ZU Magazine is a publication of ZU Media. Below is an article from Issue 3: Freedom.
Staff Writer | Hailey Gomez
This year has seen many women’s rights issues reach a turning point all over the world. From standing up against sexual assault in Hollywood to fighting for equal pay in the workforce, women’s rights advocates have made progress in 2017. Among the triumphs was a groundbreaking change for women in Saudi Arabia: they can now drive a car.
Enacted on Sept. 26 by King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, this new law is a progressive step for the country. While Saudi Arabia had no written ban against women driving, the law required that citizens use a locally issued license — a license that women were not allowed to obtain. The new royal decree will now allow women to obtain a locally issued license.
Although the law was introduced at the end of September, the Saudi government will have until June 28, 2018 to implement the new decree. According to The New York Times, it is the hope of King Salman and the Council of Senior Religious Scholars that the policy will help the economy as well as pave the way for women’s rights in Saudi Arabia.
According to the country’s embassy in Washington D.C., preparations for the law will include, “developing the infrastructure and institutional capacity.” This includes, “expanded licensing facilities and driver education programs, to accommodate millions of new drivers.”
Fawziah al-Bakr, a professor at King Saud University in Riyadh, was one of 47 women who partook in one of the first protests against the ban during the 1990s. Not only were some women arrested for protesting, but many lost their jobs.
“Since that day, Saudi women have been asking for the right to drive, and finally it arrived … We have been waiting for a very long time,” al-Bakr said to the The New York Times.
While this change has been a reason to rejoice for women in Saudi Arabia, according to a report from The New York Times, some within the country believe it inappropriate in Saudi culture for women to drive at all, and worry that men will become distracted driving next to women.
For this and other reasons, women are still at odds with the government and religious leaders concerning the limitations of their rights. With restrictions on clothing, marriage and even custody of their children, a lot of women’s choices are still not entirely their own, but instead belong to their male guardians.
Liesl Gerntholtz, executive director of the Women’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch, explained to CNN that while the law permitting women to drive is a “very important step,” there is still much work to be done.
“This prohibition on driving is just one in a vast series of laws and policies which prevent women from doing many things,” she said to CNN.
So while women and women’s rights advocates can be proud of accomplishments like this one in Saudi Arabia, even as we approach the close of 2017, much more is still to be conquered ahead.