Do We Need a Referee?: "SCHOLARS, academics, imams — 118 of them — signed a petition opposing women driving, saying that in these times “westernized” voices are asking loudly for women to drive. The petitioners listed several points that to them seemed the main objections against women driving.
This is not the first petition concerning women driving. Last month another petition was presented to the human rights body asking for women to drive, and according to Al-Majallah magazine another petition was submitted to the same body asking for exactly the opposite. The debate is hot; each side is trying to show the advantages and disadvantages to support their arguments.
The interesting thing in the petition against women driving, referred to by Al-Majallah, was that the petitioners quoted a study of “unknown” source saying that in the UK 40 percent of women drivers suffer from psychological problems emanating from stress. It also added that a “big” number of these women die below the age of 40. Talk about concocted studies.
In one of the national dialogues that took place last year, an academic said that women should not be allowed to drive since women during their period become dyslexic and color blind which endangers them on the road!"...
Thursday, 21, July, 2005 (14, Jumada al-Thani, 1426)
Mail Article | Print Article | Comment on Article
Do We Need a Referee?
Abeer Mishkhas, abeermishkhas@arabnews.com
SCHOLARS, academics, imams — 118 of them — signed a petition opposing women driving, saying that in these times “westernized” voices are asking loudly for women to drive. The petitioners listed several points that to them seemed the main objections against women driving.
This is not the first petition concerning women driving. Last month another petition was presented to the human rights body asking for women to drive, and according to Al-Majallah magazine another petition was submitted to the same body asking for exactly the opposite. The debate is hot; each side is trying to show the advantages and disadvantages to support their arguments.
The interesting thing in the petition against women driving, referred to by Al-Majallah, was that the petitioners quoted a study of “unknown” source saying that in the UK 40 percent of women drivers suffer from psychological problems emanating from stress. It also added that a “big” number of these women die below the age of 40. Talk about concocted studies.
In one of the national dialogues that took place last year, an academic said that women should not be allowed to drive since women during their period become dyslexic and color blind which endangers them on the road!
But to go back to our recent petition, none of those dodgy theories were used, only reasons why they thought it is neither Islamic nor right for Saudi women to drive.
The points included:
1. If women drive, they will be outside their houses much more often.
2. Women will be tempted to dress up.
3. Since women like to show off, they’ll change cars a lot.
4. Women are known to be less decisive than men and they are less capable of dealing with difficult situations.
5. Women drivers will have to be issued driving licenses and IDs with their photos on them.
6. Mixing with strange men will make women lose their shyness.
7. Corruption of morals will become easy.
8. Traffic police will have to have women sections, which places an economic burden on the government.
9. Men will lose their right to supervise women.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment