#Saudi Women Driving

Driving down Mahatma Gandhi Road, my cousin Surabhi exasperatedly dodged two boys who had intentionally swerved in front of her car. I was on vacation in Bangalore, India and my cousin and I were on our way to shop at one of the recently opened malls. The smirking boys glanced in our direction, visibly getting pleasure at the discomfort of a female driver. When I questioned Surabhi about their rude behavior, she responded with a slight frown on her face, “They don’t like to see female drivers on the streets.” I was fourteen and had not understood my cousin’s response at the time.

The world’s democracies have changed their stances on women’s rights as recently as the last century. Voting rights were granted to women in 1920 by the US, in 1928 by the UK, in 1944 by France, and in 1971 by Switzerland. Saudi Arabia granted them in 1932, but its stance on women’s rights does not seem to be one of equality in light of other democratic countries. This is mainly because Saudi Arabia was established on strongly conservative grounds with an even stronger masculine force in its establishment.  All in all, even with the passage of time, no changes can be expected to come related to equality of women until Saudi women make their voices heard.

That day with my cousin had given me an uneasy feeling, but I had not given it much thought since then until recently this year when I saw a YouTube video showing Saudi Arabic women driving on the streets. This video was a response to the current moratorium on Saudi women driving. The video brought back memories of that incident in India, and I began to wonder: what will it take for Saudi Arabia to grant women the right to drive? At what point does cultural tradition shift to incorporate a more democratic, Western perspective?

The ban on women driving is not directly addressed under Sharia Law (the religious law system which is enforced similarly to secular law). The biggest concern spawned from the male population is that women drivers, aspiring to the freedoms of Western women, could upend religious laws and traditional practices. In political discourse, the law upholds the ban for the security of the country and the safety of the society, but the reality is that the law is enforced through cultural tradition. The culture in Saudi Arabia is currently at a turning point in which women are challenging their traditions with Western values—the result is still in flux. The role of social media such as Twitter and Facebook has kept Saudi Arabia in communication with the rest of the world, and has made social action a global event; suddenly, everyone is involved.  Encouragement from followers on Twitter and Youtube, as well as from fellow women protestors has bolstered their efforts to pressure their society to change.

While we cannot ignore the reality of Saudi Arabian culture and the values that have been entrenched in it, we also cannot ignore that people within this culture want change. Although every country has its own traditions and complexities that should be respected by the world, no culture is static or exists in a vacuum.