Saudi Arabia Eases Gender Segregation In Restaurants

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has relaxed laws requiring restaurants to have gender-segregated entrances, Reuters reported on Sunday.

What Happened

The restaurants were previously required to have two separate entrances for men coming in alone and for families, including women, according to Reuters.

The segregation rules will continue to apply to other establishments, including schools and hospitals, Reuters said. 

The restaurants can also continue to have gender-segregated entrances if they choose to do so, but won’t be bound by law any longer, Saudi Arabia’s ministry of municipalities and rural affairs said on Twitter.

A rule requiring unrelated men and women to have separate seating inside the restaurants is also likely to continue, in the absence of any separate announcement, Reuters noted.

Why It Matters

The change in the law is the latest in a string of reforms introduced by Mohammed Bin Salman ever, since he became the Kingdom’s Crown Prince in 2017.

The crown prince, better known as MBS, was widely credited as the person responsible for getting the ban lifted on women driving in the country in 2018.

Earlier in August, Saudi Arabia overturned the law that required women to obtain the permission of a male guardian to travel, the Washington Post reported.