Women Driving in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia is the only county in the world where women are not allowed to drive. In this year 2011, two ladies have been taken to jail for breaking the law and driving in public. The issue of permitting women to drive has become at most controversial and argued issue in Saudi Arabia. People from all over the world start to judge Saudis as backward people, attach the country and criticize the law of Saudi Arabia. Here I would like to get a closer look at the situation and examine the topic in depth in order to have a better understanding.
Why women are not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia?
Here we have two opinions; the argument is mainly between the religious or conservative people and liberals in the other hand. Some of Islamic clerics in Saudi has issued a fatwa (a legal pronouncement in Islam) to ban women from driving. The act of driving is not the problem. It does not contradict the Islamic law. Plus, they don’t deny that its women’s right to drive. There argument is about wither there is an ultimate benefit for them to drive or wither there is an ultimate liability for them to drive. They determine that in a huge wide country like Saudi Arabia where each city is located far away from the other and what is in between is only desert turns as a dark dangerous place at night, how is it possible for a woman to drive by herself when she might get flat tire, engine broken or any other problems may cause that lady to be in the middle of nowhere. At the moment any kind of stranger may come over and offer a help. Now this stranger is unknown person, could be a good or bad one. The concern is that in such a case this women is subject to be in danger, be raped, get some harm or just the image of her being close to a strange will cause her reputation to be damaged. In Saudi Arabia the women reputation is more important than anything else. In Saudi Arabia custom, when a girl loss her reputation it’s very hard to get it back. In addition to this, when the scholars
Why women are not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia?
Here we have two opinions; the argument is mainly between the religious or conservative people and liberals in the other hand. Some of Islamic clerics in Saudi has issued a fatwa (a legal pronouncement in Islam) to ban women from driving. The act of driving is not the problem. It does not contradict the Islamic law. Plus, they don’t deny that its women’s right to drive. There argument is about wither there is an ultimate benefit for them to drive or wither there is an ultimate liability for them to drive. They determine that in a huge wide country like Saudi Arabia where each city is located far away from the other and what is in between is only desert turns as a dark dangerous place at night, how is it possible for a woman to drive by herself when she might get flat tire, engine broken or any other problems may cause that lady to be in the middle of nowhere. At the moment any kind of stranger may come over and offer a help. Now this stranger is unknown person, could be a good or bad one. The concern is that in such a case this women is subject to be in danger, be raped, get some harm or just the image of her being close to a strange will cause her reputation to be damaged. In Saudi Arabia the women reputation is more important than anything else. In Saudi Arabia custom, when a girl loss her reputation it’s very hard to get it back. In addition to this, when the scholars