Riyadh - Saudi women are prevented by male guardians from enjoying their basic rights, including travelling, working and getting married, the Human Rights Watch group said Monday.

"Saudi women often must obtain permission from a guardian (a father, husband, or even a son) to work, travel, study, marry or even access health care," the New York-based group said.

A report, entitled Perpetual Minors: Human Rights Abuses Stemming from Male Guardianship and Sex Segregation in Saudi Arabia, draws on over 100 interviews with Saudi women to document the effect of discriminatory policies on women's basic rights.

"The authorities essentially treat adult women like legal minors who are not entitled to authority over their lives and well-being," the 50-page report said.

Saudi women are denied the right to access government agencies that have no female sections unless they have a male representative.

"The need to establish separate office spaces for women is a disincentive to hiring female employees, and female students are often relegated to unequal facilities with unequal academic opportunities," the human rights group said.

In cases where permission of a male guardian is not required, government officials often ask for it.

Airport officials, for example, ask women over 45 for written permission from their guardians allowing them to travel despite a recent government's exemption from this requirement.

A 40-year-old Saudi woman, whose name was given as Fatma A., told the group that she cannot board a plane without written permission from her son, who is her legal guardian.

"My son is 23 years old and has to come all the way from the Eastern Province to give me permission to leave the country," Fatma said.

Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that enforces a ban on women's driving.

Women in the conservative kingdom have severely restricted access to justice and have difficulty filing a court case or testifying in court without a legal guardian.

Paradoxically, Saudi women have only limited rights to make decision for themselves but are held criminally "responsible for their actions at puberty," the report said.

"For Saudi women, reaching adulthood brings no rights, only responsibilities," said Farida Deif, women's rights researcher for the Middle East at Human Rights Watch. (dpa)