Women are absolutely equal to men: Saudi Crown Prince

WASHINGTON, Mar 19 (Agencies): The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's (KSA) Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has said that women are 'absolutely' equal to men as he is set to arrive in the US on Monday during which he will meet President Donald Trump and tour a number of American cities.

On Sunday, CBS News programmeme "60 Minutes" aired an episode about the prince and where he hopes to take Saudi Arabia.

When asked if women were equal to men, the Crown Prince said: "Absolutely. We are all human beings and there is no difference."

He acknowledged that Saudi Arabia has been dominated by an "ultraconservative interpretation of Islam" that was wary of non-Muslims, deprived women of basic rights and constricted social life, the New York Times reported.

"We were victims, especially my generation that suffered from this a great deal," he said about conservatism that spread through the kingdom after 1979.

Mohammed bin Salman is set to meet with US President Donald Trump in Washington on Tuesday.

Mutual rival Iran will be high on the agenda, but the 32-year-old strongman prince will also be looking to showcase his sweeping changes to Saudi society and an increasingly assertive foreign policy that includes the war in Yemen and an ongoing diplomatic feud with Qatar.

The following are quotations from an interview he gave to CBS News on Sunday.

Prince Mohammed has implemented some reforms on women's rights, loosening clothing restrictions, pushing for greater participation in the workforce, and, significantly, lifting a ban on women driving.

But guardianship laws, which require women to seek the permission of male relatives for a host of activities, remain in place.

"We have extremists who forbid mixing between the two sexes and are unable to differentiate between a man and a woman alone together and their being together in a work place. Many of those ideas contradict the way of life during the time of the Prophet," he said.

"We are all human beings and there is no difference."

The prince acknowledged Saudi society was dominated by particularly harsh strain of conservative Islam, which he traces back to 1979, the year of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the seizure by extremists of the Grand Mosque in Mecca.