Saudi Arabia Will Allow Women To Drive – IOTW Report

Saudi Arabia Will Allow Women To Drive

 

ZH: In an unprecedented step for a country where a sprawling monarchy has managed to cling to power in part because of its concessions to hardline conservative clerics, Saudi Arabia announced today that its King Salman has issued a historic royal decree granting driving licenses for women in the kingdom, meaning that women will soon be allow to drive – overturning a longstanding symbol of oppression in the Muslim world just days after President Donald Trump slammed the US ally’s human rights record during remarks at the UN.

The royal decree issued on Tuesday also ordered the establishment of a high-level committee of involving the ministries of internal affairs, finance, labor and social development. They will be tasked with studying the arrangements to enforce the new law.

“The royal decree will implement the provisions of traffic regulations, including the issuance of driving licenses for men and women alike,” the Saudi Press Agency said, according to Al Aribaya

According to the New York Times, the change which will not happen immediately, was announced both on state television and during a simultaneous media event in Washington.  read more

29 Comments on Saudi Arabia Will Allow Women To Drive

  1. Oh, Oh, the jeanie is out of the bottle.
    Next women will be able to walk without a male relative, wife beating and slavery will not be allowed.

    Leaving the 7th century and bursting into the 8th.

  2. Having been stationed over there for a year (20 years ago), I never thought I’d live to see the day when women would be allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia.
    This is almost as momentous as the fall of the Berlin wall.
    When I was there, women were in the third row of seats, behind the males and sheep.

  3. Heh heh, actually women can own cars in Saudia–just not drive them. Also, there is no law or even attempt in place to keep women from having driver’s licenses in other countries (individually, perhaps, but not on the whole).

    OK, so my next question is this: How will they reconcile the dangerous practice of driving sans peripheral vision (with niqab in place)? They already require women to remove it for passport photos (for obvious security reason), and that existed before 9/11. So when women being able to drive meets up with those who refuse to remove the face covering, who protests first? The morals police? The more backward of the females in the kingdom?

    How many male guardians will allow their charges to remove the stuff to get behind the wheel? It will be interesting to see the percentage of new licenses next June (when this takes effect), how fast the number ticks upward and the answer to the question: “Why aren’t there as many new licenses as there are driving-age females?” It really will be nice to be wrong on that part, though.

    Also, if the lower percentages come from where I’d expect them to come from (EP, Makkah proper area, not Jeddah).

    So many questions to watch and see the answers to!

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