Take the wheel

An influential Saudi wants women to drive

This week, billionaire Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal made a modest proposal — at least by the standards of the 21st century. The Saudi prince, a prominent global investor but who holds no political power, has come to the conclusion that women should finally be allowed the dignity of driving themselves in the kingdom.

Women are forbidden from driving or even learning how because of cultural practices often attributed to Islam. The prince makes a distinction between what the Koran mandates and what Saudi culture has imposed on women.

His argument is simple: Because of the 51 percent slide in oil prices, Saudi Arabia can no longer afford the cost inefficiencies of religious and cultural biases when it comes to women and driving. Men leaving their jobs in the middle of the day to chaperone wives and other female members of their families to appointments has a detrimental effect on productivity. The prince also compared the injustice to previous laws that prevented women from getting an education or having identities apart from men. He calls these “unjust acts by a traditional society, far more restrictive than what is lawfully allowed by the precepts of religion.” The Saudi royal family continues to be one of the most socially repressive regimes on the planet, despite its deep economic ties to the West. Allowing women to participate more fully in the economic life of the country by letting them drive themselves would have been a necessary step forward, but not one that absolves Saudi Arabia. Still, it is important for influential voices like Alwaleed bin Talal to continue to challenge Saudi Arabia’s self-defeating social orthodoxy.