According to " Women's right in Saudi Arabia " on blog in last week, I've followed up about women's right in Saudi Arabia because it's interesting of alteration. In Saudi Arabia, there's different from many countries where people could accept innovations as globalization.
According to " Viewpoint: Saudi women should not drive " on BBC news, Saudi leader, King Abdullah, overturned a court decision about the ban on female drivers in the kingdom in this week. Nawwaf, a 25-years-old Saudi man, told BBC Radio why he does not want to see driving in Saudi Arabia. He thought women driving is the key to do a lot of thing which were different from they are now such as women attire, in Western countries, that are a little bit naked. He also thought driving is not about need like when women were watching Gossip Girls series, and they only want to be like that, dress like that. He feared women will be taking off the abaya (all-covering veil and gown). However, he thought it's a good idea to allow women vote because they will vote to improve heath, education, and job.
Strangely, in many countries, people try to adopt development such as technology to show that they've developed already, but in Saudi Arabia people try to conserve their religion, Islam, to show progress of their religion. For this reason, I think their attitude are absolutely different from people in other countries.
In my opinion, I think driving is customary. Everyone in the world can drive a car to go anywhere although sometime for entertainment, but sometime it's necessary if they have to go anywhere for urgent business and there are nobody can drive. I think everyone should have equal right in everything because if someone have right in something and no right in something, it will be a problem. I don't think driving and dressing are relate. In Thailand, there are many Muslims and they drive cars. I have never seen they want to put on a short skirt and they followed the religion strictly. I think development is pleasure, but think of human is dangerous because thing is no life, no feeling, and no conscious. It can't good or bad, but it depend on humans that make it's good or bad. For example, if you use a knife to cook, it's useful, but if you use it to kill someone, it's very wicked. Do you agree with me?
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I agree with you that everyone in the world can drive a car, and I like your sample about human is dangerous. I've always wondered why they had to discourage Muslim women so much, but I still can not find an answer. In addition, I've always thought that if women are highly educated and have the ability to perform tasks, they should be social occasions as well as men.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, and I like your example. I think driving is not deal with religion. If women driving illegal in religion, the car maker will be sin, right? I also see that many Muslims in Thailand drive, and they still wear Muslim uniform. I don't know why they have many limit for women Muslims like this.
ReplyDeleteWomen driving should be an option, not an permission of one in authority. Not mention to the reason for driving in urgent need, I agree with an Aomsin's sensible view that driving and dressing are not related.
ReplyDeleteAomsin,
ReplyDeleteYour blog is like a series of a weekly magazine where I can keep tracks of Muslim women in Saudi Arabia.
I think that the day when the women can drive will be soon because they came to get rights to vote. It is obvious that the Muslim women have to confront a lot of conflicts when they march forward. However, They will succeed like other women in the world.
By the way, like Preaw and Aom, I've also wondered why Muslim societies have suppressed the freedom of women.
Does Koran have answers?
For your wonder, I think they thought if women can drive it start to do anything like dressing, especially abaya which is symbol of women Muslim and their religion. They want women to be in now and don't want anything about women Muslim change. I think because their attitudes are very different from general people.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I agree with everyone and I hope when women in Saudi Arabia can vote, they will ask for social justice successful.
Sunny,
ReplyDeleteYour question are quite interesting and I tried to find out informations for your answer. I think Koran is a cause of why Muslim women must to believe men and there are teaching about danger of women in Koran. Therefore, men tried to get women away from danger. They believe that driving can make women dangerous. Moreover, I found something that interesting about Koran. It's honor killing that people allowed men or parent to kill women if they make disrepute, especially in Middle East countries. You can find more information by Google.
I think Aom is right in her last comment, that the Koran is the cause of the unjust laws against women in Saudi Arabia. That seems to me to mean that some of the teachings in the Koran, and Islam, are both false and immoral.
ReplyDeleteThis is not surprising - most (every?) religion contains teachings that are immoral because religions are all made up by human beings to protect a particular culture or benefit one group, usually men over men (men generally seem to be the leaders with all the power), and members over non-members, which explains the wars, the persecution of Jews by Christians, and so on. Christianity, like Islam, has often led to wars, torture and the murder of people who thought differently, for example inquisitions, witch hunts, the awful crusades, and laws against homosexuality and so on - all as immoral as the existing laws against women in Saudi Arabia driving.
And in Thailand, for example, the unjust laws relating to abortion are usually blamed on Buddhism, which would therefore appear to be the cause of that injustice and immorality against Thai citizens, resulting in great harm to many individuals as well as to Thai society.
I agree with Aom that these are important issues that need to be discussed, hopefully so that there can be change for the better.
Religions often have some good aspects, but they are not reliable moral guides, and seem to me to undermine true morality.
Although the discussion of religion is taboo, but I still think the Islamic oppression of women is an extreme. Women in many Islamic countries are treated as belongings of men, but not human being. They were not allowed to receive education, independent work and so on.
ReplyDeleteI agree with peter's view, to some extent, religion is not so moral, but just tools to maintain some interest groups.
Waye,
ReplyDeleteReligion is never a taboo topic in academic discussion in democratic countries, nor is it taboo in any healthy democracy. When a topic becomes taboo, knowledge on that topic is impossible, and I don't think that ignorance is generally preferable to knowledge. This is why free speech is explicitly mentioned in the OED definition of academic, which we looked at on the first day of class (A, 2. b.). Censorship guarantees ignorance on the topic censored. And academics prefer knowledge to ignorance. I hope most people prefer knowledge to ignorance.
Similarly, free speech is a necessary condition for every healthy democracy because without it, it is impossible for citizens to have well-formed opinions on a political topic.
I agree with your strong comments about the treatment of women in many Islamic cultures - it is extremely unjust and immoral. But not so long ago, women were also badly oppressed in Christian cultures and the Christian religion was largely to blame for that evil in the Western cultures.
Naturally, the rulers of those countries make up laws to suppress free speech - that is because they do not want the citizens to have knowledge or to think critically about what is happening in the society.
peter,
ReplyDeleteI agree with that no topic should be taboo in academic discussion. Only in a free surroundings, the truth becomes possible.
While in life, for respect the believer and don't give myself trouble, I would keep silence.
Waye,
ReplyDeleteI do think it's important to be sensitive to other people's beliefs, but I don't think that ignoring something or not treating it seriously and critically is showing respect.
I think that genuine respect also needs free speech. Saudi Arabia does not allow genuine respect for its cultural traditions - just censorship and forced obedience.
But I agree with you that in some situations, silence is a sensible and appropriate choice.
Aomsin,
ReplyDeleteI think that your topic is interesting but sensitive because it's belief of religion.
I agree with your opinion that driving and dressing are not related.