The announcement by King Saud University in Riyadh that it plans to open the first law department for women is good news. This bold step comes at a time when demands are rising for women to be allowed to practice their religious and other legal rights. The demands are particularly pressing since many of the educated women, not to mention who have little or no education, are unaware of these rights.
Many do not know how to respond to a situation involving a biased husband, oppressive brother or ignorant father. In most cases these poor women find themselves forced to give up many of their rights to avoid further complications. The question here is what kind of qualifications would the university require from the students who want to join the legal profession? This is very important because the legal profession is not like any other work, it requires talent and the ability to communicate and know how to address peoples’ problems.
For sure, we don’t want to face a situation where a female lawyer is approached by a women plaintiff who can’t access a male dominated law office, and then finding herself in need of a lawyer to help her address the situation.
What we need more than having female lawyers is to activate the role of lawyers at courts to be able to convey the grievances of women. This calls for the establishment of special family courts and police sections to address problems involving women and children. Female lawyers would then be able to perform their work as required.
Just four years separate us from the date of seeing the first female law graduates joining the profession. The Ministry of Justice must prepare for this.
