No Jail For The Pregnant Women And Women With Children Under 12
2018-Jul-05
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is taking great steps for the betterment of women role in the society. No doubt to say that for the last few months, we have witnessed great changes and improvements in women’s right in the Kingdom.
No Imprisonment for the Pregnant Women: The Saudi Ministry of Justice has also passed a new law to empower women’s safety and protect her freedom of choice. The new law has exempted pregnant women and women with children under 12 years from imprisonment.
It makes sense as you cannot expect a woman to be mentally away from stress and troubles while she is in prison. It will not only affect her health but the health of the baby to be born. Saudi authorities don’t want to ruin the life of an innocent soul.
Similarly, a mother is required for the upbringing of a child especially until he or she enters the puberty. This is the reason the women with small children have been barred from imprisonment.
No Death Penalty for Pregnant Women: We have stated in our article crimes punishable by death that Pregnant Women are excluded to be penalized to the death.
The reason for imposing this law is that execution of a pregnant woman will result in the execution of two lives including the life of an unborn child who has not committed any offense.
Female Police Officers: The Ministry announced the inspectors must have a female officer or a policewoman in their team if they are going in search of or to catch any suspected woman in any case.
If in some cases, if the women are not a suspect but the inspectors want to inspect her house so she has the right to leave the house so that they could search it easily.
No Forced Marriages for Women: The new law has also announced that it is illegal for guardians to force a woman into marriage or trade her for another through marriage.
A marriage of her Choice: The guardians do not possess any right to restrain a woman from getting married to an eligible man.
There should be a legitimate reason and if he fails to present any legitimate reason for preventing her to marry, the guardianship will be transferred to another male member of the family. The new law has given rights to women to sue their guardians if they stop them from getting married.
The Ministry of Justice has also declared that the marriage agreements can be formalized after regular work hours to ease the procedure and both husband and wife are permitted to have an original copy of the marriage agreement.
Source: Saudi Gazette