Aiming towards empowerment of women, Saudi Arabia to criminalise sexual harassment

Riyadh, May 30: In a bid to empower women and stop their exploitation, Saudi Arabia passed a new law to criminalise sexual harassment. Notably, the announcement from Saudi government weeks before a decades-old ban on women driving is set to expire.

 

The kingdom's Shura Council on Tuesday passed a draft law on Monday which would introduce a prison term of up to five years and a maximum penalty of 300 000 riyals (about R1 million). Shura Council member Latifa al-Shaalan said, “It is a very important addition to the history of regulations in the kingdom and fills a large legislative vacuum and it is a deterrent."

While a statement from the Shura Council said, “The legislation aims at combating the crime of harassment, preventing it, applying punishment against perpetrators and protecting the victims in order to safeguard the individual’s privacy, dignity and personal freedom which are guaranteed by Islamic law and regulations.”

The announcement from Saudi government came as a part of the Vision 2030 social and economic reform program in the Kingdom. In the year 2017, Saudi Arabia also lifted the ban on commercial cinemas that lasted more than three decades. The kingdom closed its cinemas in the early 1980s following a revival of hardline Islamic sentiment, but Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced to lift the cinema ban.