Driving the Saudis crazy

The Saudi authorities are cracking down on the spreading women’s protest, which intends to flood the streets June 17 with women driving.  This is not the first time women have challenged the authorities on this issue, but the Arab Spring gives the protest a decidedly sharper edge this time around.

Religious conservatives worry that women driving will inevitably lead to breaks in the strict segregation of genders practiced in the Kingdom.  They are correct.  It will make women’s faces visible, reduce their dependence on male relatives and allow them higher-profile roles in the society.  More than half the university students in Saudi Arabia are women, and have been since 1984.  The Kingdom recently opened what is intended to be the largest women’s university in the world. It is high time that they come out from under the burkha, if they want to do so.  And not just because they might need to drive if a husband suffers a heart attack, as the courageous Manal Sharif says disingenuously:

I wouldn’t want to suggest that the United States needs to fix this or any number of other respects in which Saudi Arabia’s policies are inconsistent with human rights standards.  We’ve got our own problems recognizing that all people are created equal.

But we should not make the mistake of viewing this as a peripheral issue.  It is not. Nor is Saudi Arabia completely immune to the infection we have come to call the Arab Spring, though it may be more resistant (as Chas Freeman believes). The King’s efforts to inoculate his population with hard cash and frequent consultation may not work with women.

I don’t know whether this protest will catch on or not, but if it does I am going to hope the women not only drive, but drive the Saudi men crazy.