Context: Women in Saudi Arabia scored a significant victory earlier this month, after they were allowed to travel abroad without obtaining permission from a male guardian, apply for passports, and register their marriages and divorces.

The new rules allow any person 21 and older to travel abroad without prior consent and any citizen to apply for a Saudi passport on their own.

Significance:

In highly conservative Saudi Arabia, these steps, deemed natural almost everywhere else in the world, constitute key social reforms.

The changes are a potential game-changer for Saudi women’s rights in the kingdom. The legal system was long criticized because it treated women as minors throughout their adult lives, requiring that they have a husband or father’s permission to obtain a passport or travel abroad. In some cases, the male guardian was a woman’s own son granting her the necessary travel permissions.