Princess Mako: Countries Where Women Are Not Allowed to Reign As Queens

Princess Mako married out of the Japanese royal family where she would not have been allowed to rule as a woman—like in many of the world's monarchies.

The departing royal married Kei Komuro following years of controversy which reportedly left her with post-traumatic stress disorder.

She was forced to give up her status as a royal because her husband was a commoner and the couple will begin a new life in New York.

However, that is not the only Japanese royal rule that may seem outdated in America.

Princess Mako, niece to the current Emperor Naruhito, could never have ruled in Japan because she is a woman.

Queen Elizabeth II is unusual as a female reigning monarch, with many countries skipping over first-born women in preference for their younger brothers.

Many do allow women to rule in the absence of a male heir, however, some still maintain a system that excludes females altogether.

Morocco only accepts male rulers with the crown passing to the eldest son, or a younger son of King Mohammed VI's choosing.

He is not, however, allowed to choose to pass the throne to a daughter.

The Moroccan constitution states: "When there are no male descendants in direct line, the succession to the Throne is devolved in the closest male collateral line and in the same conditions."

Oman also only accepts male heirs as sultan, though the country up until recently had a slightly different problem in that there was no direct heir of either gender.

Sultan Qaboos bin Said had no children when he died in 2020. The question over who should succeed him was eventually solved when his cousin Haitham bin Tariq al-Said was chosen.

In Saudi Arabia, the throne is only passed on to men, however, its rules are unusual among the world's monarchies as there is no clear line of succession.

In most monarchies, the crown passes through the eldest child, or eldest son, of the current sovereign and then to their eldest child and so on.

Saudi Arabia has an allegiance council in which royals can decide collectively to change the line of succession, according to Al Jazeera.

Bahrain's constitution states the crown passes to the sheikh's "eldest son, one generation after another, unless the king in his lifetime appoints a son other than his eldest son as successor."

The constitution of Brunei states: "No person shall be considered a lawful Heir or a lawful Successor unless he professes the Islamic Religion and is a male lawfully
begotten descendant in the male line of the common ancestor."

Kuwait's constitution states any heir "must be a legitimate son of Muslim parents" while Jordan's states: "No person shall ascend the Throne unless he is a Moslem, mentally sound and born by a legitimate wife and of Moslem parents."

Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Cambodia also require an heir to be male, according to The Washington Post.

Liechtenstein excludes women from the line of succession, according to evidence to the UN Human Rights Committee by the country's representative, Peter Matt, in 2017.

Some countries, however, have found inventive ways around the problem of being left without a male successor, including Lesotho in southern Africa.

According to an academic paper by Hoolo Nyane, of the University of Limpopo, in South Africa, Letsie I converted his eldest daughter, Senate, into a man so that she could rule in the 19th century.

This transition took place during a ritual in which she rode on the back of a horse wearing a rhino horn, a symbol of power, on her head, according to an article in Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal.