Saudi women must be allowed to drive

Saudi women should be allowed to drive legally. For them to get behind the wheel of a car and drive off should not be legal issue at all. It is not even a moral or religious issue, despite being treated as one. What has happened is that a longstanding social assumption has become a symbol of religion. This is the sort of issue that should be left to each individual's private conscience. If a woman feels that driving herself is something she would not do, there should be no requirement to force her to drive. But equally, if a woman feels able to drive with no moral problem, she should be free to do so. This issue has been rumbling around in Saudi Arabia for decades. Immediately after the liberation of Kuwait, Saudi women mounted a similar campaign to be allowed to drive legally. It petered out but this time is being run with more vigour, and a lot more support across the country. Of course, this campaign only really applies in Saudi Arabia's cities and urban centres. In the desert, the Bedouin women have been driving as a matter of course for as long as they have had automobiles. Out in the deep sands there are no male drivers waiting around to drive women to and fro on their daily round of tasks. They have to drive themselves to manage their family, and their farms and livestock. As they, and any other Saudi woman, should. From gulfnews.