Saudi Arabia has issued new laws to allow women to obtain passports and travel abroad without consent from a male guardian, Sky News reports.
The move is a potential game-changer for women's rights in the kingdom, which has long been criticised for treating females as minors throughout their adult lives.
Saudi women have previously been required to have permission from a husband or father to apply for a passport and travel abroad.
In some cases, the male guardian was a woman's own son granting her the necessary travel permissions.
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The new rules, approved by King Salman and his cabinet, allow any person aged 21 ofr older to travel abroad without prior consent and any citizen to apply for a Saudi passport on their own.
Women, unlike men, are also not allowed to pass on citizenship to their children and cannot provide consent for their children to marry.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has promoted a number of sweeping changes as he drives an ambitious economic reform plan that encourages more women to enter the workforce.
He was behind lifting the ban on women driving last year, loosening rules on gender segregation and bringing concerts and cinemas to the country.
He has also led a simultaneous crackdown on activists, including detaining the country's leading women's rights activists who had demanded an end to the very male guardianship rules now being curtailed.
