RIYADH — The Shoura Council is planning to table a proposal for discussion on whether to allow Saudi women be issued passports without the consent of their male guardians, according to informed sources. The Security Affairs Committee of the Shoura Council will soon put forward the proposal for discussion. The proposal follows a move by the Civil Affairs to let divorced Saudi women and widows manage family affairs without approval from a man or a court order. 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. Until now, women had to get permission from a divorced husband, and apply to courts if that failed, to perform any of these activities. The Shoura Security Affairs Committee members also agreed on increasing the validity of the Saudi passport from five years to 10 years to citizens above 20 years of age. But the members were sharply divided on increasing the issuance fees to SR600. Some members of the committee said the fee should remain at SR300. The committee has proposed that citizens under 20 years of age will continue to be issued with a 5-year-validity passport at SR300. Under the new amendments, the citizens will be given the option to decide the validity of their passports from a minimum of one year to a maximum of 10 years.
