Saudi decision to allow women to drive hailed
Riyadh move will boost industries from car sales to insurance
Saudi Arabia’s decision to grant women the right to drive in the conservative kingdom marks a significant expansion in women’s rights.
The decision, which comes into effect in June 2018, is the most dramatic step yet in a campaign by the Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, to modernise the kingdom. He has been promoting change as needed to boost the country’s economy. The decision is likely to save families billions of dollars, boost industries from car sales to insurance, and reassure investors that the kingdom’s push to diversify its economy beyond oil is on track.
But hundreds of thousands of male chauffeurs who drive women around, most from south Asia and the Philippines, risk losing their jobs. About 10 million women over the age of 20, including foreigners, live in Saudi Arabia; nearly 1.4 million foreigners work as household drivers, earning roughly $500 a month in addition to being provided with accommodation and food.
White House praised the decision and said President Donald Trump views the change as “a positive step towards promoting the rights and opportunities of women in Saudi Arabia”. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described it as “an important step in the right direction”. Prince Khaled Bin Salman, Saudi ambassador to US, said letting women drive is a “huge step forward” and that “society is ready”.
Aziza Yousuf, a professor at King Saud University and one of the most vocal rights activists, said women were “happy” but also that the change was “the first step in a lot of rights we are waiting for”. — Agencies
Saudi Arabia’s announcement on Tuesday night reversing a ban on women from driving has been met with astounding fanfare.
“It is amazing,” said Fawziah Al Bakr, a Saudi university professor who was among 47 women who participated in the kingdom’s first protest against the ban — in 1990. After driving around the Saudi capital, Riyadh, the women were arrested, and some lost their jobs.
“Since that day, Saudi women have been asking for the right to drive, and finally it arrived,” she said by phone. “We have been waiting for a very long time.”
In the royal decree read live on state television, June 2018 was set as the official date where the reversal would take effect.
Saudi leaders hope the new policy will help the economy by increasing women’s participation in the workplace.
Many working Saudi women spend much of their salaries on drivers or must be driven to work by male relatives.
There has never been a law in Saudi Arabia prohibiting women from driving but more of an unofficial ban was in place, which restricted women from obtaining drivers licences.
Many of the kingdom’s professionals and young people will welcome 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 Tuesday.
Sharif was instrumental in organising groups of women for collective protests to demand an end to the ban on female drivers. She was arrested at the time for taking part in the actions and later wrote a book about her experience. She now lives in Australia.
“Saudi Arabia will never be the same again. The rain begins with a single drop” #Women2Drive, she tweeted.
Saudi officials and clerics have provided numerous explanations for the ban over the years. Some said that it was inappropriate in Saudi culture for women to drive, or that male drivers would not know how to handle having women in cars next to them. Others argued that allowing women to drive would lead to promiscuity and the collapse of the Saudi family. One cleric claimed that driving harmed women’s ovaries.
Rights groups and Saudi activists have long campaigned for the ban to be overturned, and some women have been arrested and jailed for defying the prohibition and taking the wheel.
In 2014, Loujain Hathloul was arrested after trying to cross the border from the UAE into Saudi Arabia and detained for 73 days.
“@LoujainHathloul I’m so proud of you,” Fahad Al Buteiri, her husband and a well-known Saudi comedian, wrote on Twitter. Hathloul tweeted a simple reaction to the news: “Thank God.”
The decision won near universal praise in Washington.
Heather Nauert, the State Department’s spokeswoman, 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
Mohammad Bin Salman, the king’s 32-year-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. But at a small news conference at the Saudi Embassy in Washington, an exuberant Prince Khalid Bin Salman, the Saudi ambassador, said women would be able to obtain driver’s licences without having to ask permission of their husbands, fathers or any male guardian — despite so-called 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. While the enforcement of guardianship laws has loosened in recent years, there is little to stop Saudi men from greatly limiting the movements of their wives or daughters.
The ambassador, who is a son of the king, said that 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.
At the news conference, the ambassador insisted that the decision would not be reversed or seriously opposed.
Beyond the effects it could have on Saudi Arabia’s image abroad, letting women drive could help the Saudi economy.