KING SALMAN OF SAUDI ARABIA ALLOWS WOMEN TO DRIVE BY AWWAL

DAL INTERNATIONAL NEWS Tuesday 26 September, 2017

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King Salman of Saudi Arabia allows women to Drive

By Dauda Awwal Women’s rights in Saudi Arabia are limited in comparison to many of its neighbours. The World Economic Forums of 2016.The Global Gender Gap Report ranked Saudi Arabia 141 out of 144 countries for gender parity

Women’s rights in Saudi Arabia are limited in comparison to many of its neighbours. The World Economic Forums of 2016.The Global Gender Gap Report ranked Saudi Arabia 141 out of 144 countries for gender parity. However, the status of

women has improved in recent decades. Women were previously forbidden from voting or being elected to political office, but in 2011 King Abdullah allowed women to vote in the 2015 local elections and appointed them to the Consultative Assembly. Women had been barred from driving in Saudi Arabia since 1970s.

Saudi Arabia had been the last country in the world in which women were banned from driving. Women would be able to obtain driver’s licenses without having to ask permission of their husbands, fathers or any male guardian. and some women have been arrested and jailed for defying the prohibition and taking the wheel. The move was welcomed by the US state department, which called it "a great step in the right direction.

Women in Saudi Arabia have been granted the right to drive. A decree signed

by King Salman ibn Abdulaziz overturning a longstanding rule against women driving in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia announced this on Tuesday 26 September,2017 on the state television which was demanding by the activists in the kingdom. Women will be allowed to drive; the change will take effect between 23 and 24 June 2018.

King Salman ordered the reform in a royal decree and requesting that driver’s licences be issued to women who wanted them. The committee will take up the recommendations within 30 days from the date of the decree.

Earlier this month, a Saudi cleric was banned from preaching after criticized Saudi Government saying that women should not be allowed to drive in the Kingdom.

Recently, Saudi women were also allowed into a Stadium to watch a musical concert, a move that chimes with the government's "Vision 2030" plan for social and economic reform as the kingdom prepares for a post-oil era.

In 2016, Alwaleed bin Talal, an influential Saudi prince called Saudi Government to allow women to Drive in the Kingdom. He also detailed the "economic costs" of women having to rely on private drivers or taxis, since public transit is not a viable alternative in the kingdom.

Using foreign driver’s drains billions of dollars from the Saudi economy, Alwaleed said. He calculated that families spend an average of $1,000 a month

on a driver, money that otherwise could help household income at a time when many are making do with less.

The role of the women nowadays is very important because somehow all the society needs to know how is the role of the women through the different cultures in the world. Leanne Evale has mentioned that: “Throughout the last 100-300 years the changes that women have seen and been affected by have been phenomenal’’. Women have gained a lot of ground in politics, the work force, and even more power within their own households. There was a time in history when women were unable to voice their opinion in politics being unable to cast a vote or run for office, and now in modern time there are more than one woman running in the presidential campaign.

The role of women in today's society is as important as that of men when it comes to legal, educational, socio-economic, or religious matters, media. We often tend to employ different yardsticks. Traditionally, chauvinists have always looked upon women as inferior to men. In the past, the norm was that men would work and women would stay at home and raise the kids, do the household chores, etc.