Ban on women drivers in Saudi

[Miss-Bliss]

Saudi minister says women driving not priority
RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's powerful Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz criticised calls to lift a ban on women drivers and said argument over the issue could harm the conservative Muslim kingdom.

Dashing hopes of a swift end to the decades-long ban, Nayef said he was surprised the matter had been raised by a member of the consultative Shura council.

"Does he understand what the priorities are? ... We consider (the question) to be secondary, not a priority," Nayef said in remarks carried by the official Saudi Press Agency late on Sunday.

"These matters are decided according to the general good and what is dictated by women's honour, but I urge everybody to put a stop to this and not make an issue out of it that pits one group against another," Nayef said.

Women in Saudi Arabia face some of the severest restrictions in the Arab world. They were barred from voting in the country's first nationwide elections this year, and should be covered up and accompanied by a male relative in public.

Conservatives in the deeply religious country which is home to Islam's holiest sites argue that if women drove they would be able to mix freely with men and encouraged to date.

Last month the Shura council declined to discuss a proposal put forward by council member Mohammad al-Zulfa for a gradual lifting of the ban on women drivers.

But Zulfa said he was winning support for his case, arguing that the ban cost Saudi Arabia billions of dollars a year to hire drivers for women and that having foreign drivers was even less compatible with Islamic requirements.

Nayef, speaking on the day that neighbouring Kuwait appointed its first female cabinet minister, said Saudi Arabia would not rush to mimic changes elsewhere. "We should avoid being an echo of what is proposed in other countries," he said.

[Sweet_Pea]

I just read this article on BBC.com and was already seeing red from the others

[flower22]

just next door UAE..
they have women cab drives (hijabi sisters) working very late shifts, last time i saw this was at 2 am in the morning