Why Saudi Rulers Still Won’t Let Women Drive - Driver’s Seat - WSJ
►http://blogs.wsj.com/drivers-seat/2011/09/26/saudi-reforms-why-women-still-cant-drive/?mod=google_news_blog
But more than a few Saudi women no doubt wondered just how they would be expected to compete with their male rivals for office – or carry out their duties as effectively — when they’re hobbled by another even more controversial restriction: the ban on women driving.
Contrary to what many outsiders believe, Saudi law does not explicitly forbid women from driving. But the Kingdom refuses to issue driving licenses to women because of religious rulings, known as fatwas, from the Kingdom’s arch-conservative clerical corps. These rulings argue that driving would give women too many freedoms and lead to social problems. According to one Wikileaks cable, the ban became more official when the grand mufti of Saudi in 1991 said that allowing women to drive would result in public mixing of the genders, put women into dangerous situations because they could be alone in cars, and therefore end only in social chaos.