The Committee of Demanders of Women's Right to Drive Cars will petition King Abdullah this week to remove the blanket ban on women driving. Although the petition has a snowball's chance in Riyadh of receiving acknowledgement– never mind consideration– it highlights the lack of anything remotely resembling democracy in The Land of The Two Holy Mosques. As the Associated Press reports, Saudi Arabia's prohibition against women driving is not based on secular or Islamic law. It's down to fatwas issued by senior Islamic clerics, who claim driving "creates situations for sinful temptation." Automotively aspirational women have attempted to overthrow the ban before– without success. "In November 1990, when U.S. troops were in Saudi Arabia following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, some 50 women got behind the wheel and drove family cars. They were jailed for one day, their passports were confiscated and they lost their jobs." And these are our allies against Islamo-fascists?
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Being an ally is in the eyes of the beholder. Saudis just happen to sell us their oil without complaining, albeit they gleefully send their overflowing youth to terrorist training camps instead of developing their economy to allow said youth to find jobs.
In Canada right now the debate is raging.Should Islamic women uncover thier face for ID purposes to vote?How about photo ID on a drivers licence?How about driving while peering through a small slit?
Saudis make thier own rules.Women can’t drive fair enough.
We try and be everything for everybody in Canada,and sometimes it don’t work.
It’s a curious situation, to say the least.
Saudis make thier own rules.
but they would be the first to lynch you if you went to their country and tried to make your own rules. I always think of that, any time we change a law to bend the rules to accomodate something that is common in another country.
AKM hit the nail on the head. The Saudis sell us their oil. ’nuff said.
The Canadians sell you MORE oil.
They ARE the Islamo-fascists. But it is their land, they can live by their rules. We shouldn’t be imposing our will on other countries and cultures. So long as they don’t meddle in our affairs we should stay out of theirs. If they do meddle in our affairs, by say… killing a bunch of us, and destroying our property, then by all means they should be brought to justice and punished.
By the way, it has been 2199 days since 9/11/2001 and the Saudi who attacked us still walks free.
Who can drive where is immaterial so long as that remains unresolved.
–chuck
In an effort to promote themselves as the guardians of Islam (and especially the Two Holy Mosques) the Kingdom of Saud financed wahabist schools and clerics and spread their very conservative (to say the least) version of Islam. Given the sybaritic lifestyle the princes enjoy, they have to be worried that some mad mullah like Kohmenhi will rise up against them, or they will suffer terrorist attacks themselves. Shows what happens when you let the tiger out of the cage only to grab its tail.
Until Islamic countries and other societies realize the tremendous economic advantages that come with giving women the freedoms that men have, they will always be poorer than they could be, no matter how much money they may derive from extracting mineral resources. Unfortunately for them all it is culturally and socially more important to keep women in a subservient role.
It is so wrong to assume that women live in a subservient role in Saudi Arabia and the middle east in general. Women and men are exactly equal in Islam and treated as such, only our Islamophobia makes it seem to us like they are not. Wearing a heavy black sheet with slits to look out of in the middle of the desert and relying on men for everything and occasionally being beaten and having the legal status of 1/4th a man are all special kinds of equality.
They ARE the Islamo-fascists.
Specifically, they’re the islamofascists we’re helping make rich with our American-flag-on-the-tailgate gas guzzlers.
BINGO dimitris.
Funny how Iran, with its free elections, is considered “evil” while Saudi Arabia is not.
Sometimes when my wife critisizes my driving and reminds me of all the speeding tickets I’ve accumulated in my life, I’ll mutter something about moving to a country like Saudi Arabia. She’ll squint her eyes and give me a look that says, “you’ve crossed the line, mister”.
Man… what was that episode of “American Dad” where they move to KSA and his wife sings her song about how great KSA is for women.
Anyhow, the rational behind the prohibition, and most of the other restrictions such as requiring a family male escort, no legal right, etc, etc. is to protect their cherished women. To a lesser extent, a lot of the male issuers of such fatwas honestly believe that women are too emotional to think clearly.
My point is that the attitude reminds me a lot how many American slave owners treated their slaves. They often spoke of how well their treated their slaves, took care of them, and protected them from the hardships of life like education, voting, etc, etc. I’m dead serious. They honestly felt like they were doing them a favor, like keeping pets.
So it boils down to the simple fact that women are not accepted as equal human beings. They need special handling since they are delicate, precious, and stupid.