...is that they already are mingling with strange men when they have some chauffeur driving them around to begin with. I wouldn't be remotely surprised if the vast majority of cases of adultery within Saudi Arabia involve women and their drivers. The whole Saudi religious argument against driving is completely absurd. I believe it's based on a hadith talking about how women shouldn't travel along the road alone when going outside the city limits. Of course the Saudis don't care about the context of the hadith--ie it used to be incredibly dangerous to travel the roads alone back then, and thus it made perfect sense to have a male companion with you when you traveled.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39qdhbkTko4

Time and again, I feel compelled to congratulate the democratic, women’s right obsessed US on its valuable alliance with the oppressive and backward Saudi regime.
There is so much fuss over the Israel lobby that people forget the fact that the Saudis don’t even need to lobby to get their way, for instance in Bahrain, and get away with impunity with their numerous human rights violations. You never hear a word from the US government.

Who are we kidding, folks?

come on Saudi Arabia it's the 21st century! Haven't you found out by now that times have changed?

I mean I know that different countries and different societies have doifferent rilles, expectations and worldwide brands for different genders and stuff, but have respect for your women.

Did you forget that it was a woman who gave you birth? Did you forget that your mother and your sister are women? Did you forget that it's a woman who is carrying your baby?

In a lot of ways women get the short end of the stick in this world. They have to deal with pregnancy, men getting them pregnant and leaving, the pain and hassle of pregnancy, dealing with menstrual cycles, and being physically weaker than men so having to worry about being beat, raped or mugged among other things.

So do we really have to make the world any tougher for them? And mind you, these are all words coming from a man. And I respect women a ton - as you should also because they hold hold large responsibilities and carry out large responsibilities.

And it doesn't matter if the rich and famous have their own chauffeur or not - because what about the other people that aren't wealthyaffiliates of the wealthy or plain out those that just aren't wealthy themselves. not all women have chauffeurs so that should be irrelevant. I just don't get it, why would you not let your women drive?

Maybe it's a huge difference in culture differences, but I just think the women need to be treated with a little more respect. And they need to be treated as equals.

The whole women not being able to drive this is just totally ridiculous - I know a lot of women that are better drivers than men. And again, remember that this comment is coming from a man.

So Saudi Arabia, I think you need to rethink your stand point and great your women as equals, and with a lot more respect than you currently do.

Arab News' Rima al-Mukhtar's claim that "Saudi women don't really want to drive to begin with", is an extremely contradictory message to send to the Saudi people, as compared with the Saudi government's landmark decision to issue a decree by the end of the year, lifting its ban on women driving. Apart from the ban being a direct infringement of women's free willsand human rights, one can see a rather more disingenuous motive for such a move as an attempt to stem a suffragette-style rising which could lead to an increasing number of campaigns for greater freedom by women in the country.

When I lived in the Kingdom, the official... and logical.... reason for not permitting women to drive in the cities is that there are no female traffic prisons. Note: I wrote "cities" as women do drive in the sparsely populated countryside... [Usually Bedouin women driving white pickup trucks].

In Saudi Arabia there are no fines for traffic violations... just a minimum of 3 days in traffic jail.... period... Note: The Traffic Police drive Harley Hogs and are very efficient in catching red light runners. When a traffic violator was stopped by the Traffic Police their car was impounded [a toy truck quickly arrived to re-locate it to an impound lot] with the driver being taken to the traffic jail... period. No ticket to pay later, no judge, no trial just 3 to 10 days depending on the offense..Traffic prisons are separate from criminal prisons being operated by the Traffic Police.agency.

Things might have changed since I lived in the Kingdom, but I doubt it.

Now consider the problems if women were permitted to drive in the cities.... Female Traffic Prisons would have to be be built' female traffic police would have to be recruited and trained, both male and female traffic police would have to patrol the streets, when a male traffic police officer stopped a female driver he would have to call for a female traffic police officer to come to the scene to escort the offender to the woman's traffic prison... etc etc ... and what about a situation where a female traffic policewoman witnesses a male drive committing a traffic offense when under Saudi custom a female does not address a male who is not a member of her family... oh well.... the complexities in life are unending....

You'd think that having women drive would be the end of the world? This is pretty much idiocy anywhere in the world except for Saudi Arabia and some of the more Wahhabi parts of the planet. But this kind of thought is emblematic of the restrictions and regulations placed by Saudi leaders on the rest of society while they ignore the legitimate human rights needs of the majority of their population. Young people of all ages and Shiites make up the demographic majority of the country, and the majority is weighted down by the often times absurd restrictions placed upon them by the ruling elite. While there have been substantial steps to provide a limited range of benefits as compensation for not having a role in the governance of the society or government, the fact remains that the bribes that Saudi rulers give to the majority in no way makes up for the career and democratic aspirations that a growing number of young Sunnis and all Shiites are feeling in the country.

And that my friends, is a recipe for a revolution coming down the road at some time in the future.

The women in the United States of America should get behind a campaign to have women get equal pay for equal work.
Why are we concerned about women driving in saudi Arabia?
Women in the US should be concerned about this very important issue of equal pay in our country. I affects all women.
Let the Saudi women fight their own fight.

Women drivers!!! Next they'll ask to be let out of the kitchen!

I am sure Saudis have too much respect for women to wish to expose them to the contentions and potential indignities of driving, not to mention the temptations. Besides, does anyone really think the world would be a better place with even more cars on the roads?

The picture used for the last page is form a Kashmir protest against Indian rule, has nothing to do with Saudi's driving problem. SO why put it up here, cos it shows angry muslims?? seriously why??

Also, al- Barrak is an idiot even by Saudi standards. This debate has nothing to do with religion its a cultural, tribal thing that Saudi's stupidly stick to.

The Saudi regime is the most disgusting illegitimate regime in the World right now. They make the apartheid state of Israel look like a real democracy.
No tyranny will last forever. Once again, America will defend this tyranny until the very end. Once again we will be on the wrong side of the history.
God save America from our stupid, stupid leaders.

...they drive there anyway. The families come over on Wed nite, men go off together and carouse, and leave the women with the cars. When I was living there, we knew to be even more paranoid about the Saudi cars on the weekend than we were about all the other cars the rest of the week.

So if they can drive in Bahrain, why can't Saudi women drive at home?

Perhaps the women need to escalate things a bit to make their point. I would suggest a women's camel caravan marching through the busiest areas karmaloop codes, slowing down traffic."The dark ages are still with us!" would be the message, and this needs to be plastered all over the internet.

It is not yet widely known that Pure muslim is a term for a very very evil person.

"Women should be exposed to the day light three times in their lives. When they are born, when they are married and when they die." - islamic saying.

"Our mullah told us that when we carried out our suicide attacks, all the people around us would die, but we would stay alive"

If muslims could leave islam without being killed by other muslims how many muslims would be left on the planet ?
Answer : Zero or none.
It is only the threat to one's life that keeps islam evil and populated. These scared muslim slaves of invented allah are doomed forever in the dead hands of the madman who invented allah and brought a curse on everything and everyone islam touches. Islam haram. Repeat after me ...islam is not halal , islam is haram. Understand?
Islam is the problem. Islam has to be abolished. As long as even one human is a muslim this planet will never see peace. Take my word for it.
Islam is the problem. Islam makes people evil. This is a fact. Evil people are a big drain to our planet’s resources like a raging fire. For our planet’s limited resources and our safety we should kill each and every fire once we have identified it as evil. Feeding a fire is suicide and not good for our planet’s resources.
So in the end what will happen to islam? Will islam just vanish? Islam has to be abolished.
Evil people are a big drain to our planet’s resources like a raging fire. For our planet’s limited resources and our safety we should kill each and every fire once we have identified it as evil. Feeding a fire is suicide and not good for our planet’s resources.

So in the end what will happen to islam ?
Will islam just vanish?

"They said nothing's better than paradise and you can earn that by killing non-believers."
"They prayed all the time and read the koran so i thought they were good people."

So When will muslims be allowed to realise that islam is haram ?

And how will they realise that islam is haram?

Only when the supreme courts start questioning the demented koran loudly and in full hearing of the planet will muslims see mohammad’s mad trip. The answer is in and by our supreme courts in the very end.

My favorite part of this article is the last photo of the steretyped Arab. Hate-filled expressions, green headband, and most likely shouting 'death to America!'

This is a photo an enlightened source like SLATE would never dare use in any other context - certainly not in an article on the war on terror or the status of Muslim Americans in the United States. More likely, SLATE would criticize other media outlets and commentators who use such imagery (ie. Fox News)

But because this a an article on gender issues, a "good" cause, suddenly its alright to trot out the stereotype of the angy Arab.

Well done.

Envision a burqha swirling around in the passenger compartment with the A/C on or a window open, it would be impossible to see the road.

The most ridiculous Saudi arguments against women drivers. Time and again, I feel compelled to congratulate the democratic, women’s right obsessed US on its valuable alliance with the oppressive and backward Saudi regime. There is so much fuss over the Israel lobby that people forget the fact that the Saudis don’t even need to lobby to get their way, for instance in Bahrain, and get away with impunity with their numerous human rights violations. You never windows backup software The picture used for the last page is form a Kashmir protest against Indian rule, has nothing to do with Saudi's driving problem. SO why put it up here, cos it shows angry muslims?? seriously why?? Also, al- Barrak is an idiot even by Saudi standards. This debate has nothing to do with religion its a cultural, tribal thing that Saudi's stupidly stick to..