Those restrictions have been loosened considerably, especially for non-Saudi women, though wearing an abbaya is still wise in order to avoid ogling and sexual harassment. And it’s no longer required for foreign women to cover their hair when in public, or for any women to be escorted by a husband or make relative. MBS regarded the religious police (the wonderfully named Society for Encouraging Virtue and Discouraging Vice) as a competing power center, so since they like keeping their heads attached to their bodies as much as most people, they’re nowhere near as intrusive as they used to be.

It’s still by no means a feminist paradise, of course, but under MBS, Saudi Arabia seems to be shifting from a medieval theocracy to a slightly secular totalitarian state, more like Iraq under Saddam.

20% of the parliament is women. Beating the US congress.

The guardianship rules doesn’t apply for working and traveling. So any woman over 21 can apply for a passport and leave if they feel like it.

77% of women has a secondary (high school) education and 37% participate in the workforce.

Yes Saudi Arabia has a long freaking way to go, but they’ve been closing the gender gap in recent years.

Womens rights is a theme among several middle eastern countries, I’m naive enough to believe they understand it will benefit society and not done so entirely to befriend Europe

Legally, women in Saudi Arabia are no longer required by law to wear a black abaya or cover their hair. The male guardianship requirement for daily public life has been dismantled; women over 21 can legally travel, get passports, live independently, and enter public spaces without a male guardian’s permission or accompaniment.

The historical enforcement of these rules were rooted in a specific interpretation of Sharia (Islamic law), layered heavily over ancient Arabian tribal customs:

• The Concept of Modesty (Haya): In Islamic tradition, modesty is a core spiritual virtue expected of both men and women. In conservative Gulf societies, this was heavily institutionalized into physical concealment for women to prevent Fitnah (temptation or social discord).
• The Concept of Protection (Wilayah): The male guardianship system (Nizam Al-Wilayah) originally evolved out of tribal structures where the desert environment was harsh and inter-tribal warfare was common. Men were expected to physically protect women from vulnerability, harm, or exploitation. Over the generations, the Saudi state codified this protective role into an absolute legal system of control, treating adult women as legal minors for life.

While Saudi culture was always conservative, the absolute, rigid enforcement of the all-black abaya and the strict segregation of the sexes by religious police was actually a political reaction to a specific historical event: The 1979 Grand Mosque Seizure.

In 1979, hardline religious extremists violently seized the Holy Mosque in Mecca, accusing the Saudi royal family of becoming too Westernized and secular. To pacify the religious establishment and maintain political legitimacy, the Saudi government struck a bargain with the ultra-conservative Wahhabi clerics. The state gave the religious police (Mutawa) massive authority to strictly enforce gender segregation, mandatory face coverings, and the head-to-toe black abaya in public.

You sound like a child when you criticize cultural things without context or understanding why they exist in the first place. You always paint them as malicious, as automatically evil or oppressive, but it is always more complex than that. I really hate this side of the Internet, and it will never end, because every year there is a new generation of 12-years old who will repeat the exact same mistakes again and again. They don’t pay attention to History or Algebra either class because they say dumb shit like “why will we ever need this?” And well, this is what happens. We get ignorant people who can easily dehumanize/demonize a whole subset of people.

Like, lowkey, your comment makes it “subconsciously” seem like “Arabs and Muslims are rapists” even if you blame culture, the government or the law, you’re already creating this prejudge that is so harmful, and it only and literally benefits the Jeffrey Epstein Class. It keeps us divided, fighting each other, instead of looking up.

All the cultures in the world have issues with violence, domestic violence, misogyny, racism, xenophobia, child abuse and so on. Some grew quicker than others, thanks to technology, the economy, and more importantly: luck. So, to come here and try to stomp younger cultures because they’re not growing as quick as you want them to, just makes you look like an insane violent unreasonable monster. I am glad you are not a judge or a God. You’d suck as one.