The students have also called on the ministry to allow them to be employed at the Prosecution and Investigation Commission to investigate cases and undertake other assignments; they have also called for the setting up of women’s wings in courts and judicial departments across the country.
The students are proposing the setting up of women-only offices in courts to allow women to present their cases and problems to women lawyers and court officials. This, they said, would ease the burden on judges drastically.
The law graduates are also calling on the concerned authorities to provide them with opportunities to practice as legal and Shariah consultants.
“Either the Ministry of Justice or the Ministry of Labor should issue required licenses to allow us to practice as consultants at the offices of specialized lawyers. There should also be specialized offices for women lawyers to deal with family cases in civil courts across the Kingdom,” they said.
Naif Yamani, a prominent lawyer, has backed the calls to allow women to practice as lawyers and appear in courts. “Allowing women, who constitute half of our population, to practice as lawyers would have a positive impact in all sense of the word. This would be recognition for those women who have the ability and potential to produce excellent results in law. They can learn and present various cases and issues relating to women. They would also be able to demonstrate their proficiency and legal expertise in consultancy and counseling,” he said.
He added that women lawyers can outshine men in handling the problems that women face. “Female clients would disclose minute details of some cases and problems in front of women lawyers, problems that they would normally hesitate to share with male lawyers,” he added.
“Even if the work of women lawyers is restricted to the offices of lawyers and legal departments, they can manage to do the job in the best manner. There is a comfortable environment for women lawyers to work in line with their traditions and customs at most lawyers’ offices in various regions of the Kingdom,” he added.
Referring to the delay on the part of the Ministry of Justice to allow women to practice as lawyers, Yamani said that the ministry is still in the initial phase of carrying out studies and framing legislation in respect to this. He urged the ministry to take up the matter seriously and expedite procedures to allow women law graduates to practice as lawyers and legal consultants.
Commenting on the topic, Najah Hassan Salama, supervisor at the KAU’s Department of Law, highlighted the significance of women working as lawyers. “It is inevitable that women law graduates should be allowed to practice as lawyers as they can represent women, especially in those cases relating to civil and private rights. Women involved in cases would normally only be ready to narrate the entire aspects of their cases in front of women lawyers,” she said.
According to Salah, allowing women to practice as lawyers is a matter of time. She added that women law graduates would face no difficulties when practicing as lawyers. “At present, women are allowed to plead for or defend themselves and those in their guardianship, including daughters, in courts of law,” she said, adding that this is indicative that they would be efficient working as lawyers.
“I am also very much impressed by the efficiency of women law graduates in presenting cases as well as in their determination to pursue careers in law. This was more evident from their performance at the mock courts that have been set up at KAU as per the directives of the university’s president,” she added.
