Women in Saudi Arabia still can’t drive.

A group of Saudi women have formed a committee to lobby the government and petition King Abdullah to stop the ban on allowing women to drive.

The government is unlikely to respond because the issue remains so highly sensitive and divisive. But committee members say their petition will at least highlight what many Saudis — both men and women — consider a “stolen” right.
“We would like to remind officials that this is, as many have said, a social and not a religious or political issue,” said Fowziyyah al-Oyouni, a founding member of the Committee of Demanders of Women’s Right to Drive Cars. “And since it’s a social issue, we have the right to lobby for it.”

I find it interesting that a country that leads in the export of petroleum, a country who’s economy is based on the consumption of oil, does not allow women to drive. Furthermore, you would think that one of the Western interests that are so supportive of the Saudi economy and building sustainable relationships with them, would say something about the fact that women in Saudi Arabia CAN’T DRIVE.
Does anyone else find that to be strange?
via AP.

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