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Though Banned From Driving, Saudi Women Are Now Dealing in Cars
Employees walk among automobiles at the all-women showroom in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
(By Donna Abu-nasr -- Associated Press)
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A Saudi woman in public relations said anything that brings women closer to cars is seen as a threat by conservatives, who think driving by women will open the way for full emancipation.
The woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being harassed, said she was forced to cancel a women-only private viewing of new models of a popular car a year ago when religious police stormed into the dealership hours before the reception.
When told the reception was intended only to show cars to women, the police retorted that the vehicles could be taken to the women's homes for private viewings, she said.
It's not only men who oppose women driving, however.
Ruqiya al-Duwaighry, in a letter to the opinion page of al-Watan, wrote that driving "strips women of their femininity" and puts them in situations that might violate the ban on the sexes mixing.
Driving "may subject her to give up the veil or mix with strange men, such as workers at gas stations or security men at checkpoints," she wrote. "Women, by nature, cannot cope with such hard work."
Others say women should at least learn how to drive so they can cope in emergencies, especially in households that cannot afford drivers. The Saudi Gazette recently told the story of a woman who disguised herself as a man to drive her elderly father to an emergency room as he was having a heart attack.
At the showroom, where a half-dozen cars sit on gleaming marble floors shielded from the view of people outside by blackened windows, Merdad said the employees get several weeks of training -- but not in how to drive.
The showroom is attached to a dealership run by men with more than 100 cars on display. Female shoppers can watch a live feed of that showroom on a flat-screen TV in a comfortable seating area. If one sees a car she likes, it is brought into the women-only showroom.
"It's better than seeing the car in a catalogue," said Maha Mohsen, a marketing representative.
