Saudis to permit women at wheel
Driving ban getting in way of larger female workforce.
Saudi Arabia announced Tuesday that it would allow women to drive, ending a long-standing policy that has become a global symbol of the repression of women in the ultraconservative kingdom.
The change, which will take effect next June, was announced on state television and in a simultaneous media event in Washington. The decision highlights the damage that the no-driving policy has done to the kingdom’s international reputation and its hopes for a public relations benefit from the reform.
Saudi leaders also 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.
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 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 — with no evidence — that driving harmed women’s ovaries.
Rights groups 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. But the momentum to change the policy picked up in recent years with the rise of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a 32-yearold son of the king who has laid out a far-reaching plan to overhaul the kingdom’s economy and society.
Ending the ban on women driving could 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.
So-called guardianship laws give men power over their female relatives. Women are unable to travel abroad, work or undergo some medical procedures without the consent of their male “guardian,” often a father, a husband or a son.
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.
Loujain Hathloul, a Saudi women’s rights advocate who was arrested for driving in 2014 and jailed for 73 days, tweeted a simple reaction: “Thank god!”