On Tuesday, September 26, 2017, a landmark step was made in the journey to better opportunities for women in Saudi Arabia. A country that often requires women to have male guardians to perform everyday tasks, Saudi Arabia is not a country in which women have anything close to rights equal to that of men. The treatment of men and women in this country differs so much that up until this week, women in Saudi Arabia weren’t even allowed to drive.  This means that approximately half of the country’s population hasn’t been able to drive, creating many issues.

          A royal decree was issued on Tuesday of this week declaring that by next June, Saudi Arabian women will be allowed to drive. In addition, women will not have to receive permission from their male guardians to pursue driving lessons. This is a great victory for the women of Saudi Arabia who have been fighting for this ability for years. In 2001, a Saudi Arabian woman named Manal Al-Sharif was jailed for posting a video of herself driving a car. This event caused her to begin the Women2Drive campaign, which has been fighting for the government of Saudi Arabia to change this rule.

          An important factor that spurred 180 degree turn in the country is Vision 2030, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia’s plan to reform the economy of the country. Mohammad bin Salman, the Crown Prince, acknowledged that disallowing women the right to drive prevented many women from entering the workforce because they had no way of getting to work without having to pay for very expensive private transportation since there is not present public transportation. Vision 2030 includes plans to increase the number of women in the workforce, encouraging women to move forward and improve the economy.

          Salman has also eased many other restrictions on women. Traditionally, religious police in the country have enforced Wahbahi Islam restrictions that prevented the mixing of men in women in public and placed many other stipulations on women. Since coming to power, the crown prince has cut back on some of these restrictions. For example, on September 23, last Saturday, women were allowed to enter a sports stadium for the first time.

          While this is a huge step for women in Saudi Arabia, this is not the end for women’s fight in Saudi Arabia. Because of highly patriarchal families, many men are going to resistance the change. Women are still in the position where they have to have males guardians to do things like receive medical care and travel abroad and the kingdom continues to be extremely conservative. However, this is still a landmark event that hopefully marks the first step in greater independence for all the women of Saudi Arabia.

image courtesy: http://humanrights-success.blogspot.com/2013/09/saudi-arabian-women-do-not-have-right.html