After delays which stretched into decades, after many studies and after numerous cases of forged identities, the Interior Ministry finally approved civil identification cards for Saudi women. Women were given the option of getting the cards if they wanted them; the choice was left to the individual woman. Many women decided to forgo the cards — not because they didn’t want one but because of a father, husband or brother who objects to the card because it has the woman’s picture on it. This excuse, which we are told is based in religion, was a means by which men kept the women they were responsible for from getting official identification.
Nowadays, however, there are many women who have identity cards and this is a good thing. The inexplicable fact is that there are government departments which reject the identity cards. The departments demand some other identification — such as the family card or two witnesses to vouch for the woman’s identity.
The department that is said to refuse women’s identity cards is in fact the Justice Department. Al-Watan reported an incident two weeks ago at a court in Jubail. The judge refused the identification cards of two sisters and asked them to bring their family card instead. Not only that but he asked them who had taken the pictures which were on their identity cards.
Saudi courts have seen many cases resulting from women pretending to be other women in order to claim money and assets. A proper woman’s identity card puts an end to such problems and keeps the cases out of our already-clogged courts. Surely — and officially — a judge does not have the power or right to refuse an identity card issued by the government which employs him. What about his own identity card, also issued by the government? Is it acceptable or not?
The Ministry of Labor has issued a circular directing all government departments to accept women’s identity cards but there are still judges who refuse to do so. Perhaps those judges need instruction in realizing the difference between their preferences and current government regulations.
