Try this: Saudi women who own cars but who cannot drive them are held responsible by the police for traffic violations involving their cars. That was reported in the Kingdom’s press last week.
There is much more than food for thought in this story; there are also both surprise and exclamations that I could not suppress. The law, it seems, can hold a woman responsible for traffic violations even though she is not allowed to drive a car!
The story explains that because men are responsible for their cars — and ultimately for whomever they hire to drive those cars — women who own cars must be treated the same as their male counterparts.
“Equality of responsibility is good,” I thought to myself, but then a question popped into my head: How can I be blamed for a situation that I did not freely choose in the first place?”
Men, after all, have the choice of driving their own cars or getting a driver to drive them. Women have only the second option. Men supposedly know how to drive — or at least they can learn — and so they are able to judge whether a driver is competent or not.
On the other hand, women are prevented by law from driving and so many of them do not know how to drive. As a result, they will not be able to tell if the man they want to hire as a driver is competent or not.
Women with drivers here in the Kingdom are concerned with controlling their driver’s speed as the only thing they can really have a say in.
The article in Arab News also said that women were responsible for their cars even if the cars are driven by their male guardian!
Now a woman’s male guardian is responsible for every official transaction in her life, including sponsoring her when she buys a car. Now this same guardian is, we are told, not responsible for violating traffic laws.
How can a law be applied equally to men and women when they do not have the same privileges? Doesn’t this particular law simply frustrate women? Doesn’t it also make them have second thoughts about exercising a certain right that was only given to them recently?
It seems that with every step forward a woman takes in Saudi Arabia, an invisible hand pulls her back three steps. It is the same story every time the government proposes something that promises women a share in their society and tries to give them the independence needed to share in society’s development and progress.
Almost before we know it, rules and regulations creep in to dilute the law so that it becomes useless.
Yes, women can have their own ID card — but their male guardian must give his approval to her having it. Yes, women can have a passport — but their male guardian must give his permission for her to travel abroad. Yes, women can transact official business — but their male guardian must approve whatever she wants to do.
This law in particular is a slap in the face of every woman who needs to have some kind of independence and be able to move around. If she works, she needs a car to transport her. Is it better for her to buy her own or to wheedle and cajole her male relatives to give her a lift whenever she needs to go somewhere? Not every woman in our society has an understanding husband or supportive brothers or a father or son who can — and will — drive her around.
For many women the possibility of buying a car and then finding a suitable driver has become necessary in order for them to perform their daily routine. If, in addition to all the obstacles women face on the street — including harassment — an obligation to take responsibility for her driver’s actions is added to them, I think many women would not even consider buying a car. That brings us right back to women’s eternal quest here: How can I go about my daily chores and duties without a reliable transportation system?
No buses, no underground and for the most part, not many trustworthy and dependable taxis. Perhaps this whole question is one which should be carefully studied and analyzed before we women find still more hurdles and obstacles in front of us.
