men who are their legal guardians.