Posted on 03/12/2005 5:25:05 PM PST by Land_of_Lincoln_John
RIYADH, 13 March 2005 — Saudi women will no longer be faceless identities. As of mid-2006, it will be compulsory for every Saudi woman to have her own ID card with her face on it, terminating the age of women depending on the current family card that only carries their names.
Hissah Al-Suwaileh, the head of Women’s Civil Status Department in Riyadh, confirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat, a sister publication of Arab News, that Saudi women would soon no longer be using the traditional and current method of proving their identity with the family card.
The department will now be providing separate identity cards for women, delinking her from being just another name on the family card.
She said that an ID card for a woman had become a necessity to verify/prove her national identity and that it would be the only card recognized by banks and government sectors in the future. At present women are using the family card or their passports in their dealings with banks and the government.
“It is a necessity that must be acknowledged,” said a Saudi female employee at one of the local banks who identfied herself only as Noura. “We’ve been asking clients to bring in their passports and for those who don’t have them, they’ve got to bring in a male guardian to verify their identities. After all, the family card only has her name on it which in any day and age could never be enough. The process of identification has kept pace with modern technology as in many parts of the world with voice detectors, retina and palm scanners being used. We however still are at point zero dealing with the photo issue: To show or not to show!”
Al-Suwaileh, in the report, said that Saudi women are misinformed about the requirements for ID card application. They assume that the approval of their male guardians is a fundamental condition to obtain it.
In fact, according to Al-Suwaileh, a Saudi woman who has a valid passport can apply and obtain her ID card without needing a male guardian. Only in the case of a Saudi woman not owning a passport, does she need a male guardian to verify her identity.
An official, however, told Arab News differently. “A Saudi woman’s passport without the approval of a male guardian would only suffice in the case when she doesn’t have any male guardian,” said Turki Mohammad Al-Malafekh, the director general of Jeddah Civil Status Department. “Other than that a male guardian must come in person and apply, provide approval and verify her identity by signing on the back of her photograph,” he added.
“A Saudi woman can only obtain a passport with the consent of her male guardian, so what’s a national ID card in comparison to the license to travel?” asked Noura Al-Ghamdi, a Saudi female applicant for an ID card at the Jeddah Civil Status Department.
As for Saudi women with passports being able to apply for ID cards without the need for male guardians, the official said that they had not received any such news even after being shown Al-Suwaileh’s statements as reported in the press.
“In less than a year and a half all Saudi women must have their own ID cards,” said an official at the Ministry of Interior who preferred to remain anonymous. “And yet the process to acquire this is something they — Saudi women — can do on their own according to Riyadh and cannot do on their own according to Jeddah. Which one is it to be? Saudi women ask.”
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