RIYADH — The Civil Status Department will open centers in universities and schools to issue national IDs for women. Nasser Al-Abdulwahab, undersecretary for civil status in the Ministry of Interior, said the facilities to print out national IDs will be available in schools and universities in six weeks. "There are 3 million women in the Kingdom without national IDs. Saudi females above 15 years can obtain own national IDs. We have already set up biometric cameras in places where we plan to set up the centers," said Al-Abdulwahab. He said the ministry aims to issue national IDs to all eligible Saudi women by 2020, as decided by the Council of Ministers. "The Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Education have cooperated to set up centers to issue national IDs to middle and high school girls. The Ministry of Education organized an awareness campaign to encourage schoolgirls to issue their own national IDs," said Al-Abdulwahab. He said there are 107 civil status offices for men while there are only 50 offices for women. "The department is also cooperating with the Ministry of Finance to open more offices for women. Women offices will have longer working hours to enable as many women as possible to obtain their national IDs," said Al-Abdulwahab.
