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Saudi women are driving all over the place - Princess

By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: Princess Loulwa Al-Faisal of Saudi Arabia denied here on Thursday that Saudi women were not allowed to drive, saying they drove all over the place except in the cities.

She told a meeting that in the desert they all drive and it is women who are standing against the right to drive in cities. “It will be good for us if all women were driving,” she added.

The Princess, a daughter of the late King Faisal and sister of Turki Al-Faisal, the Kingdom’s ambassador-designate to Washington, was speaking at the Middle East institute.

One of the purposes of her visit is to introduce Effat College, an elite women’s educational institution in the Kingdom that bears the name of her mother, Queen Effat. The Princess acts as the patron of the college which has a good number of non-Saudi students.

She said the traditional family structure in Saudi Arabia has changed, especially in the cities where nuclear families are common with both husband and wife working. She said there are many old and preconceived ideas about Saudi Arabia which have little bearing on the country’s reality. It is believed, for example, that Saudi women are downtrodden and slaves to men, which is not at all the case. All young Saudi women with an education are now working in a variety of jobs. In the tribal system, she said, women were the workers. “Ours was a nomadic society which has now been largely settled, but outside the cities, the old way of life is still followed,” she explained. Education for the Saudis, she said, is not a question, but an obligation. All Saudis are educated, she added.

Princess Loulwa said Islam is very important to the Saudis and the law of the land is based on the Shari’a “which we don’t see as wrong.” She answered questions about women’s inheritance rights and stressed that what a woman inherits cannot not be taken away from her. There are many businesses that are owned and run by women, she said. She reminded her audience that in her country, women have always been in business and trade. “Our way of life is trade,” she added. She said in answer to a question that there is no segregation on the basis of gender in hospitals but there is segregation in educational institutions. Asked about political rights, she replied that in the Kingdom, they are new even for men, but she was confident that in the next municipal elections, women would be eligible. She said only the good tribal customs have been retained in the Kingdom. She informed her audience that included many students that there is a move to have every Saudi citizen carry identity card, but many women do not want their picture taken. She was certain that by the time the next elections come around, ID cards would have become obligatory for all.

The Princess, who wore a head covering and a loose kind of suit, told the meeting that it should be kept in mind that in Saudi Arabia, decision-making takes place by consensus. Even the King cannot not get up one morning and declare something to be law. Everything is decided by the Shura. Asked about the situation in the Middle East, she replied, “We are not happy at what is happening in the region, in Palestine. It should be the people who should decide what they want. There should be no reason to go outside the box.” She said there were misconceptions about Saudi Arabia not only in the West but in Arab countries as well. Asked about the veil, she replied that one reason Saudi women use the veil is to protect themselves from the heat. She ruled out the possibility of the veil being discarded. She said, “We don’t force things on people in Saudi Arabia.” Asked if Saudis could view TV programmes such as Baywatch, she replied, “Yes, they can because satellite broadcasting had brought the world together. We watch everything that the Americans watch,” then added with a chuckle, “We think Baywatch is devil’s work but it is alright since it is American.” She said in answer to another question, “We have extremists on both sides. We have extremist liberals who want religion to be separated from the state and who want to do what is done on the Riviera.”

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