Mohammed Al-Ossaimi Okaz I cannot believe that a Saudi female cardiac consultant, a PhD holder in nanotechnology or a researcher in at international center can be prevented from traveling just because her male guardian has not given her permission to do so. This guardian may be her own son who still receives pocket money from his mother. A high-positioned Saudi female doctor missed an international conference where she was supposed to give a lecture because her male guardian was unconcerned about her participation and was not in the country to give his consent for her to travel. A Saudi women may be over 40 years of age with advanced certificates in knowledge economy or any other rare specialization and yet, she will be fettered by the chains of her male guardian whether it is her husband, father, brother or son. For many guardians, women are idle human beings who should not work or produce without their consent. How can we leave the fate of women in the hands of these male guardians who may be completely illiterate and irresponsible, while these women could be highly educated and productive? Why do we open wide the gates for air, land and sea travel for Saudi males to go wherever they want without asking them what they will do there? Why do we close the doors of travel for women who may be prominent scientists or researchers in various branches of knowledge? This, of course, is a paradox which does not exist anywhere else in the world. Even if a woman in our country excels all the women in other countries of the world in education and knowledge, she will still be a “hurma” who is fragile and must be looked after as if she were a child. Women in our society are courageously fighting to obtain their rights, but until this happens, they will remain under the custody of their male guardians.
