Reading what is being written these days about women driving, one might get the impression that putting women behind the wheel was a priority for the Kingdom’s women. It is as if all the country’s problems, including the tremendously high rates of unemployment among both men and women, were things of the past and the only one remaining was the matter of whether women should drive. Do those who support women driving think that as soon as women have driving licenses, our dilapidated and dangerous roads where women teachers are being killed on an almost daily basis will be miraculously repaired? The unfortunate teachers leave home long before sunrise, travel hundreds of kilometers to schools, do their work and then begin the return journey in order to reach home by sunset. This unusual situation has resulted in many divorces because of complications resulting from husbands and wives having too little time to spend together.
For the thousands of women who are confined to their homes because they have no job, having a driving license would mean nothing; it would not solve any of their problems as is claimed by those advocating women driving. Many of those advocates have only one concern: that the Kingdom should not be the only country in the world which bans women driving.
Traffic department statistics reveal that thousands are killed and maimed on our streets every year. Would allowing women to drive put an end to this carnage? Our society suffers from crime and drug abuse, with criminal gangs roaming our cities committing all kinds of evil. Why have we ignored this and failed to identify and prioritize our concerns?
Of course there are women who want a driving license and who want to sit behind a steering wheel. But we shouldn’t generalize. How many jobless men and women are concerned about buying a car? As usual, men refused to reveal their intentions behind their insistence on pushing ahead with this issue beyond admitting that they want to free themselves of the responsibility toward their wives and children as outlined by a senior ministry official.
The official said he wished women were allowed to drive so he would not have to drive his wife to work and his children to school. That is how men view the issue. Many of the women who demand to be allowed to drive belong to a self-indulgent group which lives in great luxury and keeps a fleet of cars at home. Is anything like this part of our pressing needs? The Shoura Council should focus on more pressing issues directly affecting people’s lives — education, unemployment, health and social welfare. Women are in need of jobs in order to secure themselves a decent living and, before that, a safe place to work in.
