Yesterday I read this article pasted above in the Daily Mail. When I read its title my first impression was to laugh but when I carried on to the article's content I was mortified.
Despite living in Saudi for most of my life I knew how tedious it was to have to depend on male family members, friends or driver to be transported around the city. You'd usually have to wait more than an hour because they have other errands to tend to. Even sharing drivers was a nightmare!
Saudi's law on no driving for women was implemented when cars were first brought into the kingdom. Not for religious purposes but just because King Saud at the time decided women shouldn't drive. For years women have tried to battle this ban but were never successful.
The first time I heard about the proposal for the driving ban to be lifted I was against it for one reason only- women's safety. Saudi is already notorious for unsafe and hazardous driving due to letting minors and unlicensed drivers drive as freely as they please. Not to mention the hormonally crazed adolescents driving around the streets harassing female passengers whether young or old. However, more and more did I start to understand the importance of allowing these women to drive when I started to work and was forced to become dependant on my late father, his friends or drivers. It was such a pain and totally frustrating to sit and have to wait just because, I, as a young woman can't drive. When the proposal rumors were spreading I began asking several friends - Saudis, non-Saudis, females and males- what they thought about lifting this driving ban. The reactions were vast! Women who went abroad and got licences forced to come back had to reform to Saudi's traditional ways and found it an absolute nightmare to become dependant on someone else. They obviously want the ban to be lifted. Other women who never left Saudi but worked always found it problematic depending on drivers that they usually shared. Hence, ideally they want the driving ban lifted. One friend, a male, mentioned that he agrees that the ban be lifted but in stages. Not all at once. He said they should created certain rules for particular ages to ease the population into the changes rather than giving the women all the rights to drive just like that. Reasons being safety. 'What if a police officer pulls them aside in a quiet area?' He spoke sense. In Saudi Arabia, everyone fears being taken to a police station or confronted by a police officer because Lord knows what he would be capable of doing and getting away with it.
Recently, a women tried to defeat all odds and drove. She was arrested and sentenced to 10 lashes. Reports claim that the current King Abdullah stopped this from actually happening. I recall all the controversy over twitter and other social network sites egging on women such as Manal Alsharif to drive. Why would you risk putting yourself in that sort of position? I genuinely feel for the women of Saudi because all the other Middle Eastern countries don't impose such a ban on their women.
Okay, now to the main point... The article! How in their right minds does it make sense that by allowing their women to drive homosexuality will increase and the number of virgins will decrease? Sounds all a little too perverse for my liking. By allowing women to such a 'luxury' they will start to sleep around? Meet men and lose their virginities so to speak? Disgusting. A woman wants to feel independence. Just drive from point A to point B and make no stops to 'fornicate'. Also, an increase in homosexuality? What does that mean? If women are driving around all day that means more men will be available at home to do the dirty with other men? How is that even explicable. The part where they say 'invoke pornography'. Erm, how? Pose nude in their cars? They already block URL's to sites like Hi5! There is absolutely no logic behind these atrocities they call explanations. To top it off, that these allegations were made by so called 'scholars' astounds me! Doesn't sound very educated does it?
In general, as an outsider looking in I'm saddened for the women of Saudi but as a girl brought up there and had the privilege of meeting some of the remarkable women there I am angry on their behalf. I seriously hope for a change in the mentality of the government and people in charge because it genuinely is a battle for equality above all else.
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