Saudi Arabia will allow women to travel unaccompanied by a male guardian under new laws.
Women in the kingdom were previously required to get the permission of a male relative - termed their "guardian" - to obtain a passport and go abroad.
The move will loosen the long-standing guardianship policy in the country which effectively treats women as minors their whole lives, unable to make basic administrative decisions.
The decrees were announced on Friday. Women will now be allowed to apply for passports and register a marriage, divorce or child's birth.
The changes also stipulate that a father or mother can be legal guardians of children.
Still in place, however, are rules that require male consent for a woman to leave prison, exit a domestic abuse shelter or marry. Women, unlike men, still cannot pass on citizenship to their children and cannot give consent for their children to marry.
Under the guardianship system, women relied on the "good will" and whims of male relatives to determine the course of their lives. In some cases, a woman's legal "guardian" was her son.
Saudi women fleeing domestic abuse and the guardianship system occasionally drew international attention to their plight, as 18-year-old Rahaf al-Qunun did before Canada granted her asylum.
To leave the country, some Saudi women say they had to hack into their father's phone and change the settings on a government app to allow themselves permission to leave the country.
Sweeping changes have been brought in by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as he drives an 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.
However he has also led a simultaneous crackdown on civil society, including detaining some of the country's leading women's rights activists who had demanded an end to the very male guardianship rules now being curtailed.
The women, among them Loujain al-Hathloul, are facing trial and allege they were tortured in prison.
The crown prince continues to face widespread international criticism over the killing of Washington Post columnist and critic Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last year.
Saudi Arabia has denied any involvement by the prince, while the kingdom's own investigation acknowledged the operation was planned by two of the prince's top aides.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
