A number of ministries ban women from entering their premises. Is that legal? There is no law that bans women from completing by themselves their government paperwork, but this seems to be ignored.
What is noticeable is that that some ministries ban women from entering and others allow them to come in. Some direct women to dedicated sections for female visitors.
What we know for a fact is that the female sections at the ministries are not making decisions, only in extremely rare cases. But their job is limited to handing the paperwork to the male section.
A woman who cannot wait for the female section to complete the paperwork would have to go on an adventure and enter the forbidden zone of the male section and to be surrounded by men looking at her the moment they see her black abaya (the loose gown women must wear in public).
The same thing is happening at private companies that let women stand outside gates like beggars. I witnessed an employee at a telephone company banning a woman from entering and I saw her waiting outside because they closed down the women's section.
After I witnessed this, I forced myself in with the women to complete the task that we came for. The employee then answered our questions and we left, and he did not even apologize.
Examples like this are seen in many departments that handle social insurance, recruitment, banking and finance. There are clear laws that do not ban women from entering these official places.
The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency directed organizations to serve all male and female clients and anyone facing a problem can complain to them. The Labor Ministry opened its doors to businesswomen and so did municipalities in a number of cities around the Kingdom.
This phenomenon is continuing and we see women standing outside ministries and institutions waiting for a green light to enter or a male guardian to take them in and represent them. This is also seen in locations like restaurants, markets and shops that seem to enjoy kicking women out and let them wait outside for reasons that do not make any sense.
For example, a woman cannot enter a restaurant or a coffee place with her husband and children if there is no women or family section. In such a scenario, the woman is supposed to wait outside in the street until her husband and children have had their drink.
I had such a personal experience when my husband refused to let me wait outside when the Filipino worker at the premises asked him to because he was instructed by the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice to do so.
We have a problem that needs urgent solutions. We do not have an independent department that follow up on these abuses and violations against women at public places.
We do not have a women's ministry that could handle such problems. Another problem regarding the women's sections at government departments is that they do not have the authority to make a decision.
We see that clearly at the Passports Department, Ministry of Finance, banks, Civil Affairs Departments and many more. The women's section at the Passports Department does not have the authority to renew a passport or a visa.
The male bank sections do not allow women inside unless she wants to see the highest authority at the bank. The women's sections at the banks do not have the authority to issue cards or make important financial decisions and instead it is sent electronically to the male section to be signed and sent back again to the women's section.
Another important problem is that all government buildings lack bathrooms for women. This is somehow strange and embarrassing at the same time when a woman enters a government building and then searches for a bathroom. It will be even more embarrassing if the visitor is not a Saudi. Another problem is that no punishment is applied to any government department that discriminates and bans women from entering and violates the country's laws.
