A Stand with the Victims

A Stand with the Victims

            This world is a world of problems that appear from a time to another, and there are always people behind those problems who actually benefit. One of the problems now, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is women’s right to drive, which leads to a bigger problem, which is women’s right in general. Last month in Saudi Arabia, some women protested to gain their right to drive which is prohibited by the law there. As human nature, of course there was more than one opinion that people took, depends on their beliefs and points of view. So many factors contribute to shape people’s opinions. Religion, culture, economy, and concepts of freedom all affected those opinions. To represent one of the Saudi Arabian views, there is a hugely popular text written by Dr. Hind Alqahtani, who is a dean of the Academic Affairs in AL-Qassim University. However, the counter argument was written by Angus McDowall, who is a writer work for Reuters and other newspapers.  Dr. Hind Alqahtani supported the band in her argument, and McDowall denounced the band and other stolen rights. Overall, women should be allowed to drive, and women in Saudi are victims of the society.

In the article “Where does women driving fall?”, Dr. Hind Alqahtani supports the system of the ruling family and the prohibition of women driving cars in Saudi, strengthening her opinion by reasoning and comparing the issue to more important issues that have to be solved first. Dr. Alqahtani explains that the main argument of protesters is reducing the large numbers of expats who work as drivers which can lead to lower expenses for families as a result, she then asked if that is the case of neighboring countries. Dr. Alqahtani argued that allowing women to drive would affect child-rearing, since house servants will replace the task of mothers who will be less often around. She wondered why we did not hear of a movement called “I will take care of my house by myself”. Dr. Alqahtani followed her argument with some of the society’s problems are not given attention by the aristocratic class, talking about 90 thousand women teaching in remote villages who need to travel for three hours on dangerous roads. She also spoke about 32% of women population who are widows or divorced living with insufficient government subsidies. She then left us to answer her questions of why CNN or AL Arabiya did not even mention those problems, “For whose benefit we turned our backs to Palestine, Egypt, and Bahrain?” she also asked. She continued asking why “women driving movement” appeared now in this time after the Arabic Spring, after a first try after the Gulf War?, Dr. Alqahtani said “I am writing these words while Netanyahu is bothering our ears in the U.S. Congress”. She concluded her article by saying “where does women driving fall between all that? I do not know. However, I know that we will lose a lot as the world has lost when they forget the truth that says male and female are different.”

Angus McDowall in his article that he named “Saudi Arabia makes advances on women's rights, but still far behind” discussed women rights in Saudi, including their right to drive even though he did not focus on the driving subject. He started his article talking about a Saudi figure Raha al-Muharrak who became the first Saudi woman to climb Mount Everest. Muaharrak said “You can’t stop change” and explained that the new generation knows exactly what is out there. McDowall moved to say that according to a poll that canvassed 336 gender experts, Saudi is the third-worst country to be a woman in. However; he said that the kingdom is undergoing a gradual shift in attitudes. The writer argued that there is no Islamic law that keeps women from working or driving, despite what the Grand Mufti of Saudi, who has opposed women driving, said. However, King Abdullah has diverged from the clergy’s path several times as McDowall said, some examples that the writer gave were when the King allowed women to work as salespeople, waitresses, or by appointing women in the Shoura Council. One of the factors that helped the king in his new vision, as McDowall believes is King Abdullah scholarship program, which let the students to live within another culture and return with different ideas. He then moved to talk about some logistical hurdles that face women in Saudi and take away their rights such as to drive. The writer said “there is no specific law or text in sharia backing the men-only road rules”, furthermore he said that some members of the ruling family have publicly called for the rules to change.

 

Women’s rights in Saudi Arabia is a thorny issue, and people who are described as women feminists have a negative stereotype around them which was created by different factors. In fact, the majority in Saudi Arabia are with the prohibition of women driving, the reason why they believe in that is because the issue is taken to a religious orientation. Even though there is no religious text saying that women cannot drive, some religious people say that allowing women to drive is just the first step of ominous consequences, so the fear of what is happening in the future is one of the reasons that make some people reject the idea of women driving. Dr. Alqahtani questions why we did not hear CNN or ALARABIYA reporting other women issues in Saudi? Why only women driving? So Dr.Hind is assuming that there is a plot behind the issue, she reinforced that when she asked about the timing and why all the movement that called for women right to drive came after disturbances in the region, and she seems right for a lot of people. However, the answer of her questions is that the wheel of women freedom and humans rights in Saudi are spinning slow. As McDowall said that “Saudi Arabia is the Third worst country to be a woman”, so women are just so afraid to claim their rights in a country that lashes women for a simple thing like driving. This is why women choose the time when it is unrest so they can create pressure on the government.

Another reason Dr. Alqahtani talked about was that if women were allowed to drive, it means that women will spend more time out of their homes; which would put the servant who have different culture in charge of parenting the children and educating them, which would create an anomalous generation that have extraneous ideas. The argument that Dr. Alqahtani built was used in every new thing was coming to Saudi, and it has always failed when it comes to reality. The same argument was argued when women had joined the Shoura Council, the Grand Mufti of Saudi said that letting women into politics may mean “opining the door to evil”; however; Hanan al-Ahmadi –a member of the Shoura Council- said “"When we went into the Shoura Council there was huge opposition. We ignored those voices and went on in our jobs and it's all calmed down". The same thing also happened with allowing women to work as salespeople or waitress, people have even said that Saudi is under the effect of illuminati, and nowadays all those voices are forgotten.

A third point Dr. Alqahtani has talked about was women’s goal behind driving, she said if it is to move easily and more independently what kind of losers we are. Then she moved to say that there are bigger issues need to be solved before, and women should think of their real mission as mothers and work on leading better generations. She then went back to talk about the plot she assumed and for whose benefit women should be allowed to drive, and that we should focus on other issue such as the Palestine’s. That reason that Dr. Alqahtani provided could be
repealed by her own words when she at the beginning of her article said, “between all conflicts, people who attack, and people who defends, we lost the main point of the issue and start digging in the details, people forget from where they have started”. Dr. Alqahtani contradicted herself by her argument, she said that people lost the main point of their argument and forget where did they start from, while she has done the same thing she is saying. Whenever she provides a reason that women should not drive, she moves to talk about how Islam is targeted by enemies and women should remain housewives. When she asked “what is the purpose of women driving?” and then said to buy grocery for example; she went out of the main point trying to refute that answer asking do Saudi men even buy grocery?, Is that what happening in Kuwait or the UAE?, and still she did not provide a real rebuttal for women right to drive.

In conclusion, Dr. Alqahtani wrote supporting the prohibition of women driving in Saudi Arabia, and she has her people who believe in the reasons she provided and the argument she made. However; Dr. Alqahtani was not convincing enough unlike Angus McDowall whose argument is closer to reality and more practical. Dr. Alqahtani was always turning the issue into a religious and emotional rhetoric, and always built her argument on assumptions and expectations and never built them on real life, which weakened her argument. McDowall was more organized and built his argument just like a story, started with the general issue moving to the reasons, and then talked about some of the king reformations and then why could women someday will be able to practice their rights freely. What make things more complicated to understand is in the past -more than 1400 years ago- until the recent past women were able to trade, travel alone, and work as doctors and teachers. However; nowadays, if you ask people who stand against women right to drive in Saudi why women cannot drive, they will give you their own answers and then conclude all that saying women themselves do not want to drive, they are comfortable with their lives. Even though if that statement is true, it does not merit a response, because it is obvious that when you tech a woman for a 100 years that she should not drive because driving is a synonym for devil, she then will thank her god that she is not allowed to drive, and her right is stolen in the worst way possible for the sake of the dictator –man-. Sorry women, it is just your fate to bear the mistakes of men.

Works Cited

Dr. Hind Alqahtani. Where does women driving full?. Www.fajr.sa. Www.csit.com.sa.   25 October 2013.

Angus McDowall. Saudi Arabia makes advances on women's rights, but still far behind. Www.reuters.com. Thomsonreuters.com. 11 November 2013.