Saudi Arabia remained the last country in the world to uphold a ban on women driving prior to its 2018 policy amendments (Krane & Majid, 2018). While some Saudis fought hard for the social change, others fought to maintain pre-2018 bans on women driving. With the kingdom acting in favour of lifting the ban, the extent in which its removal facilitated or hindered the advancement of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia can be investigated, taking in account the cultural, religious, and political interplays existing in Saudi Arabia.
No written law prohibited women from driving in Saudi Arabia pre-2018. In its place, Saudi’s culture was woven with strong religious interplays which utilized patriarchal interpretations of Islamic texts to deter females from driving (Al-Khamri, 2019, p. 256). Members of Saudi’s highest religious body claimed that giving women the ability to drive would promote the mixing of women and unrelated men, leaving women vulnerable to committing sins (Begum, 2017). This idea of a woman’s lack of control and vulnerability is further perpetuated by other religious cleric who claim women “have a quarter the brainpower of men” (Baird, 2017), and that driving would both endanger the public and “[negatively] affect [women’s] ovaries” (Al Arabiya, 2013). In face of such cultural and religious ideology, the ban was thus enforced by Saudi’s religious police (Al-Khamri, 2019, p. 256). Madawi Al-Rasheed contrasts the inability to drive in Saudi with driving in hectic Lebanese roads, stating how the experience of twists and turns on unpaved Lebanese streets seem pleasant in face of the “inquisitive men […]; the odd invitation to get into other cars; the flying cards with male names and phone numbers; and the occasional insults for being a young unaccompanied woman standing in the street” when simply waiting for her driver in Saudi (Al-Rasheed, 2019, p. 248). The misrepresentation of Saudi women and their relationship to driving was an essential factor for Saudi’s guardianship system and subsequent control of women. The lift on the ban for female drivers facilitated the advancement of women’s rights in Saudi through the power of choice where Saudi women gained one additional equal right and the fundamental ability to choose whether or not they wish to drive, marking one step closer towards gender equality. The kingdom’s endorsement of female drivers thus dispelled major beliefs in Saudi’s guardianship culture, conveying that claims asserting women’s driving capabilities were inferior to those of men are unfounded and no longer tolerated. Such attitudes are fundamental to facilitate and aid the advancement of women’s rights.
Moreover, the movements created by women as it pertains to driving rights in Saudi Arabia also played a role in facilitating the advancements of women’s rights. Notable movements include Manal Al-Sharif’s #Women2Drive campaign, which relied on YouTube to showcase Al-Sharif driving in Saudi streets (Khalil & Storie, 2021). Similarly, Lujain Al-Hathloul’s participation in Saudi’s #Oct26Driving campaign and her prominent driving attempts garnered significant traction (Khalil & Storie, 2021). The movements served as inspiration for many more Saudi women to express their support and film driving attempts, catalyzing a call-to-action for policy reform within the kingdom. The aforementioned women’s contributions will have lasting impacts as part of the “fourth wave” of women’s movements in the Middle East, characterized by a focal point of women’s everyday existence, with defiance through modern tools such as mobilization through social media (Zaatari, 2022 p. 20). Being classified as such, the movement’s success earned not only the right for women to drive in Saudi, but also helped challenge the cultural attitudes within Saudi, namely the daily violence and sexual harassment women face when advocating for their basic rights. While guardianship systems implied women and children to be apart of men’s ownership through women’s limited autonomy and significant male control, the Women2Drive movement signified a moment of insurgence and contest of such ideology, thus facilitating the advancement of women’s rights in Saudi.
Although the policy change was widely celebrated, King Salman’s announcement of the driving ban lift came at a conflicting time. Many noted that the small victory for women’s rights may have distracted from larger gender issues in Saudi Arabia, ultimately hindering the advancement of women’s rights in Saudi. Despite the lift of the ban, notable women who piloted Right2Drive movements such as Al-Hathloul were arrested and jailed the months leading up to the announcement (Al-Qadi, 2020). Instead of being commemorated by the kingdom as contributors of societal change, the women remained behind bars even after the King’s announcement. Further gender-based injustices and violences were committed against the jailed women. Al-Hathloul was subjected to being physically tortured, threatened with sexual assault and denied access to a lawyer for more than 1000 days following her arrest in 2018 (ALQST). The Saudi government’s tactics appear to send a stern warning message for other female activists. The arrest of over 17 women conveys that “rights are granted by the king only when he so wishes, not in response to people’s demands” (Al-Khamri, 2019, p. 258). Beyond the restrictive guardianship system, this move highlights the government's assertion of a second layer of control, dominance, and ownership over women's rights. With news of the arrests, Al-Sharif testifies that Saudi Arabia’s progress against women’s rights have gone “back to square one” (Qiblawi, 2018). As the cost of expressing dissent was significantly magnified by the King, the move to lift the ban on women driving at once advanced women’s rights, while also hindered the advancement of future women’s rights by way the King’s heightened punishments to silence women.
The issue of granting women the right to drive may seem straightforward but was more nuanced that it appeared. The way the issue was framed in the media may thus hinder the advancements of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia. While the driving ban can be presented simply as a way women were oppressed under the Saudi monarchy, Al-Rasheed implores the public to adopt a more profound perspective, stating that gender inequalities between Saudis cannot be sufficiently explained “by the role of tradition, culture, and religion, but much more so by the interplay and entanglement of gender with historical, political, and religious forces” (van Geel, 2014, p.1). Paralleled by Abu Lughod’s commentary, both authors discuss how media often resorts to cultural values as the underlying factor hindering women’s rights, “as if knowing something about women and Islam […] would help us understand” why women were banned from driving in Saudi Arabia (Lughod, 2013, p. 31). Framing which focused solely on Saudi’s culture, instead of considering possible political and religious interplays can lead to reproducing Orientalist tropes. For instance, considerations for Saudi lifting the driving ban must first be given to its political ties to the West. Saudi’s strong dependence on Western economic and political relations present as a pressure for Saudi state to lessen visible inegalitarian gender policies against women (AlRasheed, 2019, p. 249). Once the government, which historically regulated the portrayal of women as dependent and weak, recognize that such representations have become incongruent with evolving global standards regarding women’s rights, there is a strategic shift in the government’s approach to appear more progressive in the eyes of the outside world. Therefore, there exists a strong incentive for Saudi political elite to be viewed as an emancipator for women and to distance itself from cases of gender discrimination (Al-Rasheed, 2019, p. 249). Further, the Saudi monarchy understands the power that it holds towards both liberal and Islamist Saudi women, in which both groups of women “have come to rely on the authoritarian state for the protection of their interests” (van Geel, 2014, p.2). Thus, when concerning women’s rights, the Saudi monarchy grants certain freedoms while simultaneously tightening control in other aspects, as seen in the lift of the driving ban and imprisonment of significant Right to Drive movement leaders. Understanding such nuances and influences will allow for a greater balanced discussion when analyzing women’s rights in Saudi Arabia. The automatic association of tradition, culture, and religion regarding women’s rights, paired with the portrayal of women solely as victims who need saving can thus be detrimental to the struggle of Saudi women and their advancements in women’s rights (Lughod, 2013, p. 35).
Undoubtedly, gaining the right to drive has brought numerous benefits to the women in Saudi Arabia and contributed to the advancement of women’s rights. Living under a regime that rewards citizens who share the monarchy’s ideology and repress those who defy regulations, activists must proceed with caution to protect and preserve the rights granted to women thus far. Observers and reporters should strive to cultivate a comprehensive perspective, understanding the nuances, influences, and biases embedded in Saudi society before drawing connections between gender oppression and Saudi "culture". While Saudi women continue to live under a patriarchal social structure, the aforementioned practices are instrumental in facilitating advancements in women’s rights in Saudi Arabia.
About the image: A Saudi woman celebrates as she drives her car in al-Khobar [Hamad I Mohammed/Reuters]
Works Cited
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