Women's Rights in Saudi Arabia: Gearing Up for Change?

Saudi Woman on Driving Ban: "Many of Us Are Thrilled about This!"

Inside Story - Is Saudi Arabia on a Reform Path?

It is the only country in the world where women are banned from getting behind the wheel of a car, but not for much longer, nine months to be exact. King Salman is allowing women to legally drive for the first time from next June.

The royal decree removes a cornerstone of Saudi conservatism. Some conservative voices are accusing the leadership of 'bending the verses of Sharia'. While rights activists are delighted that Saudi women are finally being allowed to do what's entirely normal everywhere else.

But will the royal go-ahead accelerate existing tensions in the Kingdom? And is it a major step towards gender equality in the male dominated society?

Presenter: Sami Zeidan | Guests: Eylem Atakav - Senior Lecturer, University of East Anglia; Yasemin Saib - Saudi activist; Rothna Begum - Women’s Rights Researcher, Human Rights Watch

Saudi Arabia: Big Economic Imperatives behind Lifting of Driving Ban

Women in Saudi Arabia: A Long Road to Equality

Saudi Woman Talks About Driving Ban

Hala Al Dosari, an activist and driving campaign supporter, says the fight against the ban is not over.

Saudis Fear There Will Be ‘No More Virgins’ and People Will Turn Gay If Female Drive Ban Is Lifted

MAIL ONLINE: Repealing a ban on women drivers in Saudi Arabia would result in ‘no more virgins’, the country’s religious council has warned.

A ‘scientific’ report claims relaxing the ban would also see more Saudis - both men and women - turn to homosexuality and pornography.

The startling conclusions were drawn by Muslim scholars at the Majlis al-Ifta’ al-A’ala, Saudi Arabia’s highest religious council, working in conjunction with Kamal Subhi, a former professor at the King Fahd University.

Their report assessed the possible impact of repealing the ban in Saudi Arabia, the only country in the world where women are not allowed behind the wheel.

It was delivered to all 150 members of the Shura Council, the country’s legislative body.

The report warns that allowing women to drive would ‘provoke a surge in prostitution, pornography, homosexuality and divorce’. Read on and comment » | Mail Foreign Service | Thursday, December 01, 2011

Poor Saudi Arabia! Poor benighted Saudi Arabia! The Saudis are simply incapable of lifting themselves out of the dark ages, aren’t they? I wonder why? – © Mark

Saudi Princess Says She Is 'Ready to Drive'
One of the most prominent women in Saudi Arabia has said she is "ready to drive", adding momentum to efforts to reform the country's religious ban on women motorists.

Princess Amira al-Taweel, the wife of the conservative Islamic kingdom's most renowned businessman, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, said she already drives when she travels abroad.

"Certainly I'm ready to drive a car," she said in an interview with al-Watan, a Saudi Arabian daily newspaper. "I have an international driver's licence, and I drive a car in all the countries I travel to."

Her seemingly innocuous comments carry a high political charge in a country where educated women have been pressing quietly for more rights.

Two years ago Princess Lolwah al-Faisal, the daughter of the late King Faisal, spoke in support of women driving at the World Economic Forum in Davos. >>> | Monday, February 8, 2009

THE TELEGRAPH: Saudi Arabia 'May Allow' Cinemas After Three-decade Ban

The chief of Saudi Arabia's powerful religious police has said some movies may be acceptable in the kingdom, despite a three-decade ban on cinemas, local press reported on Sunday.

Sheikh Ibrahim al-Gaith, head of the feared Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, made the concession after last week's breakthrough public showings in Jeddah of the comedy feature "Manahi".

"A movie could possibly be acceptable if it serves good and is suitable under Islam," Sheikh Gaith said.

Gaith pulled back from comments he made two days earlier branding movies "an absolute evil" in the wake of screenings in the Red Sea port city.

"I did not say that we reject all cinema, but I said that we were not consulted during the organisation of these movie showings," he explained.

For more than a week from Dec 9, the Rotana entertainment group, controlled by Saudi tycoon Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, showed "Manahi" to rapturous audiences in Jeddah and nearby Taif.

The screenings, approved by the provincial governor, Prince Khalid al-Faisal, sparked hopes that Saudi Arabia would soon allow public cinemas. >>> | Monday, December 22, 2008

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Saudi Ban on Women Drivers May Be Eroding
THE TIMES OF INDIA: RIYADH: When Ruwaida al-Habis' father and two brothers were badly burned in a fire, she had no choice but to break Saudi Arabia's ban on women drivers to get them to a clinic.

Using the driving skills her father taught her on the family farm, al-Habis managed to reach the clinic's emergency entrance without a hitch.

"When I pulled up, a crowd of people surrounded the car and stared as if they were seeing extraterrestrial beings," the 20-year-old university student said. "Instead of focusing on the burn victims, the nurses kept repeating, 'You drove them here?'''

Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that bans all women, Saudi and foreign, from driving. The prohibition forces families to hire live-in drivers, and women who cannot afford the $300-$400 a month for a driver must rely on male relatives to drive them to work, school, shopping or the doctor.

But there are signs support for the ban is eroding. Al-Habis' story was first published in one of the biggest Saudi newspapers, Al-Riyadh, which even called her "brave." Her father, Hamad al-Habis, praised his daughter's action.

"Why should it even be an issue?" said Hamad al-Habis in his hospital bed. "My daughter took the right decision at the right time."

Al-Habis is one of several women whose driving has made headlines. It is not clear whether the reports are a sign that more women are driving or that newspapers are just more willing to report about them. But in either case, it suggests the long-unquestioned nature of the ban is eroding.

That may in part be because of signals from the top: King Abdullah, considered a reformist, has said the issue is a social one, not religious, opening the door for society to spur change. Saudi Ban on Women Drivers May Be Eroding >>> | August 22, 2008

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Saudi Women Make Video Protest
BBC: Saudi women's rights activists have posted on the web a video of a woman at the wheel of her car, in protest at the ban on female drivers in the kingdom.

Wajeha Huwaider talks of the injustice of the ban and calls for its abolition as she drives calmly along a highway.

She says the film was posted to mark International Women's Day. Thousands have viewed it on the YouTube website.

The last such public show of dissent was in 1990 when dozens of women were arrested for circling Riyadh in cars.

Last year, Ms Huwaider and other activists circulated a petition which was sent to King Abdullah urging him to lift the ban.

In the three-minute clip, she at first drives around a residential compound where she notes that women are allowed to drive because it is not a public road.

But about halfway through, without comment, she executes a left turn onto the main highway and proceeds to drive along it in defiance of Saudi law.

"Many women in this society are able to drive cars, and many of our male relatives don't mind us driving," she says in Arabic.

"I hope that by next year's International Woman's Day, this ban on us will be lifted," she concludes. Saudi Women Make Video Protest >>>

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Two Saudi Scholars Find Nothing Un-Islamic in Allowing Women to Drive
BBC: Two Saudi scholars have said there is nothing in Islamic law to prevent women from driving.

The senior religious figures said the issue depended on the context.

They say women would need to be protected from harassment and that steps would have to be taken to ensure there was no mingling of the sexes.

An opinion poll published by a leading English-language Saudi newspaper suggests that this is a view supported by most Saudi men and women.

The two scholars are Abdel-Mohsin al-Obaikan - one of Saudi Arabia's senior religious figures - and another well-known cleric, Mohsin Awaji.

Both say that, in principle, Islamic law does not prevent women driving.

Everything depends, they say, on the context.

There are road safety issues. Steps need to be taken to prevent harassment of women drivers. Saudi scholars back women drivers >>> By Roger Hardy

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Challenge to the Saudi Driving Ban on Women
BBC: A group of women in Saudi Arabia is for the first time to lobby the kingdom's government for the right to drive cars.

Members of the Committee of Demanders of Women's Right to Drive Cars plan to deliver a petition to King Abdullah by Sunday, Saudi Arabia's National Day.

Correspondents say the demand is likely to be rejected, as conservatives argue if women are allowed to drive, they will be able to mix freely with men. Saudi women challenge driving ban »

Mark Alexander