Saudi Women may be driving soon

Robert Hamilton
For Al-Shorfa.com
2008-07-22

A Bedouin woman drives the tribe's water truck, Near Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Photo by Jodi Cobb/National Geographic/Getty Images)

The ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia may soon be lifted, according to comments made by a senior government official.

Saleh al-Turki, the chairman of the Saudi Chambers of Commerce, told the BBC that women were playing a more and more active role in the Kingdom, and that it was only a matter of time before they are allowed to drive.

He said that increasing numbers of women entering the workforce will act as a catalyst for other changes. Only one in 20 Saudi women currently work, according to the BBC report.

"Once the rest of the society realizes that allowing women to work is not a challenge to anybody, it is to the benefit of society, to the benefit of the family, driving will not become a problem in my opinion," said Turki.

Meanwhile, there is no provision in the kingdom’s new traffic laws to prevent women from driving vehicles according to Maj. Gen. Fahd Al Bishr, director-general of Saudi Traffic Department.

The new laws, which were overhauled this week, make clear that the issue of driving rights has nothing to do with Saudi’s Traffic Department.

“The new law speaks only about the driver of the vehicle, and there is no specification of either man or woman. As far as [the issue of] women driving is concerned, we are not bothering about it,” he said. “It is purely an issue [for] the legislative authorities.”

There has been an increase in the number of reports of women flouting the Saudi Arabian driving ban in the past year. In early July in Riyadh a woman died in an accident while driving illegally, and in another incident a woman was arrested behind the wheel in Jeddah.

Last September, a group called The Society for Protecting and Defending Women's Rights presented a petition to government demanding that "the right of women to drive is given back to us. It is a right that was enjoyed by our mothers and grandmothers in complete freedom to [utilize] the means of transportation in those times." The group posted the petition on numerous Web sites and circulated it via email, asking not just Saudis, but people from across the world to sign it.

The petition was the first action taken by the group, which was been founded by Fawzeyah Al-Oyouni, human rights activist and wife of poet Ali Domaini, along with poet and human rights activist Wajeha Al-Huwaidar, social worker Haifa Osrah, and others.

“Women are in urgent need of driving; it’s a basic need,” said Al-Oyouni, one of the petition drive’s organizers, at the time.

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah said previously that it is not a political issue, it is a social one, and that the government does not object [to women driving].

The government has argued that the ban on women driving was a societal decision and not one based on any law. It comes from a strict interpretation of a woman’s need to be with a legal guardian in public.

Bookmarking

Please comment on this article so that we can improve the experience of viewing this website.