Posted on 09/18/2007 2:57:23 PM PDT by knighthawk
These uppity Saudi women. Here they go again, demanding to drive themselves instead of being chauffeured around by husbands and brothers. Last time a bunch of Saudi women threw a big protest, 17 years ago, they went to jail. Two years ago, one Saudi pol almost lost both his job and his citizenship for suggesting women over age 40 might be permitted to drive.
At issue: How can a woman drive a car when she must keep her gaze lowered? Suppose she makes eye contact with a male stranger? Anyway, a women's committee is presenting King Abdullah with renewed petitions, and we'll see what he does. Nothing, we expect. Else, first thing you know, the ladies will want to vote, too.
Ping
7th century troglodytes.
Don’t the Saudis also use foreign chauffers? A woman driving her self and dauger is worse than both women being driven by a paid foreigner?
Lowered gaze? Islam means submission.
I wonder what the legal limit on the lowered gaze is. I recommend that below 10 degrees should be reckless driving, while above 6 degrees merits a religious crime.
That still allows women 4 degrees of head bob to get where they are going.
I gather above all else, the Saudis are “socially conservative” in the truest sense: the abhor disruptive change. In the recent past, this has actually worked in favor of more democracy, for an odd reason.
Based on voting in Iraq, they decided to try it out just a tiny bit, for the equivalent of a local planning and zoning board. They were terrified that there would be widespread panic and violence, chaos and any number of frightening things, and were ready to respond forcefully against any of it.
The vote went off without a hitch. Participation was unimpressive, interest was low, almost all candidates were reelected, and if there was any change at all, the public voted just a tad *more* socially conservative than the selections made when the board was all appointed.
The Saud leaders were thrilled. It was positively dull. The people showed no signs of radicalism or chaos, and most people hardly noticed. This democracy stuff is all right!
So from that point on, and very incrementally, and oh, so very cautiously, they are hoping to try a little bit more democracy in the future.
And I suppose the same mode appears in women having the right to drive. The women will get what they want as soon as the men realize that they will continue to be pestered about it until women get the right. So all in the name of having a quiet and peaceful household, they will agree to it, as long as their wives drive slowly and cautiously.
Which they won’t, of course, because Saudis drive like lunatics. Just because you are socially conservative doesn’t mean that you are a good driver. And this will apply to women as well as men.
Search would probably show that I’ve quoted Paul Harvey here in the majority of my posts, but those in Sandland “very incrementally, and oh, so very cautiously, ...hoping to try a little bit more democracy in the future” probably shouldn’t hold their collective breath. Old Paul disappointed me when I heard him say it, but he’s probably right:
“The tribal, Muslim Arab is not now ready for, or capable of, modern elected, representative government, and he may never be ready.”
The Koran and the Hadith(s?), chock full of unapologetic examples of hypocrisy, inconsistency, deceit, and applauded treachery, represent too great a barrier to Arab democracy.
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