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RIYADH, Nov 8 (AFP) - Saudi women are to be issued with official identity cards like their male compatriots in the conservative Muslim state, the deputy interior minister said Monday.
"Women, just like men, have their rights in all areas ... and they have the right to carry their own identity cards and to enjoy their legitimate rights," said Prince Ahmad bin Abdel Aziz.
"A preparatory process is underway and once it is completed, women will have the right to have their own identity cards," he said, quoted by the official news agency SPA.
Apart from not being issued with ID cards, Saudi women are also not allowed to drive. Their job prospects are limited mainly to the health and education sectors because of a strict segregation of the sexes.
Women in Saudi Arabia, which does not have an elected parliament, also have to use veils to cover their hair in public, under the strict version of Islam practiced in the oil-rich kingdom.
But at the start of October, several Saudi women for the first time were allowed to attend a meeting of the all-male consultative council.
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