I don’t think it’s been mentioned yet that Saudi Arabia is planning to lift the ban on women’s driving within the next year.
Yep Prince Whathisname has a female pilot. Several more women are getting their commercial certificates. It was in the paper (so it must true).
The King has repeatedly said there is no prohibition on women driving and that it will be lifted soon. (It makes more sense in Arabic.)
That’s great. Would you mind if I quote you in my email signature? 
Not at all; please feel free to use it.
This subject was covered on ’All Things Considered’ on National Public Radio last night or the night before. One reason foreign drivers are allowed is that they are not Muslim and therefore do not have the restrictions of being around an unrelated woman. Some women who are teachers wind up paying up to 2/3 of their wage for a driver.
A woman who was interviewed used to have two drivers, one to take her daughter to school and another to drive her about. Her daughter’s driver had to quit and the woman, who works but was between jobs, gave up her driver so her daughter could continue to go to school. They are in the process of getting a work visa for another driver but it costs a fair bit of money and takes about 2 months. The woman has been offered a new job but could not take it because she couldn’t get to work yet.
The program said that there was not any real possibility of the policy changing soon. The King did say the restriction would be dropped during a Barbara Walters interview years ago, but it has not happened yet. The statement that it will happen “soon” is said in a delaying manner. The general consensus is that too many male drivers in the country would freak out at the sight of women drivers.
How, exactly, would things change if the drivers flipped out? They are already quick-fried to a crackly crunch.
Each and every driver I know or who I have encountered has been a Muslim.
School teachers usually get to work in little van pools provided by the school or by the teachers themselves. Every couple of months a vanful of female school teachers die en masse. (Right up there with wedding tent fires, IMHO.)
School teachers by the way are the most-sought-after wives. They earn money after all. So a quiz question might be:
She is ugly but she is a teacher.
How does this work, exactly? Women can’t go about unaccompanied at all? Can they take the bus or train? I seem to recall reading of women-only cars on Dubai’s new metro.
Women under age 45 or so cannot go out without a male guardian. On the other hand, they seem to be out and about in groups whenever I am out with no guardian in close attendance. They take taxis, I have never seen a woman of any nationality on a public bus. I have rarely seen a Saudi man take one either.
So the guardian thing seems to be ignored widely, IMHO.
I suppose you’re right about the slit, but otherwise I think you’re splitting hairs. The Victorian influence on women’s clothing, and the “impropropriety” of being unchaperoned, were pretty pervasive. And as it turns out there are still settlements in Texas that consider it normal for men to have multiple wives.
My point is that we’ve come to our current cultural senses fairly recently. And in the eyes of the rest of the western world we’re STILL a bunch of religious nutjobs. Maybe not the exact same peculiarities point for point as the Saudis, but to keep on trying to claim some sort of moral high ground seems pretty short sighted to me.
Paul in Saudi, what about the women OLDER than 45? Are they still under this guardian thing or do people decide that after 45 no one would want to mess with them? Thanks, medstar
Sorry about that. I either misunderstood elements of the broadcast or it was not accurately presented. I will believe you over a voice on the radio any day. Thank you, as always, for fighting my ignorance.
I’m just picturing the Saudi version of girls-gone-wild: a woman driving a car with a little bit of hair showing through the eye slit.
I’ve always wondered why the women don’t go Rambo on society. Think of all the weapons they could hide under the body coverings. “you looking at me, you looking at me…”