Women in Saudi Arabia Will Drive

By Ehab Alkindi

Will she drive in the kingdom?

The answer is yes. She will eventually drive. But when will she drive? This should be the right question to ask. If we look into the reasons behind prohibiting women from driving in Saudi Arabia we find that they are all related to culture. And cultures change with time to align with progressing needs.

To start with, I do not personally believe that allowing women to drive is a form of civilization. In fact I believe it is the opposite. Women should be respected and honoured and be served no matter who they were. In Saudi Arabia, it is mandatory for each man to fulfill all the needs of his dependants, i.e. mother, sisters, daughters, and all close female relatives. One of the main man’s jobs in Saudi Arabia is to drive and stay with dependants whenever or wherever they were. Among Arabs it is not seen to be appropriate to let women go out to carry on their own needs without being helped. In a civilized community, men and women perform their duties and understand their rights and limits. Societies should understand that men and women have different capabilities, and so they should have different tasks and duties. Men know what they are mandated to do and how they should be serving their women and women know their rights to be served and understand their duties of providing help and convenience to their men.

However, as a result of external influences, lack of responsibility, and disengagement to cultural values, Saudi men enormously deviated from their duties, and gave less importance to serving their women, and therefore resulting in a necessity for women to carry on their own needs by themselves.

Understanding the fact that women are in need to drive is the first step to allow them to drive. This step has already taken place here in the kingdom, but its application seem difficult. Questions abound such as:
How will women be trained to drive?
How do we initiate these training facilities?
Who will be working in these facilities?
Who will issue driving licenses?… etc.
Other questions are related to women’s safety:
Are women going to be allowed to drive at night?
Are they going to be allowed to drive between cities?
Are there going to be female policemen organizing traffic and working at checkpoints?
Is it going to be safe for women to fix their cars in highly male-populated car shops?
These questions and more are being studied and analyzed to come up with a step by step plan to allow women to drive safely in Arabia.

Away from the cultural factors preventing women from driving, in Saudi Arabia driving just does not seem to be safe at all. Saudi Arabia is known to have one of the highest records in traffic accidents where almost 6,000 people die annually. Traffic regulations, driving awareness and even the infrastructure of the streets need to be improved before women are allowed to drive.

These factors and more are being studied by the Saudi Shura Counsel. Unless a comprehensive solution is reached and developed, women will not be able to drive. And this will take time.