[VIDEO] Sababu ya wanawake kuzuiwa kuendesha magari Saud Arabia
Women's rights in Saudi Arabia are limited in comparison to many of its neighbors. The World Economic Forum 2013 Global Gender Gap Report ranked
Saudi Arabia 127th out of 136 countries for gender parity. All women,
regardless of age, are required to have a male guardian. Saudi Arabia is
the only country in the world that prohibits women from driving. Saudi women constitute 18.6% of the country's native workforce as of 2011.
However, women's status has changed in recent decades. Women were
previously forbidden from voting or being elected to political office,
but in 2011 King Abdullah declared that women would be able to vote and
run in the 2015 local elections, as well as be appointed to the Consultative Assembly.More
university graduates in Saudi Arabia are Saudi women than men,and
female literacy is estimated to be 91% (though lower than male literacy)
far higher than just 40 years ago. The average age at first marriage among Saudi females in the kingdom is 25 years.
Many Saudi women do not support loosening traditional gender roles and
restrictions, on the grounds that Saudi Arabia is the closest thing to
an "ideal and pure Islamic nation," and under threat from "imported
Western values".
Among the factors that define rights for women in Saudi are government laws, the Hanbali and Wahhabi interpretation of Sunni Islam, and traditional customs of the Arabian peninsula
