Saudi Arabia, November 18th 2011:
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“There will be no more virgins in our country within 10 years if we allow women to drive”
Two months ago, a Saudi Arabian court sentenced a woman to 10 lashes because she was caught driving to hospital. The Saudi King however, decided to revoke the sentence a few days later, amid international embarrassment. The woman in question, Shaima Jastaniya, had Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, Saudi’s richest man, and his wife, Princess Ameerah, to thank for making a personal appeal to the king to spare the young mother. The royal couple have been working hard to improve the image of Saudi Arabia around the world.
Unfortunately, the story doesn’t end there. No one seems to have ‘informed’ the court in Jeddah, and it has now notified her that the sentence will stand. Shaima has appealed against the verdict, but there are fears that the ultra-conservative clerics within the government want to make an example of her to warn all women in the Kingdom not to drive. Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz, the newly appointed Crown Prince, is more conservative than his half-brother the king, and has been adamant in his opposition to grant women greater freedoms.
Saudi Arabia is the only country to deny women the right to drive. But despite renewed protests against the ban this year, resistance to reform and change remains strong among conservative royals and clerics.
In a report released by the Majlis al-Ifta’ al-A’ala (Saudi’s highest religious council), it was stated that allowing women to drive would provoke a surge in prostitution, pornography, homosexuality and divorce. Within 10 years of the ban being lifted, it warned, there would be “no more virgins” in the kingdom.
I don’t know what’s more outrageous: To suggest the most religious country in the world will turn into a state where all the women are lesbian pornstars or divorced prostitutes, or to suggest that every single woman in the kingdom will start sleeping around if they get a driver’s license. If what the clerics suggest does actually happen, then on the upside they certainly won’t have as much trouble attracting English teachers to work in the kingdom. At least then the pornstars will be eloquent, cultured and bilingual.
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