You know the quintessential female road trip movie–the kind where the solution to any problem is just an enthusiastic radio sing-along away? Where everyone emerges from the experience knowing a little more about each other and themselves? Okay, so maybe this isn’t the automotive or cinematic aspiration of every woman out there, but I the basic act of getting behind the wheel should be available to those who want it.
The Saudi law that forbids women from driving is perhaps one of the more infamous ways in which the government systematically marginalizes women, but there’s been a recent effort among Saudi women to put together a petition to overturn it.
“Petition?” you are perhaps thinking. “Isn’t that a political process better suited for getting nominated for high school student counsel? Or to bring chicken wings to the dining halls?”
Yes and no. While petitions are often a dead-end effort in America, the Saudi government isn’t to keen on any sort of organized political action, a feeling they express with jail sentences, fines, and forced unemployment. So in this context, writing your name down in dissent is a fairly gutsy move.
It’s something that is getting much more press abroad than domestically, but a big part of that is because there are so many censors watching Saudi media that it’s not the best way of taking the country’s political pulse. It’s gettting even more coverage now because Saudi princess Amira al-Taweel has been the latest to sign on. It’s hard to say what, if any, effect this will have on the outcome (again, if any), but I think it can’t hurt for the other women who are supporting this to have a powerful ally.
The reasons Saudi women are demanding to drive are much more practical than symbolic, and I think it’s an important thing to keep in mind that any effort towards women’s rights doesn’t necessarily have to look like an effort towards an American-like society. Most Saudi women aren’t able to pay the $300-400 a month for a live in driver, and many would much prefer to spend their time driving in the company of female relatives rather than risk harrassment from their male chaffeurs. It’s not really about gender integration, but about expanding the separate female sphere. The typical (stated) male criticism about this idea is that it will put women in more situations where they are in contact with men, and therefore more opportunities for them to be led into sin. So why not train some female mechanics and traffic officers? Problem solved. Or it would be, if that’s what this were really about.
1 Comment
February 19, 2009 at 7:14 am
This step forward is overshadowed by the woman who was just sentenced to 1 year in prison and 100 lashes for being gang raped…we have a long way to go