Okaz/Saudi Gazette

RIYADH — The Committee of Islamic and Judicial Affairs at the Shoura (Consultative) Council is studying a recommendation, mooted by two members of the Council, asking the Ministry of Justice to reject complaints filed against missing of women aged 21 or above.

This is the first recommendation of its kind in the history of the Council, regarding the case of women who reached their age of adulthood, after the Council of Ministers approved amendments to the Civil Status and Travel Document regulations.

Latifa Al-Shaalan and Moudhi Al-Khalaf, the female members, justified their recommendation saying that the basic principles in the amended law is that they do not contradict one another. The members noted that the amendments in the Civil Status and Travel Document regulations, including granting women equal rights with men without discrimination whether in the case of issuing passports and other travel documents or choice of their residence, contradict the Ministry of Justice’s continued acceptance of cases involving missing women. The members pointed out that they monitored cases in which women were being subjected to injustice as a result of the ministry’s continuing practice of accepting such cases.