A Kuwaiti woman was arrested in Saudi Arabia for driving a car while taking her diabetic father to the hospital.
The woman was driving a Chevrolet Epica with her father in the passenger seat when she was pulled over in an area located near the border with Kuwait, Saudi police told Kuwait Times newspaper.
She explained that she was taking her sick father to the hospital, but officers were unsympathetic. The woman was detained and is now being held in custody pending an investigation, police said.
About a week ago, sixty women in Saudi Arabia protested the no-driving-by-female rule by going out on roads in their cars. Sixteen of the female drivers were prosecuted and charge under this outdated regulation supported mostly by the religious zealots in the Kingdom. You can hardly find any other country in the world (Muslim or otherwise, civilized or uncivilized), apart from Saudi Arabia, that is more repressive (officially) towards the female gender. So, you can imagine that we are really dealing with a misogynist society where discrimination and hatred against the female are not only tolerated but actively promoted (officially).
The Mullahs, after not finding any justification from Islam to bar women from driving, came out with an even more creative reason, this year.
On October 23rd a group of 200-odd clerics gathered outside the royal court to denounce what they described as a “conspiracy” to put women behind the wheel. Last month Sheikh Salah al-Luhaydan, a well-known cleric who also practises psychology, claimed on a popular Saudi website that it has been scientifically proved that driving “affects the ovaries” and leads to clinical disorders in the children of women who are foolish enough to drive.
A few years ago, the Saudi Arabian Mullahs, to justify the kingdom's driving ban against the women, ratiocinate that driving may leave women susceptible to harm (eg. kidnapping). Even if kidnapping became a problem in the Kingdom, which is not at the moment, the safest place you can actually be is in your car. You are able to secure yourself by locking the car doors; you can also run down the potential kidnappers.
Mullahs are not logical thinkers. They are also not scientist or psychologist. You cannot even depend on them for enlightening you about Islamic teaching.
I'm not following the middle eastern news very closely nowadays or this event particularly but I'm quite happy that I didn't see a PR lady on TV defending the kingdom of Saudi Arabia discriminatory practices. Almost every year, you can see a dumb hijabi (covered fully from head to toe even the face) coming on TV defending the kingdom practices against what she sees as the attack by the feminists. Every discussion with her typically ends with "Women don't need to learn how to drive or drive anywhere by herself because they have chauffeurs to take them everywhere."
References
http://rt.com/news/woman-arrest-driving-saudi-164/
http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21588438-will-saudi-women-ever-be-allowed-behind-wheel-car-ovarian-issue
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_rights_in_Saudi_Arabia
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