Why Can't Women Drive In Saudi?

[ToraToraTora]

Can someone explain to be what is so threatening about women being allowed to drive? Beyond the normal reasons that is!

[boxtops]

sqad, that's hideous, but unfortunately not uncommon here

[slaney]

I was surprised to find that it is a fairly recent "tradition"..
"Prohibiting gender mixing can be traced only to the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Women born before 1950, for example, can recall driving trucks, inviting unmarried men into their homes for tea as long as the front door was open and walking about with no abaya or niqab."
https://sites.google.com/site/roblwagnerarchives/s

[EDDIE51]

I lived and worked in Saudi for 3 years. As said women are not even allowed out of the house without a male relative to accompany them.
I drove over 250,000 Km in Saudi without even a scratched bumper. Saudi has the worst driving in the world , there are NO laws relating to driving a male can get a driving licence just by sending off for it on his 17th birthday.
Because of this the population of Saudi is actually decreasing due to the huge numbers of road deaths almost all male and under 25. There are less than 4 million native Saudis but the population is over 25 million , the rest are immigrant workers mainly from India , Pakistan ,Somalia and the Philippians .
A Saudi father will often buy his son a powerful sports car for his 17th birthday, all too often the son is dead in an accident within a few weeks.
In view of this it is perhaps as well women can not drive.

[Blackiequine]

Pictures in Daily Mail (squad's post) - last picture "Steady: These two friends support each other as they teeter home after a night on the town"

"Teeter" - look at their shoes!
"Support each other" - they each have their arms folded.

Typical newspaper sensationalism, or lies.

Actually I'm surprised at how tame the pictures are.

[ummmm]

Agree...

Picture 1 = exhibitionist. She doesn't look drunk.
Picture 2 = sitting waiting for a taxi probably.
Picture 3 = probably drunk.
Picture 4 = eating their take out while probably waiting for a taxi.
Picture 5 = two girls walking. Big deal!

[boxtops]

"beyond the normal reasons, that is"....TTT, you don't think women should drive, either, then?

[leahbee]

I fully agree with Vhg.
I went to Riyahd about 10years ago and I would never go there again. My sisters husband works for a member of the Arab Royalty in London and I went with them, so no problem getting in. We stayed at the top hotel but my sister and I ere not allowed to look around and even our meals were served in the rooms. (Very grandly nevertheless.)
We could no go into any shops or malls without a man we could not marry, in our case this was our driver. Women not allowed even with a male in stores which sold music.
I was told to COVER YOUR HAIR when my veil slipped off and he scared me to death.
The ladies clothes shops were a sight to behold. Beautiful as long as you liked black the only difference was different beading down the front which the ladies seemed to take ages to choose.
I can't remember the name but think it's Matowas drove round in big cars with klaxons on top looking for women who may be showing a tiny bit of flesh, they ran when they heard this coming and turned their faces to the wall.
Even pictures of children in English newspapers is toys had their arms and legs blacked out,sometimes making it impossible to read because the felt pen they used went through to the other side of the page. Must be boring everyone now but I must tell sqad about the Americans we met in a supermarket who were buying two trolley loads of non alcholic drinks. I said to them " you won't get drunk on that" and they said "we will when we've finished with it"

[modeller]

In SA they take it to extreme but all Islam considers women inferior, but remember where they got it from , our bible.

[237SJ]

The rules (or rather , how they are enforced) seem to vary in Saudi. In Saudi I have - gone to a shopping mall with males who I am not related to, gone out to dinner at restaurants with likewise, taken my abaya off on the "ladies floor" of a mall and walked around in normal clothes. Sometimes you have to wear the headscarf in airports, sometimes you don`t. I`ve also got rather pissed there but that is another story. Last time I was there someone told me that the King is fairly amenable to women driving but it`s the religios police who are not allowing it. Consequently, kids as young as 8 are driving their mothers about because the mothers can`t do it for themselves which is madness. I`m all for the campaign of defiance that women drivers are holding at the moment. They`ve had quite a lot of support from the men as well which is good.

[leahbee]

I am told that the nearer you are to Mecca the stricter the rules are.

[boxtops]

Leahbee, non-Muslims can't get anywhere near Mecca anyway. I've seen the road sign. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Christian_Bypass.jpg They won't let you into Mecca and the holy sites unless you can demonstrate you have a pass of some sort indicating that you are eligible. And yes, dress code in Mecca is tight, but still allows for cultural differences (e.g. the African women I mentioned could still wear their bright all-covering usual garments).

[leahbee]

That's interesting boxtops. I have only seen pictures of pilgrimages to Mecca and I don't think that I would want to go there.

[Zeuhl]

Perhaps they were scared by 'Thelma and Louise'

[EDDIE51]

I was in Dhahran on the Aramco base which is like a small US town. Women can drive around the 'camp' but not outside it.
The nearest Saudi town was Al Khobar with Damman just a few miles further.
Yes the Religious police are the ones you have to watch.
It was the Religious Police who caused a load of school girls to burn to death! There was a fire in a girls school and the Religious police forced them back inside at gunpoint as they had run out in a panic and not put their veils on. They tried to hush that one up but too many people had seen what happened. The religious police would rather see a female burn alive than let them out of school without a veil.

[naomi24]

It really pees me off when people say ‘it’s nothing to do with Islam’. It has everything to do with Islam. Saudi is governed by just about the strictest Islamic tenets in the world – and the rule-makers find justification within Islamic literature for everything they do. Constantly making excuses for this backward culture is tantamount to endorsing it - and it does any hope for progress and for the future freedom for women no favours whatsoever. None of the apologists would want their lives restricted by such conditions – so why excuse it?

[FredPuli43]

The key words are "Religious Police". What religion's rules are they enforcing ? Now, Islam may have variations in practice between one branch or sect and another and different interpretations of holy texts, but in Saudi this interpretation and practice of Islam is what holds.

[ludwig]

// Why Can't Women Drive In Saudi? //

Because it's a morally retarded sandpit where religious dogma is used to justify misogynism amonsgt other unethical practices.