The Ban on Women Driving in Saudi Arabia - Coursework Example

THE BAN ON WOMEN DRIVING IN SAUDI ARABIA Introduction According to the Global Gender Gap Report produced at the end of the edition of the World Economic Forum, Saudi Arabia was ranked 127th out of a total of 136 countries where gender disparity takes place most (quote). Given the global recognition and credibility assigned to the fallouts of the World Economic Forum, the only indication that such ranking gives is that there is a serious problem at hand in Saudi Arabia, as far as gender, and for that matter women’s rights are concerned. There are several social and religious issues that come together to form the basis of the ranking given to Saudi Arabia in terms of gender disparity. One such issue which has a social dimension is the ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia. In this paper, the issue of ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia is discussed and reviewed from a constructionist framework standpoint. By implication, understanding and meaning will be sought to the issue from a perspective that coordinates individual needs with that of other human beings. In effect, the topic will be reviewed from a social perspective by looking at how the ban affects women as a social subset of the larger Saudi population. To do this effectively, the various theoretical concepts that have been developed about the social impact of the ban on women driving, the role of social activists, and the possible way forward shall all be discussed. Background to the issue Some commentators argue that there is no official law in Saudi Arabia that bans women from driving (quote). Indirectly however, one could say that there is a ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia, given the fact that the Interior Ministry refuse to issue women with licenses to drive (quote). As result of this, it has become a convention that women driving is prohibited and seen as an act that breaks the religious and moral principles of the land. The basis to which the current form of ban on women driving is given religious interpretations is that there are religious historians who trace the refusal to issue license to women to the Wahhabism practiced by the ruling family. Wahhanism is seen as an orthodox Islamic doctrine which requires women to seek permission from a male guardian before doing several things, including getting married, traveling, working, or even going to school (quote). As part of the current convention, and given the fact that one is not legally permitted to drive without a license in Saudi Arabia, women always have to rely on males relatives to drive them around. They may also hire male drivers to work for them as their permanent drivers. From a larger social perspective, this can be seen as a situation that has several effects on the female gender and on women as stakeholders of society. Remaining sections of the paper looks at some of these effects very closely. Constructionist stands on how the problem has evoled When social issues are given religious interpretations As it has been stressed earlier, the basis under which women are not issued driving license in Saudi Arabia is because the ruling family has a strong believe in the Wahhanism, which requires women to seek permission from men before exercising certain rights. Meanwhile, the Wahhanism is a religious doctrine, creating some level of difficulty in interpreting the ban on women driving as either being a social issue or a religious. Arguing from a constructionist perspective, quote (year) mentioned that whenever social issues are given religious interpretations, it becomes very difficult in giving judgments on the rightness or wrongness of the outcomes of the issues. This is because religion and sociology tend to view the same issues from different perspectives (quote). as constructionists argues for actions and meaning of what people do to be based on effects on other humans, it can be said that the social construction of reality of the problem that the ban on women driving has now been given a religious interpretation (quote). The basis for this assertion is that whenever there is a religious interpretation given to a problem, the third force who needs to be pleased is God, who is certainly not a social or human being whose needs can be covered under constructionism. Under such circumstance, it becomes difficult to judge enforcers of a supposed social problem based social construction of reality. As far as constructionism is concerned, it is right to assert that the issue of ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia has failed to see any significant change over the years because of the religious interpretation given to the issue. According to quote (year), when the issue is given a religious interpretation, it becomes very difficult even for people affected by the issues to raise their voices, fearing that they are breaking divine orders. It was based on this that some advocates have cried for a clear distinction and separation of religious interpretation to the ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia. This is because most of these advocates posit that the ban on women driving should be looked at from a social perspective rather than a religious one. By looking at the issue from a social constructionism perspective, one would then be debating about the overall social impacts that arise from banning women from driving. Meanwhile as it would be seen later, there are several social impacts that come with the current ban. Also taking a social constructionism position on the issue of ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia, quote (year) held the view that for most advocates who have attempted to end the issue, they have failed because they did not look at the issue holistically by giving social justifications as to why it could not be continued. Rather, such people only argue based on individual rights of the women. Social impacts of current situation 2 When the ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia is viewed from an overall social perspective, there are several negative impacts that can drawn. The first social effect of the situation is its impact on work. This is because it would be accepted that the ability of a person to be personally mobile while working has a lot of positive influence on the outcome of work. As the global business environment becomes competitive, it is important that women will be empowered to be active participants in the change that is happening (quote). Meanwhile when women would always have to rely on their relatives and other hired drivers to get them to doing business, one can image the limitations that this would bring. With this said, the impact of a non-competitive working women population can be seen to have so much effect on society at large. One other social impact of the situation is the level of dependence that the issue puts women in. Based on the social exchange theory, one can say that the current situation where women have to depend on men for mobility as far as the use of cars are concerned creates an unfair subjective cost-benefit in favor of the males instead of the females. This is because the social exchange theory argues that the outcome of subjective cost-benefit analysis and comparison of alternatives should be the basis on which human relationships are formed. Meanwhile, in the current circumstance, women cannot be said to have any alternatives at all when they want to be mobile through the use of a car. One other social impact of the current situation is the effect of the ban on the lives of humans. The reason this is said is that under the current circumstance where women are ban from driving, can hardly think of what the outcome would be when a woman is in a car with a man and other people and the man is suddenly taken ill. In such cases as a sudden stroke, the man driving may not be in a position to continue and would need that another person takes charge of the steering wheel and the whole driving process to ensure that lives are saved. Meanwhile in the current situation where driving by women is given a religious interpretation, one could only assume that women who really want to go according to the ban would not want to attempt driving for any reason at all. This is because as far as religion is concerned, it is not possible for one to do something that is tagged as wrong with the aim of saving lives or achieving a better social outcome (quote). If this was allowed, a person who steals for the reason of saving a hungry kid would be hailed for that action. Based on this, one would see that the current situation where women are not just banned from driving but given a religious tag of sinfulness for driving can go a long way to create so much social impacts that has to do with the lives of people. The role of activists so far Several activist works have been done with the aim of ending the ban on women driving. One of the most current forms of activist work was the formation of the Women2Drive campaign which saw several behind the whiles on October 26, 2013 as part of protest to ending the ban. Interestingly, this campaign was championed by some Muslim women’s rights researchers at the Human Rights Watch (quote). This shows the extent to which the existing problem is seen to be problematic even by the Muslim community. This is because quote (year) observed that up to date, Saudi Arabia is the only country in the Muslim world where women are not allowed to drive. Even before the Women2Drive campaign, there were several other attempts that were previously made. A typical example of this is the Women to Drive Movement in Saudi Arabia which started far back in 1990 when several women attempting to drive in Riyadh were arrested and had their passports consficated (quote). Later in 2007, Wajeha al-Huwaider and other women took their advocacy right to the King when they petitioned King Abdullah to allow women to drive. In 2008, a film on Wajeha al-Huwaider was made to attract global media publicity to the issue of the ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia. Some Arab Spring women organized their own driving campaigns which recorded seventy cases of women driving (quote). Of all the attempts that have been made, the closest news of hope is what the Shoura Council reported on December 17, 2014 of a possible discussion on the need to allow women to drive Arab News, 2014). Conclusion The discussions presented in this paper helps to make a conclusion about the ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia. The conclusion that will be made is that there are several implications that the existing ban has on women as stakeholders of society. There is however a fundamental problem that has made it very difficult to having a solution to the issue. The problem is that over the years, the issue has often been looked at from an individual perspective whereby most activists who have attempted to cause a change have looked at women as individuals rather than collective stakeholders of society. This paper has however used a constructionist framework which has reviewed the impact of the issue on women as social beings. With such social constructionist stand, it can be concluded that the ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia needs to be reconsidered by authorities of the country. This is because there are several negative social effects that this situation brings, with very few or no proven social advantages that the ban offers. As Saudi Arabia prides itself as a responsible socio-political country, it ought to consider some of these issues which give the country a negative international image and representation. Having said this, it will be appreciated that any changes that will take place will only happen in the long term basis and on a gradual ground given the fact that the existing notion of male supremacy has been with the people for long. Read More