Thread: Imagine if women could drive.

A very relevant article as its International Womens Day, written from a Saudi perspective.
Imagine if women could drive - Arab News

Thank you for posting...

thanks for posting very interesting and sad.

wow, I'm speechless.

Oh, my American sisters, thank whatever powers you believe in that we had the crazy good luck to be born in America. As angry as I sometimes get with the stupidity, arrogance and greed of our government, I have to acknowledge that it could be worse. Much worse.

I always wonder what makes these men so afraid of women's independence... Just the thought of them being able to do every-day things without their guidance makes them **** their pants! Poor little things...

MEISSOUN

Actually, although not always quite as rigid, this type of chauvinism is alive and well in many parts of Africa too. Women are considered little more than "slaves" or "meat" and can be sold, bartered, beaten and abused without consequence. A woman is "property" and her only true status is through her father and her husband, when she is old enough to marry.

Obviously, the more rural the area, the more prevalent the practice, metropolitan areas have the veneer of civilisation suggesting that women have more equal rights. This facade is usually only in public. In private, she is expected to serve and obey her husband exactly as she would have hundreds of years ago.

As a mazungu (white person) I am tolerated across the 'gender divide' when doing something that would be culturally considered 'man's work' (e.g. getting the telephone repaired), but I am often treated with disdain because I am a woman. However, if my husband is with me, I will be completely ignored, even if I am the one who is doing the speaking. The man with whom we are dealing will not even look at me, but look at my husband as he speaks and, if I am 'rude' enough to continue to speak, he will pointedly reply to my husband, as if to suggest that possibly DH should bring his wayward wife under control!

Getting annoyed does not help, even if it would make ME feel better to box his chauvinistic ears!

What Ndi-mi describes is also common in this part of the world where men speak to men and ignore an accompanying female. Its considered bad manners for a man to acknowledge another man's wife as that would 'invade her privacy'. Men who are familiar with Western style will speak to the wife, shake hands etc though.
After a while I realised there was no point in getting upset about being ignored. There is an upside though, when we meet local ladies they will only talk to me and act like my husband is invisible .

That is really well written. Thank you for posting the link.

Originally Posted by IrishLily

Oh, my American sisters, thank whatever powers you believe in that we had the crazy good luck to be born in America. As angry as I sometimes get with the stupidity, arrogance and greed of our government, I have to acknowledge that it could be worse. Much worse.

Very true - but let's also remember that 'eternal vigilance is the price of freedom' - there are those right here in the USA that would take us back to something similar. Read/watch "The Handmaid's Tale" for one possibility...

Don't forget that that we have had the right to vote for less than a century.

Originally Posted by BELLA_BELLA

Don't forget that that we have had the right to vote for less than a century.

True, and a hard-fought battle (one the details of which they don't teach us about in history classes).

Zorba, that book is now on my wishlist - thanks!!!

Since many modern-day U.S. women are not aware of the torture and suffering experienced by early-20th-century feminists in their quest to get the vote, I strongly recommend this article to get an introduction to our own history of less than 100 years ago:

Why Women Should Vote « White Washed Feminists

Originally Posted by *Shira*

Since many modern-day U.S. women are not aware of the torture and suffering experienced by early-20th-century feminists in their quest to get the vote, I strongly recommend this article to get an introduction to our own history of less than 100 years ago:

Why Women Should Vote « White Washed Feminists

Thanks for this link. Interesting reading. It's quite shocking, actually, how few people (not just women) vote. In Africa, where voting is very new and the idea of democracy is still not fully understood, the right to vote is greatly appreciated and voters turn out in droves. And it is easy to see the countries with oppression (e.g. Zimbabwe), because the voter turn-out drops badly. Folks are too scared to vote.

In 1893 New Zealand was the first nation to give the right to vote to all adult women. The Prime Minister at that time, Richard Seddon, known as King Dick, was against female emancipation and he told his parliamentary party members that they must vote against the bill. Two of the MPs took umbrage at being 'bossed around', ignored his instructions, voted for the bill and the rest is history.

Originally Posted by BELLA_BELLA

Don't forget that that we have had the right to vote for less than a century.

We like to say these countries are in the 'dark ages.'

But really, it's only about a hundred years ago for us. If we forget how recent, how hard-won, and how fragile our own rights are, they are in danger.

If we forget our own history, we wind up judging other cultures by a pretty harsh measuring stick when, in reality, they're not that far 'behind' us.

US women's rights highlights:

1900 - married women are allowed to own/control some of their own property & earnings
1918 - doctors allowed to advise married patients about birth control
1920 - right to vote
1938 - minimum wage applies to women, too!
1947 - women determined equally qualified to serve on juries as men
1969 - first 'no fault' divorce law allows women to sue for divorce without proving grounds
1971 - Supreme Court finally declares women to be 'persons' and for the first time strikes down a law that treats men preferentially (making them an equally valid choice as executors of wills)
1972 - Title IX finally prohibits sex discrimination in education

There are women alive today in the USA who weren't able to vote, earn a living wage, wait tables at night, divorce their husbands (unless he was unfaithful or abusive), serve on juries, know about birth control, etc.

Iran banned the headscarf in the '30s. Those women were doctors, lawyers, driving cars & wearing whatever they wanted when the revolution came. They lost everything overnight. Zorba is right, we need to guard our own rights VERY carefully!

Legacy '98: Detailed Timeline

sitting here in the comfort of the home i own, without a man helping, i feel very frustrated.
I was under the impression that Islam gave women a very respected place in society that they lacked before, in fact the Prophet's first wife was older than him, a business woman and she proposed to him! isn't it the way it went? so i thought, so why countries that claim to be governed by Muslim law are so disrespectul to women?
yeah, loaded question i know.