End Restrictions on Women’s Mobility in the Middle East and North Africa

In Gaza City, Palestine, on February 16, 2021, women hold signs as they demonstrate against the Supreme Judicial Council’s decision to permit male guardians—often fathers or other male relatives—to prohibit unmarried women from leaving the Gaza Strip. The Supreme Judicial Council is an institution run by the Hamas government. Along with mobility limitations imposed by Israel and Egypt, these restrictions further imprison women in Gaza, turning it into a “open-air prison.” © 2021 AP Images of Adel Hana
Many nations in the Middle East and North Africa still forbid women from going abroad or inside their own country without a man’s consent.

Women in the area are battling against laws that, despite frequent claims to the contrary by authorities, rob women of their rights and give males unlimited power over them.

Any and all limitations on women’s freedom of movement that are based on discrimination, including any laws requiring male guardianship, should be abolished by all authorities throughout the Middle East and North Africa.

Beijing – According to a study issued today by Human Rights Watch, several nations in the Middle East and North Africa continue to forbid women from going overseas or inside their own country without the consent of a male guardian.

According to the 119-page report “Trapped: How Male Guardianship Policies Restrict Women’s Travel and Mobility in the Middle East and North Africa,” despite the fact that women’s rights activists have been successful in securing greater freedoms for women in many countries in the region, both old and new restrictions still require women to ask their male guardian, who is typically their father, brother, or husband, for permission before moving within their country, getting a passport, or traveling abroad. Human Rights Watch also discovered that women cannot travel overseas with their children on an equal footing with males in a number of nations.