Posted on 06/09/2005 2:14:04 PM PDT by nickcarraway
RIYADH -- It took just a simple proposal from a member of Saudi Arabia's consultative council for the lifting of a ban on women drivers to stir a heated debate on a taboo subject in the ultraconservative kingdom.
"An earthquake happened in Saudi Arabia," said Mohammed Al Zulfa, a member of the Shura council, an advisory body with no legislative powers, describing the fallout from his proposal last week.
The debate has raged ever since, especially in local newspapers, in the world's only country where women are banned from getting behind the wheel.
Women in oil-rich Saudi Arabia are likewise banned from traveling without the authorization of their male guardian and cannot dine alone in a restaurant. They also have to cover themselves from head to toe when in public.
Zulfa, a professor of history before joining the appointed council, said that his proposal was like kicking a wasps' nest.
"There is a very strong opposition from a very small minority," he said in an interview.
"They always talk on behalf of the people. They say they talk in the name of Allah," Zulfa said, in a reference to the ultraconservatives who wield great influence.
The council of grand ulemas (religious scholars), the highest religious authority in the country, issued a fatwa, or religious decree, in 1990 stipulating that women driving was against the rules of Islam.
Zulfa thought that he had introduced his proposal tactfully as part of an uncontroversial debate on road safety.
He argued that lifting the ban on women drivers could resolve what he considers to be a serious social problem - the presence of some 1 million foreign drivers needed to enable Saudi women to move around.
Cars driven by Asian drivers with veiled women in the back seat are a common feature of big towns in Saudi Arabia.
Zulfa said that the obligation to hire a driver represented a financial burden for families with limited income and cost the country more than 12 billion Saudi riyals ($3.2 billion) a year.
But the 61-year-old Shura member thinks that a bigger danger lurks there as women and young girls spend long hours in the company of foreign drivers.
"This is against Islam, for a woman to be with a stranger. It's forbidden," he said. On the other hand, "there is nothing in the Koran that says women do not have the right to drive".
Besides, his proposal would concern only women over 35 years old who are "responsible and mature enough", Zulfa argued.
But the case failed to impress the ultraconservatives, who insist that a woman driver is at risk of encountering a strange man - a horror for Wahhabism, the strict interpretation of Islam followed in Saudi Arabia.
Zulfa, however, thinks that the reason behind the outcry is simpler than that. "The ulemas do not want to lose their authority. Anything dealing with women, it's the ulemas" who decide, he said.
But he received thousands of protest phone calls as soon as the news of his proposal became public.
"I suffer because of this huge number of phone calls. They say 'you are wrong. This is against Islam. You should be afraid of Allah.' And they use also very bad language," he said.
Zulfa said that he also attracted some backing. "I knew I would be under attack, but I'm very happy, because the silent majority has started to say, 'We support you'," he said.
For the moment the proposal remains blocked in the council.
As far as the Saudi authorities are concerned, Crown Prince Abdullah Bin Abdel Aziz, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, has remained silent.
"If he [Abdullah] said half a word to the president of the council, if he just gave a sign, it [the project] would be discussed. But he wants to remain neutral," said Zulfa.
Doctor Aisha Al Manea, one of 47 women who defied the ban in 1990 and took part in a Riyadh demonstration drive, believes that for Saudi women to drive one day "there should be a political decision at the highest level".
The authorities "are not willing to do that, because there is a group of fundamentalists who are making a big issue out of it", she said. But one day, they will "have to make that decision. It's not a luxury. It's a necessity."
Pelosi, Boxer, Feinstein etal outta be REAL CAREFUL which "religion" and which culture they so lovingly embrace.
Bwahhaaahhhhaaa! Don't squeeze the charmin!
These creeps should be afraid of women.
In solidarity with our Lady FReepers... "ROAR!!!"
I've had it up to here with this Saudi Arabia place. The religious arrests and persecutions, the gender discrimination, countries like this make me sick to my stomach and quite frankly need to be wiped off the face of the earth. There is no discussion.
To me, Saudi Arabia is nearly as bad as Hussein-controlled Iraq or Iran, or the Taliban in Afghanistan. And if we encouraged the overthrow of the ruling class in Saudia Arabia, and installed democratic ideals, I think it would be cheered for by the same poor downtrodden people thirsty for freedom that we found in Iraq and Afghanistan and the same who are currently demonstrating in Lebanon and the Ukraine.
Yeah, 'cause as we all know, America (for instance) is SO much better off now that women can vote.
... best of luck to ya' with that...
Freak. Why don't you go join them there.
More likely they are at risk of driving over their own men...oops.
Ruhh RoHHH!
This is too funny:....
..."Cars driven by Asian drivers with veiled women in the back seat are a common feature of big towns in Saudi Arabia...
..."Zulfa said that the obligation to hire a driver represented a financial burden for families with limited income and cost the country more than 12 billion Saudi riyals ($3.2 billion) a year...
Why should I? I have good legs and don't particularly want to wear a burqa.
Since I seem to have touched a sore spot, why don't you tell me why women should have the vote?
Women as a group are illogical, emotional, unreasonable, impervious to rationality, flighty, and PMS-driven. Tell me we'd be better off as a nation with a weepy Pat Schroder poised with her hand over the button.
Why should you? Because we'd be better off as a nation without you in it. I am a woman and I have just as good a head on my shoulders as the next man. I pay my taxes and I have the right to vote. Your opinions coincide exactly with the overmoneyed Taliban in Saudi Arabia. It's a shame noone else is calling you on it.
I mean, jeez. Backwards and loving it. Who can figure that one out.
So this is Islam huh?
Gotta wonder what all these western bimbettes think after they marry one of these kunckleheads THEN find out that they can't drive, go out without permission, spend time with a stranger or ANYTHING else without permisisson of their husband.
Wht kind of moron would it take to learn this lesson???
The fact that you, unsurprisingly a woman, have chosen to insult me rather than attack the cogency of my arguments pretty much makes my point for me.
For the record, it's not "noone," which isn't a word. It's "no one."
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