JEDDAH, 14 February 2006 — Muhammad Al-Zulfa, a member of the Shoura Council said yesterday that he was hopeful the government would step in to lift the ban on women driving after the consultative body refused to debate his proposal to end the ban.
“I hope the Kingdom’s leadership will look into the matter because the government is best placed to settle this issue, which is in the interest of society,” the AFP news agency quoted Al-Zulfa as saying.
He said he was optimistic the government would weigh in “since the traffic draft law approved by the Shoura Council on Sunday did not specifically stipulate a ban on women’s driving.”
Zulfa introduced his proposal to lift the ban last year as part of wider traffic law that was approved by the 150-member Shoura on Sunday but failed to address the issue of women’s driving.
Press reports, quoting the Shoura’s secretary-general, said the council rejected Zulfa’s proposal, which had sparked a heated debate in the local media.
The secretary-general said women’s driving was skipped over among other reasons because of a fatwa or religious edict issued on the matter.
The reference was to a fatwa issued in 1991 by the then mufti and head of the Council of Senior Islamic Scholars, Sheikh Abdul Aziz Bin Baz, prohibiting women from driving cars.
Zulfa said the Shoura’s refusal to tackle issues like women’s driving “will reduce the prerogatives of the council and dampen hopes that its powers will be expanded in order to help the state and the citizen introduce reforms.”
Culture and Information Minister Iyad Madani told the Jeddah Economic Forum on Saturday that there was “nothing in the Saudi legislation that forbids Saudi women to apply for a driving license.”
If such a request was declined, women had the right to resort to justice, he said.
