Arab Women Driving,and Other Liberation Cliches
Amy Levin: Thanks to some Saudi women who Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has cautiously called “brave,” the “Arab Spring” is shifting gears this summer. A coalition of female and male women’s rights activists called Saudi Women for Driving began an effort in April to grant women the right to drive in the streets of Saudi Arabia. While several media outlets refer to the effort as defiance against a “driving ban,” in fact there is no law prohibiting women from driving. Rather, it is a long-held social custom, overlaid with religious justifications by ultraconservative Islamic scholars who argue that women driving is the first step to their society’s loss of its Islamic identity. Continue Reading →