A woman has been fined and her car confiscated for five days after she was apprehended for driving in Saudi Arabia.
The Kuwaiti woman, believed to be in her 40s, was spotted driving in Hafr Al Baten in the northern part of the country with her husband in the passenger seat. A traffic police patrol officer pulled over the car, which was carrying Kuwaiti licence plates, and booked the woman for breaking the rules.
Women are not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia even though there is no written law banning them. However, if found driving they are pulled over by traffic police and often detained until they sign a pledge to desist. Attempts by women and their advocates to get permission to drive have been ramped up in recent years, but the challenges of overcoming the stiff resistance of conservatives are proving singularly formidable. Both camps have been using religious, economic and social arguments to support their positions.
Last year, a tweet by Saudi billionaire Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal in favour of allowing women to drive in Saudi Arabia sparked a heated debate on the local blogosphere.
“Allowing women to drive will result in saving at least 500,000 jobs held by foreign drivers and subsequent economic and social benefits for the nation,” Al Waleed posted on his Twitter account where he has hundreds of thousands of followers.
The business tycoon who insisted on the significance of reforms tweeted that the era of the “ostrich” was over and the era of “openness” has begun, alluding to the myth that ostriches choose not to see problems by burying their heads in the sand when confronted with difficulties.
The nomination of 30 women to the Consultative Council last year has bolstered hope that the issue of women driving will be taken up and possibly approved.
King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz, who has stressed the need for reforms on women’s rights in particular since he became ruler in August 2005, has emphasised that “balanced modernisation compatible with Islamic values was a significant necessity”.
Last year, a woman who took the wheel of her father’s car to take him to hospital in an emergency, was nevertheless arrested and charged for flouting the rules.
