Driver Charged With DWF: Driving While Female (Saudi Arabia)

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

The same woman can get on bus and go off sticking her nose in a bad place too. Same thing with walking.

If anyone is going to do something bad purposely, they are going to find any means of transportation to get them there.

Which is why the source I quoted says women should stay in their homes.

[iceyspots 0]

The same woman can get on bus and go off sticking her nose in a bad place too. Same thing with walking.

If anyone is going to do something bad purposely, they are going to find any means of transportation to get them there.

Which is why the source I quoted says women should stay in their homes.

Isn't that same website ran by Salafis? which are not considered part of mainstream islam?

[almaty 19]

hmmm..sounds like a chopf##k law to me

Considering that Saudi Arabia is ruled by (and NAMED AFTER) a chopf#ck dynasty...to be expected.

right as always brother sriniv..ruled by a dictator family

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

The same woman can get on bus and go off sticking her nose in a bad place too. Same thing with walking.

If anyone is going to do something bad purposely, they are going to find any means of transportation to get them there.

Which is why the source I quoted says women should stay in their homes.

Isn't that same website ran by Salafis? which are not considered part of mainstream islam?

I will leave the judgement calls of what is mainstream and what is not to experts. Since this article concerns a nutty nation like Saudi Arabia, I figured quoting what I would consider a nutty website is absolutely appopriate.

[Jenn! 918]

My amateur understanding of that is that a woman driving per se sn't bad , but is rather a 'gateway' to other bad things and is therefore not allowed.

Kinda like the argument that pot isn't bad because pot is harmful, but because it's a gateway drug.

Both completely BS arguments....

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

My amateur understanding of that is that a woman driving per se sn't bad , but is rather a 'gateway' to other bad things and is therefore not allowed.

Kinda like the argument that pot isn't bad because pot is harmful, but because it's a gateway drug.

Both completely BS arguments....

Edited August 25, 2006 by Gupt

[Henia 11]

so wrong

[vartan 0]

[iceyspots 0]

[Henia 11]

[jpaula 20]

yup.. but unfortunately in some countries, women are kept illiterate or in the home, so that they are not aware they even have the rights.

So they have the rights just are kept in the dark about it ?

Just in some countries.

Countries like Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan etc etc have a considerable number of females in Parliament.

Countries like Yemen (does have 0.3 percent), Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi, and the UAE have practically none.

Here is an article with some figures. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4314211.stm

Note that they list participation in raw numbers rather than percentages. One also has to keep in mind that in some countries parliament is only symbolic.

I know there is a big push (by international orgs) right now in Algeria to increase female participation in politics in general, but I don't see it doing much yet. I would say that the problem here is less that few women are involved in politics than that not enough people are involved in politics. Bad government is a shame.

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

So they have the rights just are kept in the dark about it ?

Just in some countries.

Countries like Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan etc etc have a considerable number of females in Parliament.

Countries like Yemen (does have 0.3 percent), Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi, and the UAE have practically none.

Here is an article with some figures. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4314211.stm

Note that they list participation in raw numbers rather than percentages. One also has to keep in mind that in some countries parliament is only symbolic.

I know there is a big push (by international orgs) right now in Algeria to increase female participation in politics in general, but I don't see it doing much yet. I would say that the problem here is less that few women are involved in politics than that not enough people are involved in politics. Bad government is a shame.

Actually, Egypt and Lebanon have very small percentages of women participating in their Parliaments, among the lowest in the Arab world (at least according to the BBC article.) It may be a bit outdated, as is it from March 2005, but here are its figures, with the percentages calculated:

Tunisia - 43 out of 189 (22.7%)

Morocco - 38 out of 595 (6.39%)

Egypt - 31 out of 718 (4.32)

Syria - 30 out of 250 (12%)

Algeria - 28 out of 533 (5.25%)

Jordan - 13 out of 165 (7.8%)

Oman -11 out of 138 (8%)

Bahrain - 6 out of 80 (7.5%)

Lebanon - 3 out of 128 (2.3%)

Yemen - 1 out of 301 (.33)

Now, just to give all this a little perspective, let's see how the U.S. ranks in comparison. (I'll let someone else examine Britain's record.)

In the 109th (current) U.S. Congress, 84 women serve (which is an all-time high):

70 in the House out of a total of 435 (or 16.09 %)

14 in the Senate out of a total of 100 (or 14 %)

So where does that put the United States compared to the Arab countries listed ? According to the figures given in the BBC article, well below Tunisia, and only slightly above Syria.

Also, although the BBC article gives no information for the Palestinian Legislative Council, I did a quick head count and found at least 9 female members out of the total 88 members, which would be 10.22 %. (Please note that this figure could be higher, if I missed someone in my haste.)

Also meant to respond to some of the earlier posters who felt that Saudi Arabia's laws which do not permit women to drive are somehow indicative of Islam.

Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that does not allow women to drive. No other nation, Muslim or not, has any law against it.

Edited August 25, 2006 by wife_of_mahmoud

[vartan 0]

Nothing against any women here.. but I would be really curious how many accidents they have per year per car .. Saudi that is.

[Ban Hammer 13,352]

Nothing against any women here.. but I would be really curious how many accidents they have per year per car .. Saudi that is.

after seeing them drive - turning a 4 lane road into a 6 lane (passing on both left and right shoulders) i'd bet it's fairly high.

[Veiled Princess 1]

Saudi Arabia is an Islamic Monarchy, don't they follow the sunna, sharia and coran and isn't it a model to makes the laws of this country? no?

No they don't always follow the Quran and Sunnah in Saudi. There is no country today that completely follows or adheres to the sharia as it should be. The house of Saud (the royal family of Saudi) are far from the Quran and Sunnah... they are in Americas pocket!

FYI, there is no law that prohibits women to drive in Saudi... this woman probably didn't have a driver's license and would have been arrested in the US under the same circumstances (driving without a license).