Saudi women get ID cards

Saudi Arabia has started issuing identity cards to women for the first time to make their lives easier and help prevent fraud, the interior minister said yesterday.

"The issuing of identity cards to women was dictated by the requirements of modern life to enable a woman to carry out all her activities with ease and also to prevent forgeries and trickeries committed in the name of women in the absence of identification," Prince Nayef told the Saudi Press Agency.

Saudi women are currently listed as dependents on their father's or husband's card.

They are issued with passports but are not allowed to travel unless accompanied by a male legal guardian or with written permission from a male relative.

Prince Nayef said the cards would stop people claiming false identities when banking, checking into hotels, paying for medical treatment or sitting university exam.

The authorities started issuing the cards at the beginning of December, according to Saudi residents.

More than 2,000 Saudi women have applied for and received identity cards since the kingdom made them available to females last month.