Community | February 10, 2009 | 79 comments

Saudi princess says she's ready to drive

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Maggiekortchmar
And sometimes it just takes a princess to do a mans "work"

original article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090209/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_saudi_women_driving_2

The wife of one of Saudi Arabia’s richest men says she is ready to get behind the wheel as soon as the ban on women drivers is lifted.

Princess Amira al-Taweel, who is married to global tycoon Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, told the Saudi daily Al-Watan that she already drives when she travels abroad.

'Certainly I'm ready to drive a car,' said Amira, whose husband is a nephew of Saudi King Abdallah and is ranked as the world's 13th-richest person by Forbes magazine.
Women in Saudi Arabia are currently banned from driving because of the risk of creating 'sinful temptation'

Women in Saudi Arabia are currently banned from driving because of the risk of creating 'sinful temptation'

'I have an international driver's license, and I drive a car in all the countries I travel to.'

Women in Saudi Arabia have not been permitted to drive since the establishment of the state in 1932, but the government is set to lift its ban and issue a decree by the end of the year.

However if the ban is lifted, there are likely to be hurdles such as obtaining licences and insurance which must also be overcome.

Princess al-Taweel said: 'I prefer driving a car with my sister or friend next to me instead of being with a driver who is not (related to me).’

The prohibition forces families to hire live-in drivers, and those who cannot afford the $300-$400 a month for a driver must rely on male relatives to drive them to work, school, shopping or the doctor.

But change will be difficult in this ultraconservative society, where many believe that women at the wheel create situations for sinful temptation.

They argue that women drivers will be free to leave home alone, will unduly expose their eyes while driving and will interact with male strangers, such as traffic police and mechanics.
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79 comments // Saudi princess says she's ready to drive

  • 02
  • navider
    • 0
      navider  

    • It's ridiculous that the saudies can get away with these kinds of bullshit. I often wonder why the rest of the modern world allows such and terrible dictatorships to be legitimate.

      But then I realise that OIL is what allows them to get away with this without a loud international outcry. Don't forget that among other awful things the saudies also practice slavery and they are still our allies.

      All I want to know is what the hell are they going to do when oil becomes obsolete?

      This is not Islam it's the religious right wing agenda of the middle east.

    • 3 years ago
  • Tayllerand
    • 0
      Tayllerand  

    • Keep posting these beautiful women on current..yeah baby...wooooooooooooooohhhhooooooooooooo.
      All of you sexshy ladies out there you have here a great admire....keep the good work.

    • 3 years ago
  • Tayllerand
  • benzodiazepine
  • JStation
    • 0
      JStation  

    • I'm sorry, but the idea that women still undergo circumcision, get married at age 8, and cannot drive says that Saudi Arabia has a table full of issues to fix.

      Much love to my Arab counterparts, but not allowing women to drive is one of many things you need to change.

    • 3 years ago
  • DRudeBoy
  • JStation
  • PlatoTacius
    • 0
      PlatoTacius  

    • God forbid any of the women should have eye contact with a traffic cop or a mechanic...and then what..? a bunch of flat-foot kids running around playing with the little grease monkeys..?

      The men will fantasize no matter if they see an ankle or an eye or whatever... I'll bet the women fantasize just the same also...

      It's a good idea to preserve the diversity of culture, but would seem more practical if it contributes to the positive development of the future of the individuals involved... so let's get real already...and stop blighting the futures of all those promiscuous women...

    • 3 years ago
  • mundosanto
  • PlatoTacius
  • benfreckle916
  • mendokusai
  • Highr0ller
    • 0
      Highr0ller [removed]  
    • Image

    • So you asked:

      Yo, Highr0ller!

      mik661 has replied to your comment on Current.com:

      mik661 said:

      Share some wisdom highroller: Why does wahabism seem to be dominating Islam in the middle east? It is true that the saudi royals pay them (wahabists) off so they wont attack the government? If Bin Ladin is truly motivated by infidels in what he considers the holy ground why doesnt He attack the saudis? If he has the balls to attack the us surely he cant be afraid of them.

      My Response:

      Why Osama does not attack is a mystery to me as well as you.....in fact I think he might never have attacked and 9.11 was an American job.......but I have no proof although I listen to John Lear on this matter and keep an open mind.

      Yes....they pay off the religious people....with petro dollars you understand.

      When the first king united the country he did so by marrying (more than a hundred times it is said) into all the families of the sheikhs. .....instead of fighting them he married a daughter. As a good muslim he always only had four wives at a time, and divorced one to make way for a new wife.
      The Al Saud (ruling family) are in power due to the support (military personnel, intelligence, listening devices etc.) and are HATED by the population..........but dissent is controlled, and the only public meeting place in the country is the Mosque (hence, religion) ..........no other public gatherings are allowed. Frequently a religious mullah is hauled off over an inciting sermon.
      Abdul Wahab made an alliance with Ibn Saud before Saudi Arabia came into existence. The deal was that the Wahabi religion would become the state religion.

      The religion has spread because Saudi Arabia spends its petro dollars on building madrassas (religious schools) in its own and other countries.

      Osama went to one of these schools it is SAID, but I doubt it...........if he did it was not his mainstream school. His father was a religious man, and the family are very western........................but you know all that. The book by Steve Coll is very interesting..THE BIN LADENS.

      extract:
      At the story's heart lies an immigrant family's attempt to adapt simultaneously to Saudi Arabia's puritanism and America's myriad temptations. The family generation to which Osama belonged-twenty-five brothers and twenty-nine sisters-had to cope with intense change. Most of them were born into a poor society where religion dominated public life. Yet by the time they became young adults, these Bin Ladens found themselves bombarded by Western-influenced ideas about individual choice, by gleaming new shopping malls and international fashion brands, by Hollywood movies and changing sexual mores-a dizzying world that was theirs for the taking, because they each received annual dividends that started in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. How they navigated these demands is an authentic, humanizing story of Saudi Arabia, America, and the sources of attraction and repulsion still present in the countries' awkward embrace.

    • 3 years ago
  • oneup
    • 0
      oneup  

    • Not being able to drive. Perhaps we are not realizing that these women are spoiled rotten. Who wants to drive when you have your own personal driver? People pay big money for that in the USA. Does she looks like she is hurting? Just because it does not fit your norm, does not make it wrong, however there is nothing from Islam that states that women can not drive.

    • 3 years ago
  • clayjj05
  • mundosanto
    • 0
      mundosanto  

    • Driving is just the beginning, the whole Arab culture have to rethink their views about religion, women and their position and rights in the world. This is the 21s century.

    • 3 years ago
  • kewal91
    • 0
      kewal91  
    • mundosanto:

      ALL world relegions need to re-examine their views and they should do it in real time. because the world changes faster than we can ever imagine.

      Look at christainity. it will still resist anything contradictory to it's views via lobbyists especially in america where all but one presidents have been protestant..

      Hinduism- very similar to Islam except allows for greater science findings.

      all the other random ones are especially hard to follow in today's times as well..

    • 3 years ago
  • mundosanto
  • mik661
  • coolmonkey
    • 0
      coolmonkey  

    • What ever happened to being sensitive to other cultures' beliefs? What ever happened to not looking at everything from a western point of view? Arrogant westerners!!!

    • 3 years ago
  • Maggiekortchmar
  • daveguy
    • 0
      daveguy  

    • "Women in Saudi Arabia have not been permitted to drive since the establishment of the state in 1932, but the government is set to lift its ban and issue a decree by the end of the year.

      However if the ban is lifted, there are likely to be hurdles such as obtaining licences and insurance which must also be overcome."

      HAHAHA!

      Saudi kings to saudi ladies:
      oh sure, we'll let you drive... we'd be happy to let you drive. Of course, you'll have to wait till december, and we're going to make it difficult for you... but you'll get to drive.

    • 3 years ago
  • daveguy
  • Highr0ller
    • 0
      Highr0ller [removed]  
    • Image

    • Yes....the change comes from the top down. There is a male dominated society, and remember it has always been like this.
      Women cannot be seen by a man other than a close family member..............so no surprise most girls marry their first cousin,,,,,,,,,,a match usually fixed by the parents............some girls are allowed to refuse a husband or two.....some have to marry the selected one. Those of you who have read the great book by KHALED HUSSEINI ,,,,,,A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS will understand the system better..........it is about 2 women married to ione man in Afghanistan. Saudi Arabia is still like that. Jeddah is more liberal than Riyadh................and the women can't drive there too, have special banks for women, etc. Women have to cover their faces remember..................but that is only tradition in some places and most ladies in Jeddah only cover their hair.

      Covering ones face is not ISLAM.......it is tradition in central Saudi Arabia. 9Riyadh) and does not apply in many parts of the kingdom, but the religious people are getting stronger and more restrictive alas. The religion is imposed by the government the west supports..............a dictatorship, so the population cannot change things.

    • 3 years ago
  • mik661
    • 0
      mik661  
    • Highr0ller:

      Share some wisdom highroller:
      Why does wahabism seem to be dominating Islam in the middle east?
      It is true that the saudi royals pay them (wahabists) off so they wont attack the government?
      If Bin Ladin is truly motivated by infidels in what he considers the holy ground why doesnt He attack the saudis? If he has the balls to attack the us surely he cant be afraid of them.

    • 3 years ago
  • mik661
    • 0
      mik661  

    • OK the flavor of Islam practiced in most of the middle east and third world treats women and children the same as goats, sheep and bales of cloth. Pure chattel.

    • 3 years ago
  • DRudeBoy
  • middle_east
    • 0
      middle_east  

    • Ok. The Islam bashing on this post is ridiculous.

      Feel free to have your own opinions SUPPORTED with evidence and fact. Don't just say "Islam sucks" or "Muslims are barbaric" just to piss people off.

      Let's have OPEN, RESPONSIBLE, THOUGHT PROVOKING dialogue to FIX problems. No need for hate. There is plenty of that in the real world.

    • 3 years ago
  • steevdanger
  • mik661
  • mahdosad
    • 0
      mahdosad  

    • we have to realise that this situation in middle east once was , the best idea for super powers , beacuse they could keep the pupolation in dark and get thier riches and natural sorces , and these super powers were best friend with this kind of goverment , now it is not in best of our interest and the world interest for that matter to have country like that but unfortunatly , to fix a wrong doing is very difficult to do , and some times impossible , for years and years , i hope now that these people woke up and realised thier right , undo the wrongs and try to change the laws that treat them like animials all these years ,

    • 3 years ago
  • call1963
    • 0
      call1963  

    • This is a great example why Muslims are always at odds with other Muslims. They have so many ridicules laws (that's right.. laws) & rules (they enforce as law)..

      They actually passed a law to forbid females to drive.. Can anyone say.. "archaic"

      I'm surprised the Muslim women around the world haven't gotten together, & demanded change. I'll guarantee you, millions of women decide not to please their husbands.. things will change, & change fast.. I mean what are the men going to do??.. kill their wife's for not having sex with them... Oh wait.. isn't there some rule about that too?

    • 3 years ago
  • mahdosad
    • 0
      mahdosad  
    • call1963:

      you should also know that this is happening in saodi arabia , most muslim countries are very cefasticated
      for example in iran 60 persent of doctors and educated are women and they work , in pakistan the same , they are even more advanced that where in usa we have a hard time to pick a woman as poletician , they pick women to be a president, so when people say islamic country , and make assumtions that all have the same way of living as soads ,to me it is lack of knowladge , about islamic country.

    • 3 years ago
  • DRudeBoy
  • mrboo
  • ibrahim411
    • 0
      ibrahim411  

    • Yes it's about time!!

      Some one was smart enough and made this call. Also I am hoping if they can live a normal life and have some normal freedom.

    • 3 years ago
  • Highr0ller
    • 0
      Highr0ller [removed]  
    • Image

    • In 1990 a group of forty Saudi women, most of them university lecturers, drive their cars in convoy through the streets of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia in protest. They had witnessed that the women of Kuwait had fled from the invading Iraqi soldiers in their cars, and they campaigned that Saudi women should be allowed to drive because they may yet have to flee from Saddams army.

      It may not have been told around the world then but in Riyadh these brave ladies had to lock themselves in their rooms at the university in fear of the angry females who were so incensed that they had done such an act. All those ladies lost their university lecturing posts, and their families were in disgrace and suffered the trickle down effect.

      I sat with princesses in Riyadh and they were angry with these women and said they did not want to drive. On a big farm (with roads) outside Riyadh I later taught these girls to drive. Their attitude amazed me. Of course princesses are RICH and all have two cars and a driver. The problem is the large part of the population whom are too poor to have a driver.....and as women cannot travel around alone in a taxi a woman depends on having the money to hire a taxi and a friend to travel with her,

      It is the large part of the population who have no income and no driver that are to be pitied.

      I am glad this princess is taking a stand. She has a lovely husband, a private jet, and she won't get in trouble I hope for having her bare face showing in the media. They all take off the veil at times (even in Riyadh) and they certainly do it in Cannes in the Summer.......or in London or Paris. They are educated girls who spend their days watching American soap operas etc. As western as you and I almost...................but the husband has the say in her behavior

      The demo is detailed in this book:
      .
      Modernizing Women: Gender and Social Change in the Middle East
      by Valentine M. Moghadam - 2003 - Social Science - 325 pages

      I hope it opens at the right page...page 66

    • 3 years ago
  • ras_menelik
  • mrboo
  • middle_east
    • 0
      middle_east  
    • mrboo:

      The Quran says: "O mankind! We created you from a single soul, male and female, and made you into nations and tribes, so that you may come to know one another. Truly the most honored of you in God’s sight is the greatest of you in piety. God is All-Knowing, All-Aware (Quran 49:13).

      Meaning that they complement each other in numerous ways both in mental, physical and emotional qualities.

    • 3 years ago
  • diode
  • rickm8
  • kewal91
  • capt_ayhab
    • 0
      capt_ayhab  

    • Arab men's insecurity and oppression of women has more to do with their sahara culture than concept of Islam.
      Before Islam was introduced to Arabia, Arabic fathers used kill their new borne daughters, because they thought female child will bring them disgrace. Islam forbid the brutal act and put an end to it, however suppression of women took another forms such as driving and such.

    • 3 years ago
  • nickscheisse
  • call1963
    • 0
      call1963  
    • nickscheisse:

      It hasn't happened yet.. $200 says... something will change the minds of the king (I refuse to capitalize king in this text), & his puppets.. I hope they pass it.. but I'm not counting my ducks until the day i see a women driving in Saudi Arabia.

      I'm sorry.. I don't like playing the devils advocate here because Muslim women have been through so much crap.. from men who profess to love them..

    • 3 years ago
  • middle_east
    • 0
      middle_east  

    • This is good.

      Instead of men in Islam simply ignoring womanhood or hiding it, pretending it doesn't exist by avoiding nearly every scenario of male-female interaction, they should ADAPT to it. I don't understand, if men cannot control their sexual desires over women, shouldn't THEY be the ones controlled?

      But, whatever. It'll take CENTURIES of time for that country to progress. So much money and power, yet such a small concept of modernization, which is their biggest draw back.

    • 3 years ago
  • cztheday
    • 0
      cztheday  
    • middle_east:

      I agree. No doubt MANY of us would like to see a complete reversal of such policies in Saudi Arabia by the time we sat down to breakfast tomorrow. The country would be torn apart. The only reasonable alternative is to keep pressing, from the inside and (carefully, diplomatically) from the outside (NOBODY likes to have cuture or morality dictated to them -- Americans don't like it any more than anybody else). If the law can be changed THIS year, perhaps implementation will occur in a significant way NEXT year. Watching the marriage of 8-year-olds is a bit more difficult, but if people don't think worse things don't happen to 8-year-old girls in the U.S., U.K. China, India, and around the world EVERY SINGLE DAY, they are naive almost beyond comprehension.

    • 3 years ago
  • damnneargenius
    • 0
      damnneargenius  

    • If your girl can't walk across the parking lot to get in her car without sucking a random stranger's d*ck on the way, then it's probably time to throw in the towel anyway.

      I mean, American whores are one thing that could easily be argued have taken "sinful temptation" way too far, but I don't think it is the driving that caused it...although...one right and privilege after the other obviously led to the levels of decadence some women in America now exemplify, so be careful Saudi Arabia.

      The 13th richest person in the world for living on some sand with God's oil underneath it? Really?

      Just when you thought the disproportionate distribution of wealth in America was unfair...

    • 3 years ago
  • unimatrix0
  • derk
    • 0
      derk  
    • Image

    • Thank the gods for Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton!

      Having grown up in a nation where freedom and liberty are so very important, this is mind-boggling to me. And, while I feel sorry for these women, I can't help but blame them, too.

      I know there is no way to say what I believe without coming across as a "cultural elitist," but how on Earth can/do/did women in Saudi Arabia allow this to happen? Where's the suffrage movement? Where's the refusal to be treated like second-class citizens? Why don't women fight back or at least fight for more rights?

    • 3 years ago
  • quixotic12
    • 0
      quixotic12  
    • derk:

      Why don't the women fight back?
      They are beaten down. Literally. Moreover, their laws permit such actions amongst other oppressive actions.

      Therefore the fight for equality is a much steeper hill to climb than it was for the women of the U.S.

    • 3 years ago
  • derk
  • petarro
    • 0
      petarro  

    • takes a princess to do a mans work? Most of the fault in my theory with Islam, is with the women. It is the women who have left themselves be beaten to death, to be covered, to be used and to get bans on everything!

      it is all because of the woman. So, whoever posted this post, needs to think about that comment. It is the womans work to get what the womans deserve. You want equality? fight for it, we all want you to have it.

      Again, in latin america, if a boy or a girl would tell their mom that they are going to become a suicide bomber, the mother would kill his own child before letting him do it and harm other people!

      Women, MOVE!!

    • 3 years ago
  • quixotic12
    • 0
      quixotic12  
    • petarro:

      Petarro, it would be lovely if it was as easy as all that. Many of these women are beaten, and let me tell you that is a strong form of persuasion. You can't forget either, that they were raised in that environment, and because most of them have never left their country they really have no other perception of life and believe that it is only normal to live in such conditions. The laws in their nation are so much more extreme against women than anything the U.S. or Canada or any other Western nation had before the suffrage movement. They are hugely oppressed and it is far more complicated and difficult than you state. They need a helping hand, and they need support from women's rights movements. Please don't be so quick to judge.

    • 3 years ago
  • capt_ayhab
  • DouginLA
    • 0
      DouginLA  
    • petarro:

      So capt ayab explain to us what we don't understand. Why is it okay for the Muslim world to force their women to be veiled, uneducated, and unable to live a life outside of the home? Why do you think women are inferior to men? You must if you support this.

    • 3 years ago
  • discreetlove0
    • discreetlove0  
    • This comment was removed as a violation of community guidelines.
  • capt_ayhab
  • cztheday
    • 0
      cztheday  
    • discreetlove0:

      Um...that culture as a WHOLE?! Please tell me that you just allowed your rhetoric to become a bit overheated because of the intensity of your feelings on this particular issue? NO culture, regardless of how enlightedned generally, could withstand the glare of the most reprehensible of its legacy practices.

      Man, who TALKS like that? Apparently I do. Bleah.

    • 3 years ago
  • clayjj05
    • 0
      clayjj05 [removed]  
    • discreetlove0:

      capt its not that i dont believe you can you site that he had 3 year old children gang raped please.

      The islamic religion is not a joke, its just a horrible attempt at a religion as a whole.

      But most religions are. I find my own catholic upbringinga joke in some cases.

    • 3 years ago
  • nursediesel
  • anikhanj
  • cztheday
    • 0
      cztheday  
    • anikhanj:

      Yes. I am deeply in love with my wife (who by the way just for fun today secretey slipped a CD with the most moving piece of music I have ever heard in my life into my jacket pocket as I was leaving home -- trust me, get one like that...) and I know that my eyes should belong only to her in the same way my heart does .. but my GOODNESS this woman is persuasive!

    • 3 years ago
  • DouginLA
    • 0
      DouginLA  

    • It is really a shame that what was once a bright, advanced and vibrant culture has turned into a dogmatic and stagnant one. When will the people finally wake up and realize the bondage they have allowed the mullahs to enslave them with.

    • 3 years ago
  • allIknowis
  • capt_ayhab
  • DouginLA
  • unimatrix0
    • 0
      unimatrix0  

    • To think there is a place in the world where women are not allowed to drive! That is just mind boggling.

      And one wants to be politically correct, but there is no nice way to justify such blatant discrimination and misogyny.

    • 3 years ago
  • Ares
  • clayjj05
  • estee_arie
  • nazbags
  • scarlettcutie_01
  • middle_east
  • andyjoe
  • Blkwdw
  • uberdeft
    • 0
      uberdeft  

    • The wives probably sleep in the garage anyway, it only makes sense to let them drive. But wait, eight year olds can't drive in the first place, right. And everyone is settling debts and threatening shame? Just read that Muslim men take circumcision at the age of 10 to 12 and if that's true, need we say more? There is a glimpse of something called the "grand mufti" in the video and he says you can at ten; that creature issues fatwas too. May I throw up now.

    • 3 years ago
  • neocongo
  • capt_ayhab
  • mahdosad
    • 0
      mahdosad  
    • uberdeft:

      don't be so negative , if she can help to lift this stupit law then apllause for them , beacuse change does not come in large skill , every little bit helps. and you don't make a fun , when people are in trouble , and supressed
      we don't find it amusing , we find it sad.

    • 3 years ago
  • clownpuncher
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