Women in Saudi Arabia are being allowed to drive at long last. This is a positive move, but the country still has a long way to go----to give some more rights to its countrymen.
Just a few days after the country had allowed women into a sports stadium for the first time, Saudi King announced last week that Saudi women will be able to apply for driver's licenses starting June 2018.
The decision puts an end to a sarcastic symbol of the repression of women. It is undoubtedly a small step of progress towards equality. The 'better late than never' decision highlights the damage the no-driving-by-women policy has already done to the Saudi Arabia's international reputation and, of course, to its economy.
It is, however, still unclear whether women will still need permission from their male guardians to drive or be mandated to drive a car with a related male as a chaperone guarding her.
Immediately after the announcement, Ms. Manal Al-Sharif, who helped start Saudi women's driving campaign in 2011 after being arrested for driving, tweeted: "Saudi Arabia will never be the same again. The rain begins with a single drop."
Yes, driving by women in Saudi Arabia is the first drop of rain before perhaps a rainstorm. It could be the first dream coming true before many more dreams for freedom. Handwriting on the walls may now be appearing in the kingdom and dreaming of a Saudi Queen or a female Saudi President, if not of a full democracy, may now be a matter of time!
A major advocate of the change was Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi King's 32-year-old son, who recently has taken the initiative to overhaul the kingdom's society and economy. It is hoped that ending the ban on women driving will greatly help Saudi economy with increased women's participation in economic activities.
Many Saudi women who said they wanted to work were unemployed. Educated Saudi women felt discouraged to work when they had to consider expenses because of drivers. Thanks to the decision, working Saudi women who used to spend much of their salaries on drivers and waste their relatives' time for driving them to their workplaces will not only save their own money but also will relieve their relatives from wasting money and time.
It is obvious that the oil-based economy of Saudi Arabia is coming to an end with oil price going down. In about 20 years' time almost all the new cars are going to be electric and much of our needs are to be provided by renewable energies and artificial intelligences. Saudi Arabia needs to economically diversify. That means their women will need to drive for work purposes.
Why are Saudi women not able to leave home without a male guardian or to mingle casually with the opposite sexes? Unlike many orthodox Muslim societies, Saudi women aren't prohibited from getting educated or even working and nowhere in Islamic education is written that women shouldn't be allowed to ride a horse or drive a car. Then why can't Saudi women drive while women can drive in many conservative Islamic societies such as in Iran? It is perhaps more due to negative psychological impacts. It is more cultural than religious.
Of course, there are some clerics and fanatic advisers who made some weird sermons in this regard that 'a woman who drives harms her ovary by pushing her pelvis upward' and thereby takes the risk of giving birth to children with clinical problems. How preposterous an invention!
BANGLADESH SCENARIO: Allowing women to drive was not a custom even in Bangladesh. Not long ago in our own society, people would have frowned at a woman driving a bicycle or a motorcycle clasping the handlebar with her hands. Not many years back women were seen driving only in movies, not on streets, and guardians feared that allowing female members to drive could lead to promiscuity.
Forget about Saudi Arabia. In Bangladesh, if we today see a young woman sitting on a chair with her legs wide apart or placing her feet on a table in a "feel good" posture we may curse ourselves saying 'the evil age has already arrived'.
If we see a teenaged girl on a public street pedalling a rickshaw, wearing a half-pant, many of us will have to utter "Astaghfirullah" reflexively to "seek forgiveness of Allah".
Crossing or displaying legs on the part of a woman is still considered a flirting gesture in our society.
We didn't mind seeing a girl or a woman, as a passenger of a motorcycle, behind a male driver, perching herself on the pillion seat with her both legs on the same side though she would thus take the risk of falling off. But today, we feel uneasy when we see a woman, as a driver or a passenger of a motorcycle, straddling the seat with her legs apart on the opposite sides though such a sitting position on the part of a woman ensures safety and should be legally binding. Straddling a motorcycle seat by a woman is still considered in our society a violation of female modesty.
Females in our society are no more shying away from jobs that were once reserved only for males. Women in Bangladesh have started breaking taboos on many old customs. They are joining military professions as jet-flyers and foot soldiers. Many well-to-do females are often seen driving cars on city roads though they feel extremely vexed when passing by male drivers gawk at them in surprise.
Young women are becoming professional drivers of cars, buses and trucks. Females from poor families are being trained by BRAC's Dhaka-based driving school, an all-female facility. BRAC has taken the initiative to empower women and with a view to lessening road accidents.
Women, as we all know, are generally safer drivers and female drivers don't drink, and they don't do drugs. Once we prefer taking rides on cars being driven by females, a warning signal will be given to rash male drivers, who are reckless and in many cases drug-addicts, that it is time for them to cool their heads while driving.
Meanwhile, men's attitudes to women on the roads should change.
