SPECIAL COMMENT: Driving Ms Manal In Saudi Arabia

Is Manal Al Sharif the Rosa Parks of the Saudi Arabia? Ms Parks, a courageous black woman during the civil right movement in the US, refused to vacate her seat on a full bus when asked by the bus driver for a boarding white-man passenger. She contributed to the end of the segregation laws in the US.

Ms Manal was arrested on May 21, 2011, and jailed for nine days for a YouTube posting of her driving a car in Al-Khobar, eastern province, Saudi Arabia. Can it be said that the ban against women driving in Saudi is a form of ‘civil rights’ type of struggle against segregation?

Query: Does a distinction need to be made on defining segregation within the context of the region and the religion?

The ‘drive for women’ movement in Saudi Arabia has been articulated as violating the defined traditional roles of women, slippery slope in adoption of western cultural values, will result in increased road accidents, encourage public mixing of the sexes with adverse consequences, and so on. There have even been comments by local religious conservative ‘scholars or imam/mufti’ that a woman driving is a violation of Shariah rules.

The issue of sexual context argument could be applicable to anything, from instant messaging to mobile phones. One wonders what is on the mind of person making such statements. In the eyes of some people, the global connectivity, via social media, is the advanced beginning of the end of segregation of the sexes. In their eyes, the ability to legislate, regulate and enforce morality has been forever undermined to the detriment of society by social media.

But, there is merit to the safety argument, in the short term, concerning road accidents, as women have not driven in the major Saudi cities. To many of us who have taken taxis in Riyadh, Jeddah, etc., driving requires the combined dexterity and peripheral vision of ‘go-cart’ racer and overtaking skills of Formula 1 driver, hence, it is a legitimate concern. However, the recent ‘call to drive’ experiment for women in Saudi, with overseas driver licenses, did not result in mass car accidents.

The social media revolution, sparked in Tunisia, has become the collective voice of the voice-less, disenfranchised and oppressed, brought accountability against the powerful and connected, and on the movie screen for world viewing in real time!

The ouster of the morally bankrupt Ben Ali (Tunisia) and Mubarak (Egypt), protests against fear-mongering Saleh (Yemen) and ‘might is right’ Assad (Syria), NATO aided rebellion against the genocidal Kaddafi, announcement of ‘reforms’ in Morocco, introduction of Islamic finance (Oman), and movement for women driving in Saudi Arabia can be connected to and correlated to the regional social media phenomenon.

The mutually beneficial ‘power balance’ between the Saudi conservative religious bodies and the ruling family now has an intensive spotlight cast on it via the social media. It can no longer be dimmed to blackness. Many Saudi women, after viewing in real time the revolutions in their backyard, are taking their new ‘re-energized’ voice in ‘requesting’ the basic right of driving.

Query: How did the wife, Khadijah, of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) undertake and engage in commerce?

Women have been driving in many Muslim countries, from Turkey to Pakistan to Egypt to Malaysia, and, interestingly, women have been driving in the rural areas in Saudi Arabia without an incident. Is the real issue, if allow women to drive in the Kingdom officially, it’s a slippery slope of women gaining more rights, conversely, men losing their ‘dominance’ to protect women?

Is that a bad thing? Will it encourage qualified women to join the work force and contribute to the economy? In allowing women, with licenses, to drive, will it actually encourage more white collar executives to bring their entire families to the country?

Beyond driving, women have been elected leaders in Muslim countries like Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, etc., and these countries did not disintegrate into ‘banana republics.’ Some may differ, and say Pakistan fits into the categorization, but that’s an article for another day.

In Saudi Arabia, women are permitted in public as long as accompanied by a male relative/guardian, i.e., father, husband, brother, cousin, or son. The question on the minds of many is this, why is it permissible for Saudi woman to be driven (alone at times) by a non-relative expatriate male driver, from Philippines or India, who may or may not be of the same faith as the passenger?

Is it because there is more trust with non-Saudi nationals? Is it because expatriates are more trustworthy with Saudi woman, as they understand the adverse consequences of non-compliant behavior?

As Saudi Arabia moves towards ‘Saudization,’ to address the high unemployment rates often tied to unrest, what will happen to these expat drivers? If they are no longer available for driving, it may not be unreasonable to have a male Saudi non-relative driving a Saudi woman!

Query: In societies where women are deemed free, are their respective countries liberated and integrated into the regional and global economies? Meaning, does the country have higher overall education and health for the family, higher per capita income, high ranking on Freedom index, and less corruption on Transparency international index?

Is it deemed ‘progress’ if a country allows women to drive a vehicle?

Query: Are there woman pilots in Saudi Airlines? Do Saudi women drive cars in other countries?

It would be interesting to have an international conference on women’s rights in an influential and important country like Saudi Arabia. It would attract many women-led delegations from the Muslim and on-Muslim world, hence, allowing them to speak for themselves with real world experience.

But, will be women be given the visas to enter Saudi Arabia, another challenge?

It would be interesting if Manal Al Sharif is given an award by the President Obama on contribution to woman’s causes, would she be able to leave the country to receive the award?

Thus, men have responsibility and obligation to protect and provide for their wives, but does that extend to prohibiting their mothers, wives, and daughters from driving cars in places like Saudi Arabia? Muslim women in Muslim and non-Muslim countries have shown they can not only drive cars, but also lead countries!

Are there more pressing issues in the Saudi Arabia than the controversy of women driving cars? Issues like high unemployment and underemployment, housing and mortgage laws, qualified graduates for a knowledge based economy, building the economic cities, diversifying the economy from the petroleum sector, etc.?