As someone who has spent a decent amount of time in Saudi Arabia and has met many people that this would affect, I’m totally behind it. That being said, I’m not sure we will see anything like this happen within the next decade.
The argument for women not having the right to drive stem from theories like:
- If they start driving, they’ll start cheating on their husbands
- After they cheat on their husbands, they will get divorces
- Driving is too hard for women’s mental capacities to handle
- Women don’t need to drive
Saudi Arabia is a beautiful, mostly really friendly and misunderstood country. But as with most countries, minority rights always seem to fall to the back burner.
Check out the article from Autoblog:
14 female U.S. senators call on Saudi Arabia to lift female driving ban.
According to Bloomberg, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been gently pushing the Saudi government to lift the ban, and has now been joined by a group of fourteen female American senators in supporting Saudi Women for Driving and their cause. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-California) is leading the charge from her position on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, calling for women’s rights to be honored in a U.S. ally that has proven nothing if not resistant to change.