Women Drivers? No Way!

A group of women from Saudi Arabia have formed the Committee of Demanders of Women’s Right to Drive Cars in an effort to end the ban against women driving cars in that country, according to a story on MSNBC.com. 

You've come a long way, baby - just don't try to drive there.  The issue is so controversial that two years ago when a man who asked his colleagues on the Consultative Council to think about studying the possibility of allowing women over age 35 or 40 to drive" he was almost stripped of his citizenship. 

So, what is the problem with women driving?  Not the typical sexist viewpoint that women make lousy drivers:

Conservatives, who believe women should be shielded from male strangers, say women in the driver’s seat will be free to leave home alone and go when and where they please. They also will unduly expose their eyes while driving and interact with male strangers, such as traffic police and mechanics.

But supporters of female drivers say the prohibition exists neither in law nor Islam, but is based on fatwas, or edicts, by senior clerics who say women at the wheel create situations for sinful temptation.

So I guess they do think that women will cause accidents, but not because of their lack of driving skills, but because they create too much of a distraction.  And what is the problem with women moving about when and where they please?  Is there really something in the Koran about that? 

I doubt it. 

Technorati Tags: women, drivers, Saudi Arabia, fatwa, Koran, cars, sexist

Comments

[Beanie]

They just had Matt Lauer in Iran, and there is an entire battalion of female firefighters in chadors, and they drive the truck. So it's not all of the Islamic world.