Saudi Arabia to lift ban on women drivers

From the Telegraph in England.

Saudi Arabia is to lift its ban on women drivers in an attempt to stem a rising suffragette-style movement in the deeply conservative state. Government officials have confirmed the landmark decision and plan to issue a decree by the end of the year. The move is designed to forestall campaigns for greater freedom by women, which have recently included protesters driving cars through the Islamic state in defiance of a threat of detention and loss of livelihoods. (emphasis added)

Despite threats of detention, women are still driving. So, to ensure women do not ask for more rights, the Saudi government is letting them operate vehicles. How much you bet this causes women in Saudi Arabia to ask for more rights. But is this part of King Abdullah's strategy?

Mohammad al-Zulfa, a reformist member of the Saudi consultative Shura Council, which scrutinises official policies in the oil-rich state, said reversing the ban was part of King Abdullah's "clever" strategy of incremental reform. "When it was first raised, the extremists were really mad," he said. "Now they just complain. It is diminishing into a form of consent."

Slowly but surely, Saudi Arabia is coming into the 21st century.

Critics believe allowing women to drive would be the first step towards a gradual erosion of the kingdom's modesty laws. A woman would have to remove the traditional abaya robe to get a clear view behind the wheel. "Allowing women to drive will only bring sin," a letter to Al-Watan newspaper declared last year. "The evils it would bring - mixing between the genders, temptations, and tarnishing the reputation of devout Muslim women - outweigh the benefits."

One has to ask. Who's temtatiion? Surely not the femaile's, so it must be the males. This fact is what has fancinated me about devout Islam. The laws are present to limit male temptation, not female temptation.

This is just one example of how the beacon of freedom and democracy, which is Iraq, is beginning to shine brighter each day in the Middle East.