MOSCOW (Dispatches) – Pregnant women in Saudi Arabia are no longer obliged to get permission from their male guardians to undergo vital childbirth procedures including C-sections, The National reported.
Previous regulations required women in Saudi Arabia to obtain a signed permission from their male guardians over a wide range of childbirth procedures but now they are allowed to decide independently how they want to deliver, according to the outlet.
From now on, they can also request information on their pregnancy status and expected due date without permission from their male guardians, the newspaper reported.
The decision comes as part of an easing of rules on gender separation in Saudi Arabia. Last year, Saudi women were officially allowed to get behind the wheel and attend football matches.
A British lawmaker has warned, Saudi Arabia will eventually face a "revolution” unless it decides to introduce reforms and stop abusing people’s freedom of expression.
Crispin Blunt, a Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) and chair of a parliamentary panel on detained Saudi women activists, advised Riyadh leaders to realize that a civil society was a necessity to save their monarchy system of government.
"The alternative to a consultative monarchy is an absolute monarchy and down that route lies disaster and eventually revolution,” the MP wrote in an op-ed for The Independent published on Thursday.
Blunt hopes that his good ties with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and other royals help him get access to the women, who have allegedly been subjected to torture and sexual assault in Dhahban Prison, where they are being held in custody.
Saudi security officials detained over a dozen activists in May last year, shortly before Riyadh decided to lift a years-long ban on women driving. Ironically, many of the arrested activists played a key role in the campaign that led to removing the ban.
The crackdown on women activists has been widely seen as a message to other rights advocates that reforms in the country always come from the top. It has also been as an attempt by the Saudi monarchy to discourage similar campaigns on other issues.
While Saudi authorities released some of the women without charge later on, at least eight more along with a number of male supporters of the movement for basic rights remain in custody.