On Tuesday, September 26th, 2017, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the king of Saudi Arabia, made a historical announcement; the ban on women\u2019s driving in the Kingdom had been lifted. Saudi Arabian women, for the first time ever, were legally permitted to drive. This comes after years and years (approximately 30 years) of females in the Kingdom campaigning and marching for their right to drive. The conservative country had a ban on female driving, as part of their extensive laws and policies regarding women\u2019s rights, which the West as well as other countries had criticized for years.<\/p>\n
The lifting of the ban by the King wasn\u2019t a response to the West, however. This was done for all the women (and men) campaigning and demanding the right to drive in Saudi Arabia. Initially, there was no formally written law to ban women from driving \u2013 instead, the country simply didn\u2019t issue driving licenses or permits for women \u2013 which is why so many of them tried to challenge this \u2018known\u2019 law.
\nWomen had organized many campaigns in the past to get them to drive; several women were arrested, imprisoned and detained as a result.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot being able to drive in my own country made me feel imprisoned and heavily dependent on males like my husband, son, brother, and my driver,\u201d said Mariam Jamjoom, a 22 year-\u00ad\u2010old Saudi Arabian student that had recently moved back to Saudi after spending four years abroad in San Diego, California, where she had learned how to drive and obtained a driver\u2019s license. \u201cFinally being allowed to drive in Saudi gives me great joy and a sense of freedom, and I am eternally thankful for the King for granting us our right\u201d.<\/p>\n
Not everyone is supportive of the new law, although women\u2019s driving is expected to boost the Saudi economy and enhance social life in Saudi Arabia, many claim the lifting of the ban would increase issues like traffic accidents, sexual harassment and misbehavior on the road. \u201cI never supported women\u2019s driving in Saudi, and although I don\u2019t oppose the King\u2019s decision whatsoever, I am concerned with how our society and day-\u00ad\u2010to-\u00ad\u2010day lives will be negatively affected by this. People are not used to seeing a woman behind the wheel, surely this will spark lots of issues that we don\u2019t know how to deal with as a society.\u201d Sarah Hakeem, a concerned citizen from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia said.<\/p>\n
In the past, the ban was justified by religious claims from ultra-\u00ad\u2010conservative Muslim clerics in the Kingdom. The leadership and the people heavily rely on these clerics for religious advice on how to go about their daily lives, and so their word was taken into consideration anytime the topic of women\u2019s driving came up.
\nHowever, the Kingdom being an absolute monarchy gives the final and ultimate say to the King himself, and no one but the King can have the final word on passing and issuing laws. Naturally, since the King announced women\u2019s driving, the religious clerics who had a lot to say about the topic in the past are suddenly very quiet. Also, since it is a law passed by the King, anyone who publicly opposes the law or the King could face consequences.<\/p>\n
What does this mean for Saudi Arabia? Saudi female activists are overjoyed at the decision, although it was a long time coming, while some members of society don\u2019t see women\u2019s driving as a positive step forward. Granting women the right to drive is said to be just the beginning \u2013 as many new changes (whether some see them as positive or negative) are said to be coming up in Saudi Arabia. This decision came only after a few days of the 87th Saudi Arabian national day, giving the Saudi people \u2013 especially women \u2013 even more reason to celebrate their country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Tuesday, September 26th, 2017, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the king of Saudi…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3582"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3582"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3584,"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3582\/revisions\/3584"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbrsc.aud.edu\/MBRSCPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}