JEDDAH, 14 December — Legal experts in the Kingdom expect the emergence of a number of complaints related to the victimization of women in the absence of separate identity cards for them. Several people have taken advantage of the absence of women IDs to commit devious acts, Al-Watan reported Wednesday.
A court in Jeddah is currently examining one of the largest commercial fraud cases in the Kingdom, in which female partners of a leading company were cheated out of their legal rights. Millions of riyals were involved in the case, the lawyer representing the aggrieved party told the daily.
The shares of the wife and daughters of the founder of the company, worth SR500 million of the total capital of SR2 billion, were disposed by other male heirs of the company with the help of some female impersonators who misused the names of the original female shareholders in court, Majed Muhammad Qaroub said.
Qaroub, who is legally handling the case of the victimized female shareholders of the company, said that due to the absence of photo IDs for women, the male heirs of the company’s founder obtained a fraudulent power of attorney to dispose the shares of the female heirs with the help of some impersonators. The case has not been settled for the past two years.
The lawyer said some of the male heirs presented a forged document at the ministries of commerce and justice for its endorsement and further actions. However, the move was later discovered and further action on it was stopped. The case is now being looked into by authorities.
Waleed Shairah, a leading legal consultant, said the decision to issue personal identity cards with photos for women is a significant move to prevent such fraud cases in the future.
He also said that they are essential in the present context to enter the world of business and investment.
Without an independent ID of her own, Saudi women faced many difficulties in conducting business. They had to depend on men to get things done. They also had to grant men the power of attorney.
"On several occasions this tempted unscrupulous people to forge documents that dealt with their wealth. Thus women’s properties were disposed of without their knowledge," Sherah said.
The absence of ID cards also caused delay in getting a divorced woman’s name transferred from the family register card of her ex-husband to her father’s. The new ID cards will also help women open their private accounts in banks instead of depending on their spouses, the lawyer said.
A number of cases in consular offices in the Kingdom currently are related to the disposal of women’s properties without their consent or knowledge.
