So, Nawwaf, tell us why you think women should not drive – or rather, tell us why you think “we” should not “let” “them” drive.
If you start now to let women drive, let them go wherever they want, let them do whatever they want, we will be in the same position some day. Then Saudi Arabia will be like New York.
It’s not good for some girl to show her body, wear very short skirts. This
is not about Saudi Arabia, it’s about Islam. We’ve got a generation who were
raised watching Gossip Girls and other series. They only want to be
like that, dress like that, drive like that. It’s not about need.Now it’s driving. After five years it will be taking off the abaya, after 10 years they will ask to be allowed to wear short skirts. This is how it’s going, that is how I feel.
Because we are we, and we get to decide what they are allowed to do. They are just they, so they don’t get to “go wherever they want”; they have to get our permission for everything.
I believe it will hurt our community. I understand the US traditions and I
respect them so other people, outsiders, need to understand our traditions and
respect them.
Our traditions – not theirs, of course. We decide and permit, they ask and obey.
Um, no. Traditions are things like eating turkey on Thanksgiving day, and tearing down the goalposts when your team wins. When you have a “tradition” that calls for systematically oppressing women, civilized people call it a violation of human rights.
There’s no dichotomy between being a tradition and being a violation of human rights.
Of course, certain institutions are a bit less likely to establish a violation of human rights when it’s a tradition of the western world (I’m looking at you ECHR), but just because it’s a gross violation of individual rights doesn’t make it untraditional.
It makes it a tradition sane human beings should fight to abolish though.
No doubt this will all lead to dancing. Horrors!
*checks Comradde Physioproffe*
Maybe he has a point…
How can he argue in the name of a tradition when clearly the women he mentions don’t want to be a part of it? He wants us to respect his life decisions. Why can’t he respect theirs?
His reasoning seems pretty solid to me… Indeed, allowing women to drive is a reasonable first step towards Saudi Arabia allowing women to dress the way they want, and generally treat them like human beings. Nawwaf seems to be right on the money here to me; it’s just that the things he wants are a bunch of fucked up hateful bullshit. But he’s exactly right other than that…
Oh yes.
And New York is a bit more of a mecca (hahaha) for the people of the world than anywhere in Saudi Arabia is, to the best of my knowledge.
I guess what he hasn’t said is what he really fears. If they let women drive, they’ll drive the fuck away from guys like that. Or possibly over.
Re: that tradition poppycock, in fact, we do respect his Islamic traditions in the US, insomuch as we allow women to wear burqas if they want to, and to not drive if they want to. But he condemns ours as immoral, and thinks they should not be allowed.
But then, really, Nawwaf isn’t talking about the traditions he mentioned; he’s talking about the unspoken traditions at play here: his tradition of oppression, and our tradition of, well, not oppression.
Grrrr. No comments at the BBC site, so:
To Nawwaf:
There will come a time when women won’t ask to drive, remove the abaya, or wear mini skirts. They’ll just do it with or without your permission.
It sounds like a weak tradition, if people will only keep it under threat of violence.