 RIYADH - A member of Saudi Arabia’s consultative council said on Monday he was hopeful the government would step in to lift the ban on women driving after the appointed advisory body refused to debate his proposal to end the ban. The hope is that the leadership of the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom will look into the matter “because the state is best placed to settle this issue, which is in the interest of society,” Mohammad Al Zalfa told AFP. Zalfa said he was optimistic the government would weigh in ”since the traffic draft legislation approved by the Shura (consultative) Council on Sunday did not specifically stipulate a ban on women’s driving.”
 Zalfa introduced his proposal to lift the ban last year as part of wider traffic legislation that was approved by the 150-member Shura Council on Sunday but failed to address the issue of womenÂ’s driving. The all-male Shura Council, which is named by the king, has no legislative powers. Its recommendations are referred to the monarch and must be approved by the government. Newspapers on Monday reported a statement by the councilÂ’s secretary general saying ZalfaÂ’s proposal, which had sparked a heated debate in the local media, had not been discussed. The statement said womenÂ’s driving was skipped over among other reasons because of an official fatwa (religious edict) that had already been issued on the matter.
| "The Profit sez women shouldn't drive! You can look it up!" |
The reference was to a fatwa issued in 1991 by the then mufti of Saudi Arabia and head of the Council of Senior Ulema (Muslim scholars), Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Baz, prohibiting women from driving cars. The edict was issued after a group of 47 women defied the ban on driving by roaming the streets of Riyadh in 15 cars on November 6, 1990. They were swiftly rounded up by police and punished harshly, while their male guardians were reprimanded.
| "That's a 100 riyal fine for you, citizen. And your wife will be stoned to death." |
Zalfa told AFP that the council’s refusal to tackle issues like women’s driving “will reduce the prerogatives of the council and dampen hopes that its powers will be expanded in order to help the state and the citizen introduce reforms.”
Women in the desert kingdom that sits on a quarter of world oil reserves are forced to cover from head to toe in public, and cannot travel without a written permission from their male guardian. They were barred from landmark municipal elections last year. But Information Minister Iyad Madani told an economic forum in the Red Sea city of Jeddah Saturday that there was “nothing in the Saudi legislation that forbids Saudi women to apply for a driving licence.” If such a request was declined, women had the right to resort to justice, he said.
| And we all know about Islamic justice. |
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