Country’s women to start own business without male approval

Saudi Arabia is slowly, but surely changing its reforms, giving more importance and advantage to women.

Women in Saudi Arabia can now open their own businesses without the consent of a husband or male relative, as the kingdom pushes to expand a fast-growing private sector.

The announcement was made by the Saudi government on Thursday. This decision also marks the break away from the strict guardianship system that ruled the country for decades.

 “Women can now launch their own businesses and benefit from [governmental] e-services without having to prove consent from a guardian,” the ministry of commerce and investment said on its website.

READ ALSO: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley meets Saudi King Salman in Riyadh

Under Saudi Arabia’s guardianship system, women are required to present proof of permission from a male “guardian” – normally the husband, father or brother – to do any government paperwork, travel or enroll in classes.

Saudi Arabia in a move to expand its private sector, the country has brought about reforms and changes, including an expansion of female employment under a reform plan for a post-oil era.

While women still face a host of restrictions in the ultraconservative Muslim kingdom, Saudi Arabia’s public prosecutors’ office this month said it would begin recruiting women investigators for the first time.

The kingdom has also opened 140 positions for women at airports and border crossings, a historic first that the government said drew 107,000 female applicants.

READ ALSO: Saudi women attend football game for the first time

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the powerful heir to the Saudi throne, has been leading the drive to expand the role of women in the workforce in recent months.

His father, King Salman, in September, approved the end of a decades-long ban on driving, which goes into effect in June.

The 32-year-old prince pledged a “moderate, open” Saudi Arabia in October, breaking with ultra-conservative clerics in favor of an image catering to foreign investors and Saudi youth.

Prince Mohammed is widely seen as the chief architect behind Saudi Arabia’s “Vision 2030” reform programme, which seeks to elevate the percentage of women in the workforce from 22% to nearly one-third.