Saudi women may soon be able to drive cars, rent hotel rooms

Admittedly, the headline is deceptive. In the West, Saudi women drive cars and rent hotel rooms. They just can't do it in the Islamofascist state of Saudi Arabia.

But they may be able drive to hotel and check into a hotel--in the Kingdom.

From Reuters:

A royal decree allowed the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to lay down new regulations simply requiring women to show personal identification including a photograph, which hotel managers must register with local police, al-Watan said.

Tribal custom and hardline religious strictures limit women's movement in the conservative (sic) Islamic state, the only country in the world where women are forbidden from driving.

Saudi women can face harassment from the religious police if they are not accompanied in public areas by a male relative who acts as her "guardian." The rules are less strictly enforced for foreigners and in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia's most liberal city.

The religious police are the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. They're the brownshirts of the Saudi Kingdom, and are greatly feared there.

Two years ago I attended a lecture by Irshad Manji, who said that Saudi women have the same rights as a car.

At least now they can drive one there.

Related posts:

Saudi oppression of women update

Maybe she got tired of being treated like property

Saudi Arabia's lesbian menace

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