Driving rights: ‘No new directives’

The ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia is not mandated by any text in Shariah, says Sheikh Abdullatif Al-Asheikh, head of the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Haia).
Al-Asheikh stressed that he has no authority to change the government policy on women driving, but his comment may feed into a national discussion in the Kingdom, Reuters reported.
“The Shariah does not have a text forbidding women driving,” Al-Asheikh told Reuters.
Al-Asheikh was appointed last year to head the commission.
He said the morality police had not pursued or stopped any women for driving since he was made head of the organization and said he was not aware of such cases before his appointment.
But he told Reuters that a report in Al-Hayat on Thursday that members of the morality police had recently been instructed not to pursue or stop women drivers in future was untrue. “We have not given any new instructions,” he said.
Al-Asheikh commended Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for his social reforms.
Al-Asheikh said he had improved the commission’s image over the past 18 months.