Reform? Saudi Arabia Detains Activists Who Pushed to End Ban on Women Driving

By Pamela Geller - on May 24, 2018

The bar for the Muslim world is so low, the low expectations of soft bigotry manifest themselves everywhere. Yes, it was good that women were finally allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia. But then why were the activists who tried to get the ban on women driving overturned detained? Let’s not pretend that Saudi Arabia is really becoming “moderate.” Women are still chattel there. The status of women under the sharia is nothing less than abominable.

While assailing President Trump on women’s rights (what specifically, they never say), Western feminists ignore the institutionalized mistreatment of women in Islam. It is unlikely that 1 in 100 American feminists knows that Saudi women still can’t leave the house without a male guardian. Or that a woman needs a male guardian (mahram) whose permission must be granted for travel, medical procedures, obtaining permits. A woman’s guardian arranges her marriage. The system of guardianship is widely abused for economic and social reasons. In 2008, for example, a Muslim father married his eight-year-old daughter off to a 47-year-old man.

“Saudi Arabia Detains Activists Who Pushed to End Ban on Women Driving,” by Ben Hubbard, New York Times, May 18, 2018:

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BEIRUT, Lebanon — Saudi Arabia has detained at least five people connected to the campaign to end the kingdom’s longtime ban on women driving, despite the fact that the government has promised to lift the ban next month, associates of the detainees said on Friday.

The Saudi government has billed the lifting of the driving ban as part of a reform push spearheaded by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The changes have also included curtailing the powers of the religious authorities and expanding the entertainment options available in the conservative kingdom.

In the establishment media, you’re a “conservative” if you support strict application of Sharia, and a “conservative” if you oppose strict application of Sharia.

But those efforts have coincided with waves of arrests that have scooped up clerics, businessmen, members of the royal family and activists who have a history of challenging the government’s positions. Many of them have not been officially charged with crimes despite having been held for months.

In a message on Twitter early Saturday, the Saudi Interior Ministry confirmed that seven people had been arrested after being accused of communicating with “foreign entities,” infiltrating the government and providing financial support to “hostile elements abroad to undermine the security and stability of the kingdom.”…

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wall poster

5 years ago

oh boy, they got rounded up in a smokescreen of other people

Suresh

5 years ago

MSM will only cover “Reform” story to shill for their saudi masters but not cover this abuse.

Like this news of brutal gang rape of swedish girl and what they did to her is even worse
http://bit.ly/2z2rVov

But it was suppressed /played down !

taxpayer22

5 years ago

Taqiyya is Islam. The followers of Mad Mo claim to be victims when it is they who are the aggressors. And the goal is always the same since the 7th Century :: deceive the non-believer in order to advance Islamic supremacy.

Of course, the non-believers can only be outwitted if they are also non-thinkers.

harriet

5 years ago

it is rumored the Crown Prince has been shot..maybe killed

he hasn’t;t been seen since gunshot near/at one of his palaces

santashandler

5 years ago

Reply to harriet

Well, our oil prices are still going up, so let him rot in the Saudi desert.

R. Arandas

5 years ago

Our dear Muslim “ally” is a disgrace to all of America’s values. All they contribute to the world is a supply of oil, and that is it.

santashandler

5 years ago

“…seven people had been arrested after being accused of communicating with
“foreign entities,” infiltrating the government and providing financial
support to “hostile elements abroad to undermine the security and
stability of the kingdom.”…” Gee, under those broad rules, that could mean buying a Chinese made burka online. What a rotten place that must be.

Rick Reynolds

5 years ago

Bottom line here is that if women, gays, Jews, Hindus, Christians, Atheists, etc want to live in freedom, then Islam must end. Never forget that the same ideology ruling Saudi Arabia today is the one Muslims have brought to our countries. If we ever make the mistake of letting them become the majority then they will turn our country into another hell-hole just like Saudi Arabia.

We are in a very real war against this fascist totalitarian political ideology and are fighting for the survival for freedom and our way of life. Islam will never Reform, how can it? Islam forbids any form of free thought-people are being quietly jailed and killed in Islamic countries today for allegedly ‘insulting’ their religion. So any attempts to change Islam will be met with riots and violence from the devote Muslims. The only solution for Islam is the same one we had for Nazism, elimination.