As Saudi Arabia continues to send thousands of students abroad on government scholarships, some in the government are questioning the requirement that female students be accompanied by a male guardian. Arab News reports that the country’s Human Rights Commission has asked that the rule be waived if the student’s family permits it.

“This would help hundreds of women who don’t have male guardians available or ready to go with them to pursue higher education outside,” the commission’s spokesman, Zuhair Al-Harithy, told Arab News.

The commission has submitted its request to the Council of Ministers, which determines government policy.

So far, though, the Higher Education Ministry has refused. The government’s decision affects thousands of women. In 2006 King Abdullah established a scholarship program for 80,000 students to study abroad. More than 13,000 were in the United States in 2007, about 20 percent of them women, according to Saudi government figures.

The requirement to bring a guardian, or mahram, applies only to women who study on government scholarships. Women who study abroad at their own expense are allowed to travel alone as long as they have the permission of their guardians to do so. —Beth McMurtrie