RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — US President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka says Sunday that ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia has made “encouraging” progress in empowering women but more freedom is needed.
“Saudi Arabia’s progress, especially in recent years, is very encouraging,” Trump’s eldest daughter tells a group of Saudi women she met in Riyadh while accompanying her father on a visit to the Muslim kingdom.
“But there’s still a lot of work to be done and freedoms and opportunities to continue to fight for,” adds Ivanka, who serves as an adviser to her father.
“Around the world women continue to achieve unprecedented levels of rights and freedoms. Today you all stand on the frontlines of the fight for gender equality,” she tells a roundtable of women led by Princess Reema bint Bandar, deputy president of the Women’s Sports Authority.
Saudi Arabia, which applies a strict form of Sunni Islam, imposes many restrictions on women. It is the only country where they are not allowed to drive. When in public, women in Saudi Arabia are expected to cover from head to toe.
A royal decree earlier this month reportedly stipulated that women are no longer required to obtain a male guardian’s consent to carry out certain activities.
— AFP
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