RIYADH: The Kingdom will let divorced women and widows manage family affairs without approval from a man or a court order, a major step to lift some of the legal powers men hold over female relatives.



According to Al-Riyadh newspaper, the Interior Ministry will issue family identity cards not only to men, but also to divorcees and widows, granting them powers that will include accessing records, registering children for schools and authorizing medical procedures.

The newspaper did not give a date for the move. The change will significantly change the lives of divorced or widowed women, particularly for those bringing up children alone.

Until now, women had to get permission from a divorced husband, and apply to courts if that failed, to perform any of these basic activities. Family status cases account for 65 percent of all those before courts, clogging up an already stretched judicial system, Al Riyadh reported.

“If you asked me which was more important, this or driving, I would tell you a hundred times this. It gives Saudi woman the right to identify herself as head of the family, to put her children through school, get them married,” said Salwa Al-Hazza, a member of the Shoura Council, an appointed body that advises the government on policy.

Among the family cases, 65 percent focused on problems of divorced women who could not carry out their regular work due to non-possession of their individual identity cards.

Earlier, a group of three women headed by Princess Sarah bint Faisal, presented nine amendments to the Civil Affairs Department pertaining to the rights and privileges of women in the family. The others in the group were Hail Al-Muzeeha and Latheefa Al-Shaalan.

Women's department at the Ministry of Interior is run by women and has branches all over the Kingdom. Since 1425 H, the department has been dealing with women’s applications for IDs or modifying the records.

Husbands with more than one wife were given separate identity cards depending on the number of wives not exceeding four.

Around 32 percent of marriages between Saudis and foreigners end up in divorce, according to figures released for 2011 by the Justice Ministry.

According to data released by the ministry, more than 12,000 Saudi men and 9,400 women married foreigners between 2007 and 2011. Of them, 23 percent of Saudi men divorced their foreign wives, while 9 percent of Saudi women left their foreign husbands during the period.