At last the Saudi woman gets an ID

The Saudi minister of the Interior Prince Nayef Bin Abdul Aziz said that issuing an Identity Card for the Saudi woman is a matter:" imposed by many contemporary developments," noting that this does not mean a " violation to the Islamic jurisprudence."

Prince Nayef stressed " the existence of this ID will be a reason to silence many claims and to facilitate the needs of the woman and her relation with other social institutions and state departments."

He continued that " Issuing an ID for the woman in Saudi Arabia is necessitated by the needs of contemporary life so as to enable women performing all her work smoothly and prevents deception and falsification acts usually conducted against women because she does not have a prove for her identity." To this effect the Saudi daily Okaz said by the beginning of this month that the first ID for a Saudi woman was issued in the name of a lady called Hajar.

The paper added that the ID of the woman does not differ from that of the man. The paper explained that the ID of the woman bears the personal picture of that woman but she has to be head covered and had no make up on her face.

However, a decision was taken in 1999 stated to offer women IDs following a long heated debate as those who oppose this measure said that the ID will carry the picture of the woman bare- headed a matter which is in contradiction to the traditions of the Kingdom which stipulate that women are to be all covered from head to feet.

The Saudi women names used to be listed on the IDs of the husband or the father and are granted passports which were not considered ID documents..