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Saudi women plan to defy authorities by driving cars Today, Friday...

Lia

Banned
Rock on our Arabian Sisters! We'll be with you in spirit! :flowers:

A group of Saudi women plan to defy Saudi authorities Friday by driving cars even though the original organizer of the campaign was arrested last month after posting a video on YouTube showing her at the wheel, Gulf News reports.
Manal Al Sherif, 32, was held for almost two weeks. Her campaign prompted the creation of a Facebook page and a Twitter account called women2drive.
After Sherif 's release, she was quoted as saying in a statement in al-Hayat newspaper that she would no longer participate in the campaign, The Washington Post reports. Activists and bloggers argue that she either did not issue that statement or was forced to do so.
Gulf News reports that six other women were detained for hours last week after being caught learning to drive in an empty plot in north Riyadh. GulfNews says they were freed "after their male guardians were called in by police and signed pledges not to drive."
Technically, it is not against civil or religious law for women to drive in Saudi Arabia, but authorities nonetheless stop women drivers in cities because it is viewed among ultraconservatives as violating social norms.
The newspaper says Saudi women who back Friday's demonstration believe it will either be canceled or thwarted by authorities.
 

muleman

Gone But Not Forgotten
GOLD Site Supporter
And these are the peaceful moderate muslims. What do you think happens in the more radical muslim nations? The repressive nature of that religion baffles me. All the things they do to women are condoned and encouraged by their leaders. Wonder if they "tap" them for even touching a car?
 

Lia

Banned
And, if they were allowed to think for themselves, I wonder how many would choose the Muslim religion, if any at all? :wink:
 

mak2

Active member
Isnt that how we lost control of our women? Maybe it was letting them vote. Now they have taken over. hehe.
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
'TAP' those defiant, irresponsible, insolent, wenches!

Think for themselves? Are you a rabble rouser? That is just crazy talk. Crazy I say.
 

Lia

Banned
You funny guys... lol.

Anyway, here's some later news of the protest:


CAIRO — Several dozen women drove in defiance of the law in major cities of Saudi Arabia on Friday, according to reports on social media and by an informal network of activists in the country. There appeared to be few confrontations reported with either the traffic or morals police, and at least half a dozen women who were stopped were escorted home and admonished not to drive again, said activists reached by telephone.
From its inception in April, the protest against the longstanding ban was far smaller than initially anticipated, but it was not meant to be a mass driving effort. Rather, women with legal driver’s licenses from other countries were urged to run mundane errands — going to the grocery store, perhaps — in order to underscore the fact that it should be normal for women to drive.

Maha al-Qahtani, an information technology specialist for the government, drove around the capital, Riyadh, for 45 minutes with her husband, Mohamed, a human rights activist, in the car. She braced for a siren after passing each of about five police cars, she said, but they ignored her.

“I woke up today believing with every part of me that this is my right, I woke up believing this is my duty, and I was no longer afraid,” said Mrs. Qahtani, adding that she had brought a change of clothes and a prayer rug with her in case she was detained.

Manal al-Sharif, a 32-year-old single mother, started the call for the June 17 protest in April with a Facebook page. But after posting videos of herself driving around Al Khobar in the Eastern Province, she was arrested in late May and jailed for nine days — a punishment that was stricter than expected. Many supporters were disappointed, feeling that she had jumped the gun and jeopardized them all by taking a confrontational approach.

Women driving remains a sensitive issue in Saudi Arabia. For religious conservatives, it is a kind of Alamo, with the ban a sign that the kingdom still holds to its traditions and has not caved to Western pressure.

The ruling family has been especially dependent on this base of supporters in recent months as protests erupted across the region and has been mute as the mufti, the highest religious figure in the kingdom, rolled out a fatwa banning protests.

Many Saudi activists considered the treatment meted out to Ms. Sharif a warning from the monarchy against trying to organize any kind of movement via social media. The initiative for women to drive was the strongest effort so far in the kingdom inspired by the regional climate.

“Women in Saudi Arabia see other women in the Middle East making revolutions, women in Yemen and Egypt at the forefront of revolutions, being so bold, toppling entire governments,” said Waleed Abu Alkhair, whose wife drove around Jidda. “The women of Saudi Arabia looked at themselves and they realized, ‘Wow! We can’t even drive!’ ”

Mr. Abu Alkhair said he knew about many women who drove, and aside from one being questioned by the police for two hours, none were bothered. Once the campaign had been announced there were frequent threats by opponents to punish female drivers either by beating them or by smashing their cars.

“We want women to keep fighting this fight and to be free,” he said. “It will help to liberate the entire society.”

In the weeks after Ms. Sharif’s arrest, a debate erupted between conservative clerics and their followers and the kingdom’s increasingly outspoken women. Opponents largely argued that Saudi society was not ready, that a woman should not be thrown into the wilds of Saudi driving habits or be held responsible for any accidents.

Worse, opponents argued, it would lead to the public mingling of the sexes. Supporters mocked the clerics for putting everything in a sexual context and asked why it was O.K. for Saudi women to be driven around by an army of some 800,000 male drivers imported from Southeast Asia.

Although the arrest of Ms. Sharif discouraged women from driving, the fact that it enlivened the debate was in contrast to the first (and last) such protest in November 1990. Clerics branded the 47 women amoral and the royal family confiscated their passports, firing those working for the government. Many went into isolation for their own safety.

In addition to religious opposition there is widespread suspicion in the country that those who control the visa process — and in Saudi Arabia that means the princes of the ruling family — have made a business out of controlling the black market in visas for drivers, which can cost more than $3,000 apiece.

Many young married women decry the fact that they cannot afford that, not to mention the driver’s salary, about $600 a month.

The more liberal princes support allowing women to drive.

Prince Talal bin Abdul-Aziz al-Saud, 79 years old and long among the most outspoken members of the royal family, argues that such reforms lag because the leading members of the family have failed to yield any power or influence to younger generations.

“Bravo to the women!” the prince said in an interview. “Why should women drive in the countryside and not in the cities?” (Women have long driven in rural areas.)

King Abdullah and other royals have said in interviews with foreign reporters that they expected Saudi women to drive one day soon but have done little lately.

“Saudi Arabian women are going to have to fight for our rights, men are not going to just hand them over to us,” said Amira Kashgary, a professor who drove through Jidda on Friday for 45 minutes with her 21-year-old daughter. Women are tired of being stranded or missing appointments because their drivers disappear for the day, Professor Kashgary said. “We want to drive today, tomorrow, and every day — it’s not a one-day show. We want to make it a norm.”

Dang! Almost forgot the link. ://

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/18/world/middleeast/18saudi.html
 

fogtender

Now a Published Author
Site Supporter
Well I hope the women can lead them out of the Seventh Century into the 21st!

Will take a lot of courage!
 

Ross 650

Well-known member
Site Supporter
Howdy,
when I spent a year in the desert in Saudi, the bedouin women would drive around our camp at night and steal what ever they needed. Those poor Arab women are so beaten down!! It was about 130 F every afternoon and if the man was hauling a load of sheep or goats in the back of his truck, the male children rode up front in the a/c with him while all the females of the family rode in back with the other animals. I have been on a street corner in Riyadhwaiting for a green light and had a Saudi woman standing next to me. A gust of wind came up and blew her abaya above here ankle. A metawa came up and whacked here with a stick for violating her modesty. Also on a money making theme, none of the houses were completed. They had rebar sticking out of the top because until they were finished they werent taxable. Sure a wonderful place to not be! Have a goodun!!!!
 

Lia

Banned
Howdy,
when I spent a year in the desert in Saudi, the bedouin women would drive around our camp at night and steal what ever they needed. Those poor Arab women are so beaten down!! It was about 130 F every afternoon and if the man was hauling a load of sheep or goats in the back of his truck, the male children rode up front in the a/c with him while all the females of the family rode in back with the other animals. I have been on a street corner in Riyadhwaiting for a green light and had a Saudi woman standing next to me. A gust of wind came up and blew her abaya above here ankle. A metawa came up and whacked here with a stick for violating her modesty. Also on a money making theme, none of the houses were completed. They had rebar sticking out of the top because until they were finished they werent taxable. Sure a wonderful place to not be! Have a goodun!!!!

Good post, and informative for those who don't know the extent of what women go thro out there...

As you were saying the Bedouin women have a really tough time, but the level of spousal physical abuse amongst them is extreme, and to dangerous levels. And they have no recourse against such a lifestyle. Several have been known to just give up and die, or take their own lives. Their way of life is not to be envied, and they are, to all intents and pusposes in a lifelong prison of their male relatives making.

They are souls in perpetual torment...
 
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