Saudi Female Attorneys ‘Get Green Light’ for Court
As was predicted, Saudi Arabia is finally going to permit female attorneys to act in the courts. Women who have trained in law have been able to represent their clients (primarily female themselves) up to the point where they entered a courtroom. There, a male attorney had to take over.
The new statutes (actually, regulations) governing female attorneys are to take effect next month, after the Eid holiday. They state that male and female attorneys have the same rights as well as obligations and will face the same penalties for malpractice. That is exactly as it should be.
The one remaining question is whether judges — who hold total authority in their courtrooms — will permit it. Some misogynistic judges have shown great animus toward females in their courts, no matter the role they were playing. I suspect, though, that after one or two recalcitrant judges get suspended, the others will get the message.
Women lawyers to be allowed into Saudi courts next month
ARAB NEWS
JEDDAH: The Ministry of Justice will permit women lawyers to practice the legal profession like their male counterparts from early next month.
The expert’s committee of the Council of Ministers sent to the ministry on Saturday the statutes governing entry of women lawyers to Saudi courts, where only men lawyers were allowed in the past.
According to a source, qualified women lawyers can approach the ministry to obtain the mandatory license to practice their profession.
“The statutes, which were drafted by the ministry and submitted for the approval of the experts’ committee, are expected to be implemented when the courts reopen after the Eid holidays,” Al-Watan daily reported quoting an informed source on Tuesday.
The new lawyers’ regulations do not differentiate between men and women practitioners of the profession, another source at the Saudi Human Rights Commission said.
