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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- News and Politics, News, Women, Current News US, 4 more + add
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- Maggiekortchmar
- added this
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I spent 3 years over there. Hopefully she can get something done. Doubtful, but hopeful.
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- clownpuncher
- 9 months ago
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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.
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Even the rich women are oppressed.
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Where is the original link to this article?
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- middle_east
- 9 months ago
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I hope she can create change, how refreshing it is to see powerful, confident Middle Eastern women!
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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.
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- unimatrix0
- 9 months ago
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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.
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RAWR! Princess, indeed.
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So glad I was born in the USA.
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- nursediesel
- 9 months ago
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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!!
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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?
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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...
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- damnneargenius
- 9 months ago
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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.
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- middle_east
- 9 months ago
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YAY SAUDI ARABIA! A huge improvement!
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- nickscheisse
- 9 months ago
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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.-
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- capt_ayhab
- 9 months ago
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oh i'd hit that...
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i'll take seconds
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In their dream. The way Muslim look at women as a sex slave.
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So will 8 year old wives be able to drive? :(
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- ras_menelik
- 9 months ago
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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:
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Modernizing Women: Gender and Social Change in the Middle East
by Valentine M. Moghadam - 2003 - Social Science - 325 pagesI hope it opens at the right page...page 66
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- Highr0ller
- 9 months ago
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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.
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- ibrahim411
- 9 months ago
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I guess they got hung after that.
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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?
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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 ,
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Good for her.
