JEDDAH: Dina, a 31-year old Saudi businesswoman, came recently to Riyadh with her American husband to conduct some business affairs, but when she went to rent a car she was faced with a conundrum.

“I called up Budget. They asked if I needed a car with or without a driver,” said Dina with a smirk on her face. She explained to the agent that her husband, who has a driver’s license, would be driving the car. But he has no valid iqama with which to rent the car.

“So I told the agent: ‘What about renting a car with a chauffeur?’ He said I needed a letter from my mahram delegating me to rent a car under my name. Now isn’t that confusing?”

That too required her mahram to have his visa papers in order, which at the time were still being processed. So she and her husband had no choice but to do business in Riyadh via taxis.

Compare this experience with that of Lina Abdulkareem, a 38-year-old marketing executive. She managed easily to purchase a car without permission from her legal male guardian. She went to the showroom, browsed the choices and quizzed the salesperson.

“And when I went back to finally make the purchase, all I had to do was show some official ID,” she said. “So I used the local ID, handled the monetary transaction and was told when I’d be able to pick up the car.”

Lina was able to buy the car without help from her guardian. Because women cannot drive in the Kingdom, she had to issue official documents through her employer that allowed her husband and driver to use the car.

“That was ironic considering I myself can’t drive my car,” she said. “When I asked: ‘What if I wasn’t employed, how would I have gotten the official documents issued?’ I was given no clear answer. It’s interesting that someone driving my car — the car I can’t drive — could get stopped, even arrested, because of no official permit.”

Nevertheless, Lina was able to buy the car by herself while Dina was blocked from renting a car because she could not provide an acceptable permission letter from her American husband because of the delays in acquiring his visa papers.

Arab News contacted several car rental and selling agencies to see what policies exist for women buying and renting cars. They all said that a woman could purchase a car under her name with only her national ID — and the cash, of course. But she cannot rent a car even if she has a driver’s license.

Maha Akeel, managing editor of The Journal, the magazine of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, expressed her frustration and surprise over the situation of Saudi women, who, despite all of their achievements, continue to be counted among the group of underage minors and disabled who need and are forced to be managed by their mahram.

“Most of these rules are outdated,” she said. “If one regulation is made to state that women are independent individuals and they can conduct business without a mahram, lots of these contradictions and meaningless restrictions will disappear. A woman should be equal to a man if she is financially independent.”