Saudi Prince: Women Should Drive Because of the Economy, Stupid
LatestWomen can drive. I mean, of course women can drive. Anyone with the required faculties can drive, and the only possible reason a government can have for divesting women of the basic human right Henry Ford gave people to own a Model T and idle away hours of their lives in rush hour traffic is to limit their means of locomotion and, therefore, their independence, which is more or less how things stand in Saudi Arabia.
That will change if lawmakers heed the advice of Prince AlWaleed bin Talal, who has insisted that letting women drive will cut down on Saudi Arabia’s reliance on foreign labor. The country, which has nearly nine million foreign workers, recently embarked on an immigration crackdown in order to boost the proportion of Saudi citizens in private sector jobs. (According to Reuters, only 10 percent of Saudi citizens currently work in the private sector.)