Saudi Arabia lifts ban on women drivers

Yay..

Although if the womens insurance premiums are lower..

The men can start complaining again ×_×

YAAAYYYYYYY!!!!! Finally!

Any female driving instructor here?. Sounds like there will be a job opportunity for you in Saudi Arabia.

Alhamdu Lillah. Congrats! at last, they are gonna approve.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/27/middle...ive/index.html

Saudi women celebrate news they will finally be allowed to drive
By Laura Smith-Spark, Becky Anderson and Sarah Sirgany, CNN
Updated 12:08 PM ET, Wed September 27, 2017
Source: CNN

Saudi Arabia eases restrictions on women driving 03:38
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (CNN)Women in Saudi Arabia have been celebrating the news that they will finally be able to drive, a landmark step that brings the conservative kingdom in line with the rest of the world and will allow many more women to work.

The Saudi Foreign ministry announced Tuesday that a royal decree has been issued that will allow women to drive by next June.
"This is a historic big day in our kingdom," Prince Khaled bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the US, said Tuesday in a briefing with reporters.
The move follows years of activism and appeals both from within and outside the Gulf nation.

A Saudi woman walks near car down a street in the Saudi capital Riyadh on September 27, 2017.
Kholoud Attar, a 32-year-old Saudi designer and magazine owner who has been running her business for 10 years, told CNN the change would make a "huge difference" both to her and to her female employees.
"Being able to drive really facilitates a lot of logistics and helps with shaving off the time to get things done," she said. "It's so thrilling to be able to do this."
For her female workers, the biggest gain will be in not having to pay for a driver or other transportation out of their salaries, Attar said. Employing a driver currently eats up a third of the average monthly salary for her staff members, who may also have to find the money for their children's care or education, she said.
As for those who remain opposed to women driving, Attar said, their voices "just became much quieter" thanks to the government saying it would be allowed.
'Huge battle won'
Manal al-Sharif, one of the women behind the Women2Drive campaign in Saudi Arabia, said the magnitude of the decision to allow women to drive "won't make sense" to those outside the country, "but if you live in Saudi Arabia, it's a huge battle that was won today."
She celebrated the victory Tuesday by posting a photo on Twitter of herself behind the wheel of a car.
منال مسعود الشريف ✔ @manal _alsharif
#Women2Drive #قياده_المراه_للسياره
4:21 PM - Sep 26, 2017
61 61 Replies 274 274 Retweets 751 751 likes
Sharif, who now lives in Australia, was jailed in Saudi Arabia 2011 after posting a video on YouTube of herself driving a car. The act provoked death threats and spurred her to start the campaign.
Speaking to CNN from Australia, she hailed Saudi Arabia's "new leadership" as young and "courageous." There will be a "huge backlash" from "the extremist Islamists in my country," she said. "It won't go unnoticed."
Economic stagnation, she said, was a big impetus for the decision.
"They cannot afford keeping the women in the back seat. They want to make women fully involved in the economy, and you can't do that -- you can't assign a woman to be in a political position or in a government position, and she still can't drive her own car."
When Saudi women first defied the driving ban
'Life will be faster'

Nouf Alosaimi, a 29-year-old diving instructor based in Jeddah, told CNN that even with a driver, it was a hassle arranging trips and scheduling work appointments.
"Life will be faster," she said, adding that she was looking forward most of all to the adventure that will come with driving her own car.
"I live in a country that I can't explore," she said. "I've always wanted to explore the kingdom's coasts... I can't take someone I don't know to drive me to these places and my brothers are too busy to take me on long trips."
Alosaimi, who recently returned to Saudi Arabia from abroad because of an increase in demand for diving among women, said the decision would increase tourism revenues, not just because of the expected increase in women tourists but also thanks to women-run tourism businesses.
Restrictive rules remain
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia follows a strict form of Wahhabi Islam that bans the mixing of sexes at public events and places numerous curbs on women, including needing the permission of a male guardian to work or travel. These restrictions are enforced by religious police.

Women in Saudi Arabia still can't do these things
Saudi women will not have to get permission from their male guardians to take driving lessons, ambassador bin Salman told CNN.
However, rules that govern the guardianship of women will continue to restrict many aspects of everyday life for the country's female population.
Liesl Gerntholtz, executive director of the Women's Rights Division at Human Rights Watch, told CNN that while being allowed to drive was a "very important step," there was still a long way to go for Saudi women.
"This prohibition on driving is just one in a vast series of laws and policies which prevent women from doing many things," she said. "The guardianship rule stops women from making every decision in her life without the assistance of a male relative, even if that relative is her 7-year-old son."
Economic gains
The move to ease some restrictions on women has huge implications for the Saudi economy and women's ability to work. It is the latest in a series of changes that have been rippling through Saudi Arabia since the rise of 32-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The crown prince, appointed to the position by his father in June, is spearheading a plan to reform and transform the Saudi economy by 2030 and, in line with that goal, increase the number of women in the workforce.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman viists the White House, March 14, 2017.
Marriam Mossalli, a Saudi entrepreneur who founded a Jeddah-based consultancy firm specializing in luxury marketing, Niche Arabia, told CNN that "with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, things are happening quite quickly, at a 'millennial' speed," compared with the past.
The decision to let women drive will allow the debate to move on to other, more important issues, she said.
"We can go now beyond that and look at the real issues we have, more entrepreneurs, more women in the workforce, and this is why the ban was lifted, to facilitate putting women in the workforce," she said.
"A driver can be costly, around $400-800 a month, while an average entry level income for a woman working for example as a school teacher is $1,600... almost half of your salary is going to a driver. This is an economical decision and a human rights one."
Mossalli, a social media influencer whose company helped to organize the first public sports day for women in Saudi history, added: "Being conservative and contemporary are not mutually exclusive. You can be a modern conservative Saudi."
Conservative concerns
Throughout Wednesday, the leading hashtag in the Saudi Twittersphere was against women driving. Many social media users expressed concerns that allowing women to drive would violate the kingdom's strict rules on gender segregation.
Adnan el-Bar, 52, deputy director of Jeddah municipality council, told CNN the issues raised after the announcement ranged from infrastructure challenges to reservations about the possible social changes.
But, he said, the government has already laid out infrastructure changes that will be put in place, including setting up driving schools for women and special entities to issue driving licenses, and providing support for female drivers in case their car breaks down.
El-Bar said he didn't expect a huge increase in number of vehicles on the road once the decision is implemented. "I expect 50% of women will not let go of their drivers," he said, although this could change as more women join the job market as transportation costs drop.
Saudi Arabia's Royal Family: What to know 01:13
"Time has come for a cultural change," he said. "Now, the debate has moved from the social realm to the family. It will be up for each family to decide."
Decisions would be based on many variables, from the cost of buying a new car to family traditions and religious beliefs, he said.
The social repercussions are unpredictable, El-Bar added. While one concern is a potential backlash from conservative society against female drivers, El-Bar said that even if such incidents occur, they would be isolated cases rejected by Saudi society.
"This is a sovereign decision by the government," he said. "This is not a victory for one side over the other; all decisions are for the country's interests ... to move the wheel of development forward."
The Saudi Senior Scholars Council, Saudi Arabia's highest religious body, "commended" the royal order allowing women to drive in a statement Wednesday, Saudi state news agency SPA reported, saying there was no religious reason to prevent women driving vehicles.
CNN's Becky Anderson reported from Jeddah and Sarah Sirgany from Abu Dhabi, while Laura Smith-Spark wrote from London. CNN's Heidi Pullyard, Sarah Hassan, Mick Krever and Hamdi Alkhshali contributed to this report.

Its a good move but still the women must know to keep them in their Islamic limits to go for essential shopping and needs of their family BUT AVOID IDLE LOITERING CREATING FITNA OR DOUBTS IN THEIR HUSBAND'S MIND.

Remember a Sahabia was ASKED to pray at her home and she did so untill her death (NAK 's slandered video) just for the sake of pleasure of Allah which Allah has kept in the pleasure of her husband and thus a warm family.

May Allah guide us all, ameen

format_quote Originally Posted by noraina

I wonder how many women will actually begin to drive.

I guess, not many Saudi women who then will drive, due to cultural restriction. But at least now there is a hope for Saudi women to get Women Only taxi service that operated by female drivers.

These reforms in Saudi Arabia are very concerning.

Excerpt:

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/saud...174000114.html


12 Women Open Up About Life In Saudi Arabia
Refinery29 Sara Al-Bassam,Refinery29 Wed, Sep 27 11:40 AM MDT




This week, Saudi Arabia made a historic announcement: Women will finally be allowed to drive in the conservative kingdom. It's a big milestone many people in the country are celebrating, and rightly so — the news comes on the heels of the 2015 decision that accorded Saudi women the right to vote, and the official loosening of the guardianship rules earlier this year that had previously given men power over female relatives' lives. But, when compared to other developed nations, Saudi Arabia’s lifting of the driving ban is far from a complete fix for the policies and attitudes that still dictate the lives of female residents of the largely patriarchal and religious society (the country was ranked 141 out of 144 for gender parity by the World Economic Forum).


But for all the attention when news like this breaks, the lives and views of Saudi women often go unheard and misunderstood, especially in the Western world and media. The notion that they're no more than completely covered subjects who, until yesterday, couldn't drive, fails to capture the strides many women are making in their professional and personal lives, within the cultural and governmental structures that differ from much of the West.


At the end of the day, young Saudi women, like their Western peers, hold a spectrum of backgrounds, beliefs, and experiences that are as varied as they come. So we went to 12 Saudi women to ask them to share their perspectives in their own words. Read their stories ahead.


Editor's note: An earlier version of this slideshow incorrectly identified Wasan in one caption. Refinery29 regrets the error.




Bushra, arts & culture nonprofit
"I listened to a lot of My Chemical Romance and Green Day as a teenager, and read manga. I was heavily influenced by international media because I wanted to be edgy. But as a practicing Muslim, I’ve always worn the hijab. Non-Arabs don’t understand the hijab and think it makes me Saudi, but it’s not actually a cultural symbol.


"U.S. foreign policy impacts how Americans see Saudi Arabia, especially for those whose only source of information about us is the news. They tend to think that everybody is wealthy and religious, and that Saudi people are against women driving, and can’t separate Saudi people from the government’s laws. I feel that a lot of what the Western media chooses to focus on comes from a place of white feminism and Islamophobia. Their superficial focus disregards the complexities of these topics and of Saudis."


Photographed by Tasneem Alsultan


"Likewise, many Saudis equate being American with being white, probably because American media tends to project an image of a white America. This erases the struggles of people of color that many might not be aware of.


"To me, Trump embodies every negative stereotype there is about Americans. He is ignorant, impulsive, and egocentric. He’s made politics seem like there’s tension between U.S. interests and global interests, when really we all share the Earth."


Photographed by Tasneem Alsultan


Ghada, public relations
"Each state in the U.S. has its own culture — it’s like there are 50 countries in one. I used to think that Americans were all white and obese, but then I went there to study. Now I don’t have a stereotype of them at all, not even of skin-color nor mentality.


"Americans are more individualistic, and we’re more family-oriented. Families are more involved in life decisions here, and that can be good and bad. My family supports me when things are rough, they help me get back up. In America, you’re more independent but you’re also alone when things get tough."

http://www.aljazeera.com/amp/indepth...110808018.html


SAUDI ARABIA


Muslim Feminism beyond driving
03 OCTOBER 2017
The lifting of the Saudi driving ban is not motivated by concern for women's rights, but rather strategic interest.




A real advance in the project of empowering Muslim women and recognising their right to equality can never come from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, writes Zakaria [Susan Baaghil/Reuters]
by
Rafia Zakaria
Rafia Zakaria is an attorney and author of The Upstairs Wife: An Intimate History of Pakistan; and Veil.


The royal decree came on a Tuesday during the month of Muharram, while many of the world's Muslims were mourning. Announced simultaneously on Saudi state television and via a live media event in Washington, DC, King Salman's directive granted Saudi women, eternal passengers until now, the freedom to drive.




They would be able to apply for and obtain driver's licenses, and when they had them, they could drive around the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia without the presence of a male guardian. The news, eagerly disseminated via Twitter, engendered great jubilation just about everywhere. "This is a huge step for us," one Saudi woman breathlessly exclaimed; the lifting of the ban was not just about driving, she gushed, it was a metaphor for Saudi women taking control of their own lives. Western women lavished their congratulations, their public praise underscoring a covert recognition of their own advanced freedoms; their luck at not being born in Saudi Arabia.


READ MORE: Saudi women driving ban lifted - Euphoria and sarcasm


It is no surprise that the driving decree was greeted with such profuse praise. The world loves simple solutions and here was a particularly appealing one, basic and binary, black and white, easy to applaud. Now that Saudi women could drive it suggested; a constricted society, proudly patriarchal until now, had been transformed into the venue for a feminist victory.




WATCH: Saudi women were fighting for the right to drive since 1990 (2:38)
But simple solutions are often deceitful ones, using how things may appear to cover up how things actually are. The Saudis did just that this past Tuesday, utilising the simplicity of the driving-as-freedom metaphor as a front to distract from the real complications of faith and gender and long-denied equality. The proof is in the pronouncement itself, its glib grant of the freedom to "drive" without a male guardian covering up its smug silence on the larger issue of guardian-free travel itself. The detail is just the sort to be overlooked by all those unfamiliar with the whims and fiats of the Kingdom, an oversight the architects of this Tuesday's ban-lifting spectacle were counting on. The grant of an almost freedom thus stood in for a promise of actual change or any real recognition of equality.


A real advance in the project of empowering Muslim women and recognising their right to equality can never come from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The reason is simple: championing as it does literalist and de-contextualised readings of Islamic holy texts, the Kingdom and its clerics will never support the teachings of Muslim feminists who are pushing for just that. These women, who include scholars such as Dr Amina Wadud and Dr Asma Barlas among others, have used textual analysis of Muslim religious sources to argue that the Holy Quran enshrines gender equality as a central tenet of faith. Barlas, author of "Believing Women in Islam," shows how only six out of six thousand verses in the Holy Quran have been used by male scholars to impose male-dominated readings on Muslim women. It is just these sorts of male-dominated readings, intent as they are on discounting the patriarchal context of the men who first produced them, that are the mainstay of the Saudi understanding of gender, their insistence that gender equality is antithetical rather than inherent to Islam.


READ MORE: Saudi Arabia should stop 'bloody execution spree'


Saudi intransigence towards Muslim feminism and the project of recognising gender equality could be ignored were it not for the fact that the Kingdom and its scholars claim the provenance of defining true Islam for the rest of the Muslim world. It is on just this basis that they insisted the driving ban (and all other restrictions on women's autonomy and leadership) was grounded in Islamic teachings. Driving may be off the list of forbidden acts for females, but everything else remains on it.


The intrigues of strategic manoeuvring should not detract from the truth that the Kingdom's orientation towards the position of women within Islam is diametrically opposed to those who are pushing for a gender-egalitarian understanding of Islam.


The lifting of the Saudi driving ban is not motivated out of concern for women's rights but rather strategic interest. The story proceeds thus; for as long as it served their purposes, the Al Saud monarchs of old refused to budge in their insistence that women could not be permitted to drive. Then came the pressing prerogatives of the present moment; the lifting of the driving ban now had the potential to be just the feel-good smokescreen that could detract from more noxious issues such as the suppression of dissent within the Kingdom and the slaughter of Yemeni civilians just beyond it.


In the interest of rescuing brand Saudi Arabia, a shred of misogyny was thus sacrificed; that the lifting of the ban was telecast not only in the Kingdom but also via a live media event in DC explains all the rest


The intrigues of strategic manoeuvring, however, should not detract from the truth that the Kingdom's orientation towards the position of women within Islam is diametrically opposed to those who are pushing for a gender-egalitarian understanding of Islam. In still insisting that women can never lead, must beg guardians for permission to travel, to open a bank account, to enroll in university, must be subservient to husbands, to fathers and even to sons, Saudi clerics deny outright any possibility of equality between the sexes, discarding the precept as a foreign imposition.


Viewed under this overarching lens, the lifting of the driving ban is best understood as an allowance of convenience, instituted not because it is likely to have wide and far-reaching implications, but precisely because it will have few or none. The reality of Saudi Arabia substantiates this reading; a majority of Saudi women (none of the kingdoms millions of migrant workers are included in this designation) are able and willing to afford chauffeurs, and driving for many will be a matter of sport or spectacle, an opportunity to have his and hers editions of fancy new cars. Jaguar and Cadillac know this and have already begun advertising to them.


The precept that the lifting of Saudi Arabia's driving ban suggests a new and different future for Muslim women disregards the work of Muslim feminists who have actually been working towards this goal. Jubilation at the lifting of an arbitrary edict, an example of how the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has used Islam to cover up its misogyny, is to recognise the legitimacy of the use of faith as a cover-up for laws and edicts that have nothing at all to do with it. Muslim women can do better than that; Muslim women are doing better than that. As long as the rights of millions of Muslim women remain subject to the whims of male monarchs, driving around is at best a fake freedom.




INSIDE STORY: Is Saudi Arabia on a reform path? (25:00)
Rafia Zakaria is an attorney and author of The Upstairs Wife: An Intimate History of Pakistan; and Veil.

Patriarchy, we're coming for you.