Review of The Presentation on Saudi Arabian Women Driving

  Recently, a woman in Saudi Arabia was sentenced to ten strokes for driving. Even though the king withdrew the adjudication fortunately as the result of efforts of people to defend her and all the other domestic or abroad public opinions arisen against the judgement, I still feel bitter about the current situation the people in Saudi Arabia are in.

 

  Saudi Arabia is the only country on the earth which bans women's driving. Until Yaqoub's presentation on this issue, I had no idea of it and had not heard about it even once. After his presentation, I searched some information about this issue on the internet, and I found it is really on the rise as a global issue. What made me a bit surprised was that even a number of women living in Saudi support this conservative policy banning their driving while on the other side a lot of people or human rights organizations out of this country are raising their voice to abolish it. This shows that even the Saudi Arabian people have not yet come to an agreement between their culture and women rights, and that they have a different view on the concept of human rights from those of other cultures.

 

  So, that is why I can not dare to judge whether they are right or not, though I myself see this policy banning women's driving in Saudi with a quite negative view. It is true, however, that there is rising controversy in the country on the women rights, and they are at some point of change. No one outside would force them to change the law but they themselves can. They might put this issue on public and discuss to come to an agreement, and make the policy modified, fit to the current situation. I believe it is always good to boost human rights and welfare. But in order to avoid any kind of conflict or side effects, it would be better for them to make the process gradual by taking step by step with a long range plan such as enacting laws allowing women to drive in emergency, limiting the number of women drivers and add bit by bit, and so on.