The driving force

One of my late mother’s dearest wishes was to learn to drive a car, but that hope remained unfulfilled because my father absolutely forbade it.

I do not judge him too harshly for this attitude because, after all, he was born in 1904. His first impressions on life were formed at the hands of Ottoman hojas and then, when he was old enough to join the Jordanian Armed Forces, by British drill sergeants. All his role models were products of the 19th century, so his views on a woman’s proper place were in context, though unacceptable by today’s standards.

I was reminded of this by Wednesday’s long-overdue announcement that Saudi women will be issued driving licences as of June next year. For anyone who knows Saudi Arabia, this is a major and brave step not only towards the liberation and empowerment of women and their engagement in the economy, but also towards the progress of all Saudi society.

Saudi women who struggled over the years and made sacrifices in order to achieve their rights understandably spoke very emotionally about this development. They were also right in describing it as a major turning point and a milestone in Saudi history.

The winds of change are blowing in this part of the world and we all pray that the long overdue change may be to the better.

In the midst of all these positive emotions, one Saudi woman struck a cautionary note: “We have a long way to go before we achieve gender equality, and we must not underestimate the opposition. “

Indeed, all too often, conventional believers of all monotheistic religions, who are not necessarily fundamentalists, use “God” to prop up their likes and dislikes, which they attribute to God himself. 

As Karen Armstrong observed, these faiths call for compassion and demand mercy not sacrifice. But compassion is a complex matter that requires people to overcome their egos and their inherited prejudices, so they choose the easier path of elaborate liturgy.

Take, for instance, the opposition a few years ago when Jordan took the equally brave and progressive step of appointing women judges. Immediately people went about quoting Imam Al Bukhari who attributed to the Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) the statement: “No people will succeed if they appoint a woman to rule over them.”

Reflect on this against the news that Angela Merkel won a fourth term as chancellor of Germany.

A remarkable wit immediately commented that this leaves the ummah with three options: one would be to acknowledge that the venerable Imam Bukhari may have got things wrong on this occasion, possibly because at the end of his long and fruitful life his hearing was not all that it used to be or because his handwriting had become less legible.

Then, again, such impudence would be completely unacceptable, so we need to choose one of the two other options: either to declare that Germany is a failed state, or to pass a fatwa that Angela Merkel is a man.