RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — More than 60 women across Saudi Arabia claimed they drove cars Saturday in defiance of a ban keeping them from getting behind the wheel, but they faced little protest from police in their push to ease restrictions on women in the kingdom.
The campaign’s message is that driving should be a woman’s choice. The struggle is rooted in the kingdom’s hard-line interpretation of Islam, known as Wahabbism, with critics warning that allowing women to drive could unravel the fabric of Saudi society.
Though no laws ban women from driving in Saudi Arabia, authorities do not issue them licenses. Women who drove Saturday had driver’s licenses from abroad, activists said.
Women in Saudi Arabia can’t even vote, although they will be able to in 2015. According to PBSnews.org:
Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has granted women the right to vote and run in 2015 local elections and to be appointed to his advisory Shura Council, but some women’s rights advocates are not satisfied.
I am trying to think of comparable situations. Blacks were given the right to vote in 1865 but how long did it take for voting rights to be secured? The Voting Rights Act of 1965 should have done it but I am not sure we are really there 100%. Look at North Carolina.
Then there is the fact that abortion as a legal procedure was codified by Roe v Wade in 1973. Yet all over the United States thousands of women are denied access to clinics that perform the procedure, either chemically or surgically because of various hurdles. Waiting laws, closed clinics, long distances, architectural standards for buildings , extraneous medical interventions like ultra-sound that make the procedure more expensive and other disruptions all create situations where abortion is still legal, it is often inaccessible for one reason or another.
It’s hard to get a driver’s license when you aren’t issued one because of your gender. It’s difficult to sue over a law that isn’t a law. It wouldn’t surprise me if the women who drove didn’t disappear of have the holy men come beat them with sticks.
Women and blacks should consider the women of Saudi Arabia and make certain they exercise their right to vote. People all over the middle east have risked death to exercise their right to vote. Hopefully all eligible Virginians will get to the polls on November 5.
Yeah for women of Saudi Arabia! Their exportation of Wahhabism has done so much damage to the world. I love how they create an Osama Bin Laden and then export him to the world when he goes “off the reservation”.
Good for them. Ken Cuccinelli would get along fine with the Saudis. They both hate women
Good story.
A relative of mine worked for a large bank in Saudi Arabia. She lived in a nice compound with a pool, was given lavish jewelry, and had a personal driver. But she said the inability to drive was stifling. There were no quick spur-of-the-moment trips to relieve boredom or to see something new. For entertainment, the ability to drive, and a nice stiff drink, she travelled to Egypt.
“Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has granted women the right to vote and run in 2015 local elections and to be appointed to his advisory Shura Council, but some women’s rights advocates are not satisfied.”
Read this sen fence carefully–King Abdullah granted women the right to vote–it did not occur by popular referendum. Wahhabism has been around for a couple of hundred years–am not certain women in Saudi Arabis should expect any miracles very soon. Hopefully, none of those who drove will be punished but…