Saudi Arabia to allow women to obtain driving licences
Nisaa FM:- Women in Saudi Arabia have been granted the right to drive, overturning a cornerstone of Saudi conservatism. King Salman ordered the reform in a royal decree delivered on Tuesday night, requesting that drivers’ licences should be issued to women.
As a result of the decree, women will no longer need permission from a legal guardian to get a license and will not need a guardian in the car when they drive, said the new Saudi ambassador, Prince Khalid bin Salman bin Abdulaziz. “I think our leadership understands our society is ready,” he told reporters. Asked by reporters if Saudi Arabia planned to relax the guardianship laws, or take any other steps to expand women’s rights, Salman would not comment.
Over the years many women have tried to free themselves from the driving ban. Manal al-Sharif, who became the public face of the women’s right to drive campaign, tweeted: “Today the last country on earth to allow women to drive … we did it”.
Saudi Arabia had been the last country in the world in which women were banned from driving – a fact that was frequently used by critics as proof that female citizens of the kingdom were among the world’s most repressed. But the decision to let women drive is the most significant change yet. The decree is considered a milestone in Saudi Arabia, a country that has strictly demarcated gender roles, and severely limits the role of women in public life.