SAUDI ARABIA: DRIVING IS AN OVARIES MATTER.

Driving harms the pelvis and ovaries. 

Of all the sexist comments against women's ability to drive a motor vehicle, this is perhaps the most peregrine and absurd. It should be enough to say that while there are numerous scientific studies that support the link between prostate cancer and staying long hours sitting in certain professions, such as drivers, there are none in the case of women. Imams have outdone themselves with this shameful explanation which focus, once again, on the "crux" of the matter: only women wombs matter and therefore should not move at will outside the control of male relatives, lest they discover that the world is outside the four walls of their prisons, excuse me, homes.

The truth is that the religious authorities of Saudi Arabia have run out of arguments to support their absurd and backward unwritten rules regarding women though the help of the habitual passivity of the ruling family who prefers to leave things as they are and not to strain further the difficult relations they have with Imans.

We must recognize the merit of Saudi clerics and the commitment of the authorities to keep locked up half of the population - namely , women - and prevent it from complaining about a retrograde interpretation of the Shariah.  Their banal arguments, backed by the divine will, were convincing or, at least, could be imposed without further reply till a short while ago, but, little by little, Saudi women are rebelling against this closure. Bars made of gold are and will always be bars. Better late than never.

Nevertheless, Saudi women have an extremely difficult task before them. From the threat of the Interior Ministry to the rejection of the males of their families everything seems to be against them. The freedom to drive would be a dramatic improvement in the access to independence and cause serious logistical problems: from the need to build gas stations served by women to the training of women police to stop women at the wheel and fine them. Too many women in the streets and out of control... an extremely dangerous possibility.

The sad thing is that under the guise of respect for religious belief, an ancient tradition, a specific culture, all women rights are violated, just to make life easier and meet the needs of men. This subjection of women is only the result of a biased, interested and manipulated interpretation of religious precepts. Unity is strength and this situation will only get better with the awareness of women, their active militancy with the support of international pressure. Saudis may swim in oil and they may be able to buy almost everything, but it is a matter of time that they run out of cash and women break their ties.

October 26 will be remembered as the day when many Saudi men began to worry about the connate of female rebellion. In 1990 they managed to placate them by force, in 2013 women escaped controls. They may have been only two women and their resulting video testimonial but it's definitively a start.