“DRIVING, VOTING AND SAUDI ARABIA”

The LOS ANGELES TIMES published two interesting articles this year about the “rights” of women in Saudi Arabia, and of course, this being the western press, both articles linked those “rights” to Islam and Islamic law, called Sharia.

In the June 18 online edition, the TIMES published Alexandra Sandels' article with the headline, “Saudi women get in the driver's seat to defy ban.” Sandels reported that about 3 dozen women had driven that day, defying “the ultra-conservative kingdom's longstanding driving decrees.” Apparently, these women had (have?) driving licenses from other countries. They want to drive for the usual reasons – they need to transport themselves to and from work and shopping, and their children to and from the usual school and after-school activities.

According to the kingdom's rules, women may not drive, nor may they do many “normal” activities without permission from their male guardians. Sounds archaic, doesn't it? Women have been arrested for driving or for organizing protests in favor of women driving.

Jeffrey Fleishman wrote a September 25th article entitled, “Saudi Arabia to allow women to vote.” Not only vote, but to stand as candidates for local office, and serve on the King's advisory council, the Shura Council. Perhaps with an eye to legacy, aging King Abudullah will give women voting rights in the 2015 election. (We in the USA must remember that women's sufferage came to this country in 1920, but only after 70 years of organizing, campaigning, and enduring resistance.)

Fleishman writes: “Abdullah built the country's first coeducational university and has granted 120,000 scholarships to students, many of them women, to study outside the country. Each move was opposed by clerics and religious ultraconservatives in the royal family.” Fleishman calls Saudi Arabia, “...one of the world's most repressive states.” Why are Saudi Arabia's clerics opposed to what we in the west would accept as the normal way to treat women in the electorate, or to support women as students? Simply put, it has to do with how they view Sharia (Islamic law), the rules set out in the Qur'an and in the Sunna, i.e., the collection of cultural “norms” developed from the sayings, teachings and practices of Mohammed. But as in most religious matters, the views on these things are not monolithic.

Sunni Muslims generally recognize one of four schools of thought here, and Shia Muslims a fifth. These schools developed as Islam spread, and people tried to reconcile local customs with Islamic law. The schools range from very conservative to much less so. Moreover, certain transgressions are considered much more significant than others, and more significant penalties are prescribed for them. Those penalties are the ones we in the west often hear about, when they occur.

Muslim–majority countries vary in how they treat women. Unlike Saudi Arabia (and the USA), the three most populous Muslim-majority countries have elected women as leaders: Indonesia elected Megawati Sukarnoputri as president; Pakistan twice elected Benazir Bhutto as prime minister; and Bangladesh elected Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina as prime ministers.

Change is slowly coming to Saudi Arabia. Perhaps inspired by citizens in neighboring countries, some women have decided to take the chance, and are driving. The King is granting women the right to vote. Progressive change is coming, but, as always, not without resistance.