Saudi Writer and Women's Rights Activist Hala Al-Dosari: The Saudi Legal System Uses 7th-Century Mentality to Deal with People in the 21st Century

Speaking on BBC Arabic, Saudi writer and women's rights activist Hala Al-Dosari said that women in Saudi Arabia face more legal restrictions than in any other country and that: "The problem of the [Saudi] legal system is that it deals with the lives of people living in the 21st century with the mentality of the 7th century." The interview aired on October 10, 2016.

Hala Al-Dosari: "The problem of the (Saudi) legal system is that it deals with the lives of people living in the 21st century with the mentality of the 7th century. This is a big problem, I'm sad to say. The idea that a woman is dependent upon the man, and that she cannot move, live her life, or make decisions about her future or the future of her children, without getting permission from her man, or from a judge, who may replace the man in determining her future - all these things are not in keeping with the interests of the people living in this day and age, when in Saudi Arabia and in the Gulf states, the number of women who graduate from universities has surpassed the number of men, yet the proportion of women in the workforce and in the decision-making is shameful. It's less than 20% of the women... Women face more legal restrictions than in the other 173 countries in the world."