Saudi Arabia Agrees to Let Women Drive

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: New York Times

Saudi Arabia announced on Tuesday that it would allow women to drive, overturning a longstanding policy that has become a global symbol of the repression of women in the ultraconservative kingdom.

The change, which will not happen immediately, was announced on state television and in a simultaneous media event in Washington. It highlights the damage that the policy has done to the kingdom’s international reputation and its hopes for a public relations benefit from the reform.

Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, is a Muslim monarchy ruled according to Shariah law. Saudi officials and clerics have provided numerous explanations for the ban over the years.

Some said that it was inappropriate in Saudi culture for women to drive, or that male drivers would not know how to handle women in cars next to them. Others argued that allowing women to drive would lead to promiscuity and the collapse of the Saudi family. One cleric claimed — with no evidence — that driving harmed women’s ovaries.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/26/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-women-drive.html

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Busy news day.

[shenmue]

1. Yes

[LisaM]

2. Maybe QE2 contributed in her own small way....

Though this happened a long time ago now, it's still funny.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/01/feminist-boss-lady-queen-elizabeth-gave-saudi-arabias-king-lesson-power/

[GeoWilliam750]

19. Nice!

Had not heard that story before

[Glorfindel]

27. Her Majesty is the classiest!

Vivat Regina!

[sarge43]

28. Love that story.

God save the Queen.

[LisaM]

31. I do, too.

I was glad to get an excuse to post it again!

[sarge43]

32. Yup. "Oh look, there's an elk in the road. Hang on." n/t

[dalton99a]

3. Watch the birth rate

All the ovaries are going to be so messed up

[IronLionZion]

6. Between the promiscuity and damaged ovaries

it sounds like it could even out.

I've heard someone claim that women shouldn't ride motorcycles because the vibrations would excite them too much.

[dalton99a]

9. Bicycles too

All that masturbation going on

[briv1016]

18. So in that case if nothing changes we'll know they were both right.

[Me.]

4. Big Of Them

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. It's a very good start! n/t

[Warpy]

7. The one thing Saudi women all complained about to me was the inability to drive

Most of the ones I knew were educated in Europe or the US and drove outside the country and chafed at the restrictions at home. They were especially annoyed at having to figure out how to kick some male off a couch to drive them to a market for necessities or nobody was going to get to eat that night.

There will likely be a million high hoops for Saudi women to jump through to get that damn license to drive. Somehow, I think all of them are up to the task and in another 10 years, the hoops might disappear.

[DURHAM D]

8. Love the ovaries comment.

jftr - As late as the 1970s those of us with lady parts could not play full court basketball because it would "harm our ovaries".

Half-court basketball was the dumbest game EVER.

ETA: Just googled half court and found that Iowa did not stop it until 1994 and Oklahoma 1995. Wow. Two dribbles.

[FuzzyRabbit]

15. And no jump shots or layups.

The young women at my high school hated those rules.

And now we have the WNBA. The WNBA final game Sunday was a cliff hanger - 4 lead changes in the last 59 seconds.

[Honeycombe8]

10. June of 2018. Great! This will let women be more independent.

Can you imagine being totally reliant on others to get around, esp in a place w/o good public transportation or if you have health problems? And if you WORK?

(But I hope their ovaries are okay. )

[pangaia]

11. On no, what's next?voting

[BigmanPigman]

12. The men who didn't want to allow this are probably fearful that now they will become

victims of "accidental" hit and runs. Since women are still covered from head to toe they already have a disguise, now they would just have to cover their plates and off they go.

[marylandblue]

13. Will the women need their brain size measured to get a license?

[byronius]

14. HA! Finally. I could drive there when I was SEVEN YEARS OLD. But not my mom. Ever.

I drove a VW van across Saudi with my dad napping in the back seat when I was eight years old. I drove a motorcycle into town whenever I wanted. But my sister -- mom -- neighbor lady -- all women -- had to be driven everywhere.

It's a freakishly backwards culture. 1100 AD, approximately. Loved the people. Hated the religion. Violent molester/animal abuser religion. Sound familiar? Visit Alabama sometime. You'll get the idea.

That was South-bashing. Sorry. I plead Serious Childhood Trauma.

[kiras gg]

22. driving while female

I lived there for 20 years; but it was Aramco. We could drive on the compounds but not locally. My gardener was my driver. When I wanted a new car I couldn't decide between a Mercedes or a Lexus; my husband had the Saudi salesman bring the car to the compound so I could test drive. The Saudi in his thobe sat in the back seat while I drove all over the compound. Wish I had video.........

[byronius]

23. Aramco! I lived in the UPM South Compound a mile off your fence.

Aramco always seemed like a transported-in piece of the USA to me. We had no fence, played with the Bedouin kids, roamed the Empty Quarter on minibikes --

It'll never be like that again. When were you there? I left in '72, and have a Facebook group of friends I knew in grade school.

[RedSpartan]

16. Trump approves, but ONLY if the women are tens.

They have to be tens.

[gyroscope]

17. "Driving harms women's ovaries"

Bizarre statement, given that during any kind of physical activity male testicles are much more exposed and vulnerable to harm than ovaries which are not exposed.

[briv1016]

20. Wouldn't they still need a male escort though?

[iluvtennis]

21. Very good start.

[El Supremo]

25. But they will still be required to wear full burkas.

[Coventina]

24. I'll praise them when they stop shoving little girls into burning buildings.

Sure, I'm glad they are one step forward, but they have a looooooong way to go.

[Shoonra]

26. This is a mere sop in a crushing dictatorship that played a part in 9-11 and secretly pushes Wall St

Saudi Arabia is a crushing fundamentalist theocratic dictatorship, with a patriarchal attitude that provides women with virtually no rights in either this world or the next. This permission to drive is a tiny loosening - but not much, because they can only drive with a male relative in the car with them.

In the meantime, we learned only a few years ago what Dick Cheney concealed from the FBI report on the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon; namely, that the Saudis were heavily behind it, financing and advising the hijackers. They have also been complicit in financing other Arab terrorists.

One thing we have known for more than 40 years is that the Saudis have enormous investments in Wall Street and in major American banks; and that, by agreement reached with the Nixon Administration, the US govt will conceal all the statistics showing the extent of the Saudi grip on the US economy. This secrecy even survived a lawsuit. The Saudis have set up several holding companies with innocuous names to conceal the nature of their grasp of Wall Street. Several educated estimates suggest that the Saudis own enough of all the stocks being traded and all the assets in banks that if they pulled everything out suddenly the entire US economy would crumble. For this reason, neither the White House nor the Congress dare offend the govt of Saudi Arabia. Altho the Republicans criticized Obama for bowing to the Saudi king when he visited Riyadh, they clammed up when Trump bowed even deeper. The Saudis may hate Jews, but they are willing to employ banks and stock brokerages that have Jews in order to make Saudi money influence the American economy and government.

[Gothmog]

29. This is interesting

[Joe Chi Minh]

30. Funny thing is, women are mostly better drivers ! I wonder

if it's connected with their multi-tasking thang ?