JEDDAH, 29 October 2004 — Does any male guardian have the right to prevent his beneficiaries who are members on his ‘family card’ from accessing their official identifications as a means of discipline or according to his whims?

Is there a system that holds such a guardian accountable for withholding or abusing accessibility of the rightful official identification of the female he guards?

Less than 3 years ago Saudi authorities issued separate ID cards to Saudi women in defense against exploitation and impersonation to both of which they have often been subjected. There have opened separate offices adjacent to the men’s offices in the Civil Service Department to issue ID cards for women.

The victory women felt in this development was short-lived for there is a catch or rather a clause.

When a woman applies for the card her registered guardian should go personally to the Civil Service Department, give his written consent for her; personally receive the application form for the card and personally return the form after filling it out.

As a result there are countless women who are deprived of their own card: Their guardians will not make the effort because they plan to continue exploiting them or they cannot apply because they are too busy, too ill or old to go to the Civil Service Department. So women, with or without an ID card or family card, remain without official identification.

Ruqeiyah Sulaiman in Madinah told Arab News: “I went to the department to apply for my card and was told to bring the family card that remains with my ex who refuses point blank to give it to me. He’s been refusing to give it to me after our divorce so that I at least add myself to my father’s family card. This has been going on for more than a year!”

Maha Abdulrahman, another divorcee and mother of 3, said “My youngest daughter is staying home because my ex refuses to cooperate and provide me with the family card with which I can register her in school. And even if I had the separate ID card, my children aren’t on it! So what’s the use of it as a mother? Why is it that a man has the right to have his children included on any official identification?”

Umm Haithem, a mother of 5, told Arab News: “I suffer from several health problems and need constant medical treatment and so does one of my daughters. But to get the treatment especially at government hospitals I need the original family card. Now whether I get or don’t get the card depends on my husband’s whims and moods. If he’s in a bad mood or we’ve had some disagreement he’ll keep the card from me for months regardless of how much I need the treatment. And we can’t go to a private hospital because he holds back even money along with the card!”

According to Al-Riyadh, legal consultant Mohammad Al-Quraishi stated that male guardians keeping the family card or any other form of official identification from the women they guard is a social or cultural gesture that is totally wrong.

Such action is taken because men are afraid that a woman would do something that is socially unacceptable or that by taking such a course of action would pressure or manipulate her into accepting something forcefully or stopping her from doing something against their wishes.

On March 6,, 2004, Al-Yaum daily reported that 1,250 women in the Eastern Province alone filed charges of embezzlement against guardians beginning primarily with husbands and older brothers. Male guardians have other women impersonate their wives or sisters in order to gain legal representation especially in the absence of having their own ID cards with their photos on them. Such cases have spread in different regions of the Kingdom and remain unresolved due to the absence of the accused ‘husband’ or ‘brother’.

Another reason the cases remain unresolved is legal parties/officials have failed to locate the women who have impersonated the victims or to get their addresses.

Razan Al-Otaibi said: “Prince Naif, our interior minister, defended the introduction of women’s identity cards to prevent bank fraud, trade, the distribution of inheritance and cheating in examinations. He did it to allow us to go about their businesses and to avoid any fraud committed in our name without our knowledge all because there’s no proof of our identity.

“When will we be allowed to have what we’ve been allowed? We answer to male guardians. Who do they answer to?”