Female lawyers to be allowed to practise in Saudi Arabia

Riyadh: Saudi judiciary officials have announced that female lawyers would soon be allowed to represent their clients in the courtroom, reported the local Arabic daily Al Madina. The Ministry of Justice said that women will be issued a restrictive form of license which will give them access to certain areas of the courts and in cases in which they are representing female clients only.

A study has already been prepared by the ministry which recommends that the best way of protecting women’s rights in various cases would be by being represented in the court by a female lawyer, reported the daily. This was due to the reservations women may hold in terms of sharing all the details of their plight in any given case if the lawyer happened to be a male.

If the proposal is passed by the concerned authorities, women will have a certain section within the courts that will be solely allocated for their cases and their representative female lawyers, said the daily.