Its about to be lit! :sheikhmjpls:
Saudi Arabia: King Salman orders driving licenses for women
Saudi Arabia: King Salman orders driving licenses for women
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman has issued a historic royal decree granting driving licenses for women in the kingdom.
The royal decree issued on Tuesday also ordered the establishment of a high-level committee of involving the ministries of internal affairs, finance, labor and social development. They will be tasked with studying the arrangements to enforce the new law.
“The royal decree will implement the provisions of traffic regulations, including the issuance of driving licenses for men and women alike,” the Saudi Press Agency said.
Last Update: Tuesday, 26 September 2017 KSA 22:11 - GMT 19:11
Saudi Arabia Agrees to Let Women Drive
Saudi Arabia Agrees to Let Women Drive
By BEN HUBBARDSEPT. 26, 2017
A woman driving a car in Saudi Arabia in 2013. Faisal Al Nasser/Reuters
Saudi Arabia announced on Tuesday that it would allow women to drive, ending a longstanding policy that has become a global symbol of the repression of women in the ultraconservative kingdom.
The change, which will take effect in June of next year, was announced on state television and in a simultaneous media event in Washington. The decision highlights the damage that the no-driving policy has done to the kingdom’s international reputation and its hopes for a public relations benefit from the reform.
Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, is a Muslim monarchy ruled according to Shariah law. Saudi officials and clerics have provided numerous explanations for the ban over the years.
Some said that it was inappropriate in Saudi culture for women to drive, or that male drivers would not know how to handle women in cars next to them. Others argued that allowing women to drive would lead to promiscuity and the collapse of the Saudi family. One cleric claimed — with no evidence — that driving harmed women’s ovaries.
Rights groups have long campaigned for the ban to be overturned, and some women have been arrested and jailed for defying the prohibition and taking the wheel.
In Saudi Arabia, women still can’t drive. But they have been recently granted the right to vote and to run in an election. In this documentary, The Times’s Mona El-Naggar takes us inside the ultraconservative kingdom and into the largely inaccessible world of Saudi women.
By MONA EL-NAGGAR and ADAM BOLT on October 15, 2016. Photo by Yousur Al-Hlou for The New York Times.Watch in Times Video »
But the momentum to change the policy has picked up in recent years with the rise of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a 32-year-old son of the king who has laid out a far-reaching plan to overhaul the kingdom’s economy and society.
Beyond the effects it could have on Saudi Arabia’s image abroad, letting women drive could help the Saudi economy.
Low oil prices have limited the government jobs that many Saudis have long relied on, and the kingdom is trying to push more citizens, including women, into gainful employment. But some working Saudi women say hiring private drivers to get them to and from work eats up much of their pay, diminishing the incentive to work.
In recent years, many women have come to rely on ride-sharing apps like Uber and Careem to gain some freedom of movement.
Despite the announcement, women will not be able to drive immediately. The kingdom has no infrastructure for women to learn to drive or to obtain drivers licenses. The police will need to be trained to interact with women in a way that they rarely do in a society where men and women who are not related rarely interact.
But many of the kingdom’s professionals and young people will welcome the change, viewing it as a step to making life in the country a bit more like life elsewhere.
Saudi Arabia: King Salman orders driving licenses for women
Saudi Arabia: King Salman orders driving licenses for women
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman has issued a historic royal decree granting driving licenses for women in the kingdom.
The royal decree issued on Tuesday also ordered the establishment of a high-level committee of involving the ministries of internal affairs, finance, labor and social development. They will be tasked with studying the arrangements to enforce the new law.
“The royal decree will implement the provisions of traffic regulations, including the issuance of driving licenses for men and women alike,” the Saudi Press Agency said.
Last Update: Tuesday, 26 September 2017 KSA 22:11 - GMT 19:11
Saudi Arabia Agrees to Let Women Drive
Saudi Arabia Agrees to Let Women Drive
By BEN HUBBARDSEPT. 26, 2017
A woman driving a car in Saudi Arabia in 2013. Faisal Al Nasser/Reuters
Saudi Arabia announced on Tuesday that it would allow women to drive, ending a longstanding policy that has become a global symbol of the repression of women in the ultraconservative kingdom.
The change, which will take effect in June of next year, was announced on state television and in a simultaneous media event in Washington. The decision highlights the damage that the no-driving policy has done to the kingdom’s international reputation and its hopes for a public relations benefit from the reform.
Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, is a Muslim monarchy ruled according to Shariah law. Saudi officials and clerics have provided numerous explanations for the ban over the years.
Some said that it was inappropriate in Saudi culture for women to drive, or that male drivers would not know how to handle women in cars next to them. Others argued that allowing women to drive would lead to promiscuity and the collapse of the Saudi family. One cleric claimed — with no evidence — that driving harmed women’s ovaries.
Rights groups have long campaigned for the ban to be overturned, and some women have been arrested and jailed for defying the prohibition and taking the wheel.
In Saudi Arabia, women still can’t drive. But they have been recently granted the right to vote and to run in an election. In this documentary, The Times’s Mona El-Naggar takes us inside the ultraconservative kingdom and into the largely inaccessible world of Saudi women.
By MONA EL-NAGGAR and ADAM BOLT on October 15, 2016. Photo by Yousur Al-Hlou for The New York Times.Watch in Times Video »
But the momentum to change the policy has picked up in recent years with the rise of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a 32-year-old son of the king who has laid out a far-reaching plan to overhaul the kingdom’s economy and society.
Beyond the effects it could have on Saudi Arabia’s image abroad, letting women drive could help the Saudi economy.
Low oil prices have limited the government jobs that many Saudis have long relied on, and the kingdom is trying to push more citizens, including women, into gainful employment. But some working Saudi women say hiring private drivers to get them to and from work eats up much of their pay, diminishing the incentive to work.
In recent years, many women have come to rely on ride-sharing apps like Uber and Careem to gain some freedom of movement.
Despite the announcement, women will not be able to drive immediately. The kingdom has no infrastructure for women to learn to drive or to obtain drivers licenses. The police will need to be trained to interact with women in a way that they rarely do in a society where men and women who are not related rarely interact.
But many of the kingdom’s professionals and young people will welcome the change, viewing it as a step to making life in the country a bit more like life elsewhere.
