WOMEN CAN NOW DRIVE IN SAUDI ARABIA
The new policy is expected to boost Saudi’s economy by increasing women’s participation in the workplace, writes
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.
The decision won near universal praise in Washington. Heather Nauert, the State Department’s spokesman, called it “a great step in the right direction for that country”.
The momentum to change the policy picked up in recent years with the rise of Crown Prince Mohammed Salman, the king’s 32year-old son, who has laid out a far-reaching plan to overhaul the kingdom’s economy and society.
Increasing numbers of women are working in a growing number of professions, and in 2015, women were allowed to vote and to run for seats on the kingdom’s local councils.
Ending the ban on women driving is expected to face some resistance inside the kingdom, where families are highly patriarchal and some men say they worry about their female relatives getting stranded should their cars break down.
But, at a small news conference at the Saudi Embassy in Washington, an exuberant Prince Khalid Salman, the Saudi ambassador, said women would be able to obtain driver’s licences without having to ask permission from their husbands, fathers or any male guardian despite guardianship laws that give men power over their female relatives.
Under these laws, women cannot travel abroad, work or undergo some medical procedures without the consent of their male “guardian”, often a father, a husband or even a son.
The ambassador, who is a son of the king, said women would be able to drive alone, but that the Interior Ministry would decide whether they could work as professional drivers. He said he did not expect the change in policy to face significant resistance.
“I think our society is ready,” he said.
Many of the kingdom’s professionals and young people have welcomed the change, viewing it as a step to making life in the country a bit more like life elsewhere.
Manal al-Sharif, a Saudi women’s rights advocate who filmed herself driving in 2011 and posted the footage to YouTube to protest the law, celebrated the announcement on Tuesday.
Manal was instrumental in organising groups of women for collective protests to demand an end to the ban on female drivers.
The royal decree, read by an announcer of state television and signed by Salman, said traffic laws would be amended, including to allow the government to issue driver’s licences “to men and women alike”.
The decree also said a highlevel ministerial committee was being formed to study other issues that needed to be addressed for the change to take place. For example, the police will have to be trained to interact with women in a way that they rarely do in Saudi Arabia, a society where men and women who are not related have little contact.
The decree added that the majority of the Council of Senior Scholars — the kingdom’s top clerical body, whose members are appointed by the king — had agreed that the government could allow women to drive if done in accordance with syariah law. NYT
>>
THE ultraconservative kingdom of Saudi Arabia has issued an order allowing women to drive, ending a long-standing policy that’s cast an unflattering light on the country’s treatment of women.
It’s also royal opportunity for global carmakers eager to make further inroads into the Middle East’s biggest economy.
Saudi Arabia’s move to open up its car market to about half of its 32 million total population will have a profound impact on vehicle demand, driving habits and even immigration patterns in a country where low-wage immigrants from Bangladesh and the Philippines often work as hired drivers.
Market leaders such as Toyota Motor Corp and Hyundai Motor Co, whose hulking sport utility vehicles are a fixture on Saudi roadways, may need to boost inventory of smaller models such as compacts and sedans for single working women and female students, say analysts.
On the flip side, app-driven, hired driver services like Uber Technologies Inc could experience a drop in demand, as more women buy their own cars and get behind the wheel.
Japanese carmaker Toyota accounted for 32 per cent of the 676,000 vehicles sold in Saudi Arabia last year, while South Korea’s Hyundai ranked second with 24 per cent market share, according to Jeff Schuster, an analyst with LMC Automotive.
Toyota signed an agreement in March to conduct a feasibility study on local production in the kingdom.
Nissan Motor Co and Hyundai were also in early stages of talks to open local plants, Asharq AlAwsat reported in June, citing an interview with a Saudi minister. Bloomberg