A member of the Saudi royal family is pushing to make it legal for women to drive in his country.
Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world where women are not allowed to drive, but a small step has been taken in hopes of breaking the long-established and outdated rule. Prince Alwaleed bin Talal posted a letter titled, “It is High Time that Saudi Women Started Driving Their Cars,” to his Twitter account. The four-page letter lists financial, economic, social, religious and political reasons why women should be allowed to drive.
“Preventing a woman from driving a car is today an issue of rights similar to the one that forbade her from receiving an education or having an independent identity,” he writes. “They are all unjust acts by a traditional society, far more restrictive than what is lawfully allowed by the precepts of religion. Such a ban on driving is fundamentally an infringement on a woman’s rights, particularly as it continues to exist after she had won her right to an education and a salaried employment.”
SEE ALSO: Women Driving More Frequently, Further Distances: Study
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s letters contrasts deputy crown prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud’s beliefs that the Saudi community “is not convinced about women driving,” a statement he made earlier this year.
كفى نقاش:
حان وقت قيادة المرأة للسيارةhttps://t.co/BBgyF8i1Gs
Stop the debate:
Time for women to drivehttps://t.co/6KAniFa4BT
— الوليد بن طلال (@Alwaleed_Talal) November 29, 2016
[Source: Time]
