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Saudi women to start own business without male permission
[AlAhram] Women in Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
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 policy change, announced by the Saudi government on Thursday, also marks a major step away from the strict guardianship system that has 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.

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 enrol in classes.

Long dependent on crude production for economic revenue, Saudi Arabia is pushing to expand the country's private sector, 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 Moslem kingdom, Saudi Arabia's public prosecutor's office this month said it would begin recruiting women Sherlocks 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.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
...Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia as of 2016....
, 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
...either the largest species of Pacific salmon or the current Sheikh of the Burnin' Sands, King of the Arabians, Sheikh of the Burning Sands, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and Lord of Most of the Arabians....
, 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 holy mans in favour 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 work force from 22 percent to nearly one-third.
Posted by: trailing wife 2018-02-19
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=508451