ARE SAUDI WOMEN FREE AT LAST?

On Sunday, it became legal in Saudi Arabia for women to drive.  However, most of them probably won’t because there’s a lot of red tape involved in getting a driver’s license, and Saudi  conventional wisdom is that women are mentally unfit to drive.  Wow! Talk about being out of the loop. Numerous studies from many countries show that women have far fewer traffic accidents than men.

Remember when your teenage children finally got their driver’s license, and you no longer had to chauffeur them everywhere, at all hours of the day and night?  One of the happiest days of my life was when all three of my children could finally drive.  I would think Saudi men would feel a tremendous relief now that women can  drive their kids to school, shop, and run all the many errands that women in other countries have been doing for a century.

But at least it’s a step in the right direction.  Maybe someday, they will change the dress code.  I don’t know about you,  but I get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when I see a woman dressed in black from head to toe on a hot summer day, with  her face covered, except for her sad eyes peering out at the rest of the world where women are free.    Worse yet, you realize that this woman is probably married to a first cousin, because the only way she can meet men is at private family gatherings.  All of this inbreeding results in  high rates of rare genetic disorders like sickle cell anemia and Thalassemia.  Statistics show that  Saudi women are 13 times more likely to bear a child with a genetic disorder than women in other countries.   I know, it’s all part of their culture and it’s their own business—I guess.  But  my heart goes out to the women and girls in that country.