A Saudi cleric has everyone in social media discussing his comment about why women should not be allowed to drive. Sheikh Saleh al-Lohaidan made the comment that women should not drive because they run the risk of damaging their ovaries and having clinical problems when they try to produce children. The comment came in response to the campaign by women activists seeking the right for women to drive in Saudi Arabia.
The campaign began on the Twitter social media platform and an online petition that had gathered 12,000 signatures was blocked online in the kingdom on Sunday according to NBC News.
Only men are allowed to obtain driving licences in Saudi Arabia. Women who drive can be arrested and face a fine by Saudi police.
Sheikh Lohaidan told the news website Sabq.org, “If a woman drives a car, not out of pure necessity, that could have negative physiological impacts as functional and physiological medical studies show that it automatically affects the ovaries and pushes the pelvis upwards.
“That is why we find those who regularly drive have children with clinical problems of varying degrees.”
The activist group seeking the right for women to drive is calling for a “day of defiance” and asking for women to get behind the wheel and support others on 26 October. They are being asked to post pictures and video of them driving online.
In a report in the Telegraph in 2011, according to the academics at Saudi Arabia’s highest religious council, Majlis al-Ifta’ al-A’ala, granting women the right to drive in Saudi Arabia would lead to the end of virgins in the kingdom, an increase in homosexuality, more pornography, an increase of prostitution and a higher divorce rate.
DriveStyle Insurance Blog 