920 Woman Drivers
Uh oh, you’re thinking, here comes a 500 word dis on women behind the wheel.
Well, not exactly. Many women drive just fine, thank you. This is about Saudi women behind the wheel. Even though the king has “granted” them the right to vote, he has not granted them the right to drive. Confusing things going on in the Arab Middle East.
Women are not allowed to drive, but they’re not NOT allowed to drive, either. At least there’s no written law against it. But the Religious Police stop them on grounds that if they DO drive, they may be led into sin, sin being defined as social interaction with any male not a relative or spouse.
A recent case has a woman driver sentenced to lashes. Nice. (Do they have to drop their skirts for that in front of strange men, doubling the “original sin,” or do they have woman caning specialists over there?)
Instead of driving themselves, women are to employ paid drivers. They can’t be other women, obviously. So they must be men. There’s a contradiction in this tangle, somewhere.
It’s likely Saudi Arabia will come to its senses on this issue, because in addition to the hunger for power in the guise of religious law, the country is about money. And it will ultimately occur to one of the 8-thousand princes and under-kings and dukes and sheiks that when women can drive, car sales will rise and so will the incomes of which ever royal brothers-in-law run the Rolls Royce and Fiat dealerships.
There are reports that the king of Saudi Arabia has nullified the sentence. But what about the next woman and the ones after her? If it takes a royal proclamation to reverse idiotic “justice” that’s going to be one busy king!
In the meantime, ladies, try un-covering, skip the makeup, get a fake beard, dress like a construction worker or a businessman, tie and all, and drive to your heart’s content.
Shrapnel:
--More from our “allies” in the middle east or “peace lovers” speak & act: Medics in Bahrain have drawn long prison terms for treating anti-government protesters. Closer to home, a Boston-area man is charged with planning “jihad” and trying to destroy the Pentagon with explosives bought from undercover federal agents.
--Headline on “Wall Street 24/7”: “Feisty Old People Want to Continue Working” past retirement age, and not just because of the housing crunch and mounting debt. It’s the way we’re wired, and thanks for recognizing yet another difference between us and our children's generations.
--Then, there’s the story of Samuel Eshaghoff, a 2010 graduate of Great Neck North Senior High School on New York’s Long Island. Eshaghoff is accused of collecting up to two grand from each of half a dozen students in return for taking the SATs, the Scholastic Aptitude Tests, for them. Great Neck North is your correspondent’s alma mater.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2011
Uh oh, you’re thinking, here comes a 500 word dis on women behind the wheel.
Well, not exactly. Many women drive just fine, thank you. This is about Saudi women behind the wheel. Even though the king has “granted” them the right to vote, he has not granted them the right to drive. Confusing things going on in the Arab Middle East.
Women are not allowed to drive, but they’re not NOT allowed to drive, either. At least there’s no written law against it. But the Religious Police stop them on grounds that if they DO drive, they may be led into sin, sin being defined as social interaction with any male not a relative or spouse.
A recent case has a woman driver sentenced to lashes. Nice. (Do they have to drop their skirts for that in front of strange men, doubling the “original sin,” or do they have woman caning specialists over there?)
Instead of driving themselves, women are to employ paid drivers. They can’t be other women, obviously. So they must be men. There’s a contradiction in this tangle, somewhere.
It’s likely Saudi Arabia will come to its senses on this issue, because in addition to the hunger for power in the guise of religious law, the country is about money. And it will ultimately occur to one of the 8-thousand princes and under-kings and dukes and sheiks that when women can drive, car sales will rise and so will the incomes of which ever royal brothers-in-law run the Rolls Royce and Fiat dealerships.
There are reports that the king of Saudi Arabia has nullified the sentence. But what about the next woman and the ones after her? If it takes a royal proclamation to reverse idiotic “justice” that’s going to be one busy king!
In the meantime, ladies, try un-covering, skip the makeup, get a fake beard, dress like a construction worker or a businessman, tie and all, and drive to your heart’s content.
Shrapnel:
--More from our “allies” in the middle east or “peace lovers” speak & act: Medics in Bahrain have drawn long prison terms for treating anti-government protesters. Closer to home, a Boston-area man is charged with planning “jihad” and trying to destroy the Pentagon with explosives bought from undercover federal agents.
--Headline on “Wall Street 24/7”: “Feisty Old People Want to Continue Working” past retirement age, and not just because of the housing crunch and mounting debt. It’s the way we’re wired, and thanks for recognizing yet another difference between us and our children's generations.
--Then, there’s the story of Samuel Eshaghoff, a 2010 graduate of Great Neck North Senior High School on New York’s Long Island. Eshaghoff is accused of collecting up to two grand from each of half a dozen students in return for taking the SATs, the Scholastic Aptitude Tests, for them. Great Neck North is your correspondent’s alma mater.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2011
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