ninja ladies driving on saudi streets
Kudos to Wajiha, Manal, and the 40 other ladies who actually had the guts to take to the streets and drive last week.
We are still debating the obvious… should woman drive. I am amazed that this qualifies as an “issue” in the first place, but then, we are Saudis, so are issues must be unique, non-issues, and simply put, outright stupid.
A few years ago, Wjiha Huwaidar drove on the streets of Dammam, last May, Manal Al-Sharif preempted a Facebook campaign and drove on the streets of Dammam as well. Manal, however, was not as lucky as Wajiha and she got arrested and was detained for about 10 days before local and international pressure succeeded in ‘swaying’ the authorities to release her; but not before she issued a public statement that she will no longer ‘violate’ the laws of the Kingdom and signing a paper to the same effect.
On Facebook, a few thousand women all across the Kingdom call for a women driving day on Friday 17th June. It became an active group and hundreds were actively posting on how ‘we will change the laws.’ On the designated Friday, 40 women actually take to the streets.
Pitiful…
… and expected in a society where women have no rights and are programmed to believe that God did not give them any rights.
So here I am, living in another country and free to drive my car whenever I want, feeling bitter and sad. For the umpteenth time in my 42 years, I wonder how long will my country remain the World’s laughing-stock, at the firing end of every human rights organization in the world, and an example of “How Not to Treat Women for Dummies.” And if anyone is thinking of writing that book, let me warn you: it would be an extremely short book “Do not treat women in the same manner as Saudi Arabia and Saudi men.” End.
We spend millions on drivers’ salaries, issue ridiculous fatwas to legalize the status of the driver by breastfeeding him, but we are not willing to consider, not for one second, the possibility that maybe, just maybe, it would be easier, cheaper, and BETTER to simply lift the ban on women driving.
In a country where the men have succeeded in achieving maximum control over their women (or should I say slaves?); the possibility that the lady can actually move freely from place to place is anathema. We can’t take public transport, even a taxi is something to think about if the lady lives in a remote or isolated neighborhood, we cannot drive, and we need permissions to travel, marry, study, work, issue ID cards, and a host of other trivialities that most people, in most countries of the world, don’t even think about. They are basic rights of every human being – man or woman. But we are Saudi. We define ‘rights’ differently. We even believe that the other 6,980,000,000 (give or take a few million) human beings on the planet are wrong, and we are right in how we define rights. We are Saudi
Wajiha started it.
Manal stirred it.
40 women showed that some of us still have guts.
Bless you all and I wish I was there with you.
I wish there were more of you.
last thoughts:
I would really like someone to explain to me the logic (illogical?) used to develop the “women driving is haram -i.e. a sin- (or is it makruh? i.e. preferably avoided)” fatwa… it must have required a lot of creativity and out-of-the-box thinking to come up with that one! I don’t see how driving is different from riding a donkey, or camel, or horse and until the advent of cars, women were free to ‘steer’ their rides all across the Muslim world, including Saudi Arabia. I get the bicycle fatwa (I don’t think it’s right nor do I approve, but I can understand the rationale: women body is exposed/revealed); but I really don’t get what is it about driving a car that will propel me to hell… It’s actually 100% sharia’a compliant in that only the women’s face and palms need be exposed and for the most part, the woman is completely obscured. So… like I said, a lot of creativity and out-of-the-box thinking to innovate that particular fatwa.
PS The ‘ninja’ in the title refers to the term of endearment used by non-Saudis to refer to head-to-toe covered women in Saudi Arabia. In my opinion, it is quite apt.
4 Comments
Thank you for writing so honestly. I am also not living in KSA and I wish I was there to drive with the women that took the streets, I wish I can climb a car in my house in Jedda and drive to my sister’s, or go to the supermarket, or pick my son from school, before I die.
Maybe our time is coming is finally coming?? I really hope so.
These women should be put in jail forever because they are corrupting our religion and breaking our values and trying to make us like west countries. The place of a woman is in her home taking care of her husband and children and not driving or working or anything else. You and all the people like you are breaking our values and you should be afraid of what Allah will do to you and follow islamic sharya. I pray that Allah will guide you back to the right path so you can stop writing this nonesense and these bidaa that will fill the heads of our daughters and wives with haram thoughts. You write in english because you are an american agent sent to fill the heads of pious muslims with this talk.
salaam!
Interesting comment by above commenter. Islam was brought as a mercy and primarily to bring justice. What kind of justice is it when half the population feels trapped and controlled? So then the logical question is that is it God Who represses women or men who repress women? We all know from the core of our being that God is just and He has left us to choose as we will. The injustices women face at the hands of men is by no means ordained by God, but instead a result of men persistently making very bad choices. We really need to get over this stupid notion that women’s bodies are corrupting and that women are somehow temptresses. Also it would be wise not to charge people as some western anti-islamic agents just because you cannot handle living in the twenty first century.
Thank you! There will always be someone who believes I am ‘kafira’ or an American Agent as Abdullah above called me and I am glad that there are others who do not share his views! I only wish there were more of you Sam!