Saturday, December 21, 2013

Driven Women - SUSRIS conversation with Kathy Cuddihy

This article was published on December 21, 2013 on the website of SUSRIS, the Saudi-US Information Service. A link to the article is here, and it's posted below.

SUSRIS Editor’s Note:
A year ago we had a conversation with Kathy Cuddihy about her experiences as a self-described “once reluctant expat” and her book “Anywhere But Saudi Arabia.” In it she described what it was like to have a 24-year-long front row seat to a country in transition and to be a part of the rapidly developing city of Riyadh she first discovered in 1976. Cuddihy’s memoir documented her experiences and how her attitude transformed from initial reluctance and resistance to accept a transfer to Saudi Arabia, to a deep love and respect for its customs and people.
People Kathy CuddihyCuddihy told SUSRIS that Saudi Arabia was a “blank slate” when she arrived. “Back then there were no stereotypes,” she said, adding, “It was as if you were talking about Mars. No one knew anything about it.” Nowadays Westerners have the opportunity to know much more about Saudi Arabia — hopefully in some measure through SUSRIS.com. One of the issues that captures their attention is the longstanding challenge for Saudi women to drive in the Kingdom. Little attention, however, is given to the question of non-Saudi women driving. Reliable numbers are not available on how many of the 5.5 million expats in Saudi Arabia are women, but whatever the number may be they are not legally on the Kingdom’s highways. Unlike most of their Saudi sisters the expat women may have arrived in the Kingdom after a lifetime of driving themselves when they needed to. Today we share the perspective of Kathy Cuddihy on women driving in Saudi Arabia and some of the frustrations that come with being an expat woman not behind the wheel in the Kingdom.
Cuddihy’s book, “Anywhere But Saudi Arabia: Experiences of a Once Reluctant Expat,” is now available in bookstores in the United States as well as Amazon.com.
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Driven Women Kathy Cuddihy
As a young girl, I thought the epitome of luxury would be to have my own chauffeur-driven car. When my husband Sean was transferred to Saudi Arabia, this ambition was realised. Not quite in the elegant style I imagined, but I did have a driver.
A woman committing to living in Saudi also commits to retiring her car keys. Although I resented giving up what I considered to be a basic freedom, the situation wasn’t quite as bad as I had anticipated. Because there was no public transportation, Sean’s company provided shopping buses and a couple of personal drivers to be shared among the wives. Eventually I had my own driver. This made life easier but it didn’t reduce the counterbalance of frustrations that came with being driven:
  • I didn’t have to worry about finding a parking space: my driver dropped me at the front door of wherever I was going. Instead, I worried about whether or not he’d remember to pick me up at the appointed time—or at all.
  • I could send my driver on errands all over the city. Useful… except when he brought back the wrong items, forgot to do things or went to the wrong place.
  • I didn’t have to cope with Riyadh traffic and the crazies who sped past on the inside emergency lane. I was too busy coping with my driver, reminding him to stop at stop signs, use his signal before turning, not to sit on the tail of the car in front and any one of a dozen other backseat recommendations.
It’s not illegal for women to drive in Saudi Arabia but it is illegal for them to drive without a Saudi license. And licenses aren’t issued to women. The embargo is purely cultural. A combination of deeply embedded tradition and a powerful religious establishment ensures that progress in the desert kingdom happens slowly.
People Saudi Women Driver DrivingThe numerous anti-driving arguments put forward by conservatives who fear change have no foundation in common sense. This was most famously demonstrated by the cleric Sheikh Saleh Al Lohaidan who warned women that “physiological science” shows that driving “automatically affects the ovaries and pushes up the pelvis … and that is why children born to most women who continuously drive suffer from clinical disorders of varying degrees”.
Not far behind him on the silly scale, Sheik Mohammed al-Nujaimi, claimed that women driving was a “great danger”. He expressed the usual concerns: increased opportunity for adultery, broken marriages and more accidents. His addendum that allowing women to drive would result in “the spending of excessive amounts on beauty products” left everyone scratching their heads.
In November 1990, immediately before the start of the Gulf War, 47 women, accompanied by their husbands or male relatives, drove in convoy through the streets of Riyadh. The peaceful protest had dire consequences. The mutawwa whipped up widespread opposition resulting in the women being vilified and sometimes jailed, losing or being suspended from their jobs and having their passports taken away. As Madiha Al Ajroush, one of the participants, said, “Our sin was to deviate from the collective norm. For that we are persecuted.” The crack in the door to liberalisation had been slammed shut in no uncertain terms.
It took nearly 20 years, until June 2011, before the next driving crusade was organised. This one rode on the momentum of the Arab Spring; women from all over the kingdom joined the movement. This time there was comparatively little backlash from the general public.
In October 2013 the Ministry of Interior warned activists not to proceed with their planned drivathon but there were indications that the government might be wavering in its stance: token police checks were set up in downtown areas—where the women weren’t driving. The aftermath has been primarily that of growing support for lifting the ban.
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The explosion of social media means that dissatisfactions once voiced privately now are shouted from cyberspace to the world. A youthful population that refuses to be disenfranchised fuels campaigns for more freedoms. In this country of over 12 million women, females are becoming more defiant, less pliable.
Saudi men need to look in their rearview mirrors: women drivers are speeding up the highway of change. It won’t be long before they catch up.
Kathy Cuddihy is author of “Anywhere But Saudi Arabia: Experiences of a Once Reluctant Expat.”
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About Kathy Cuddihy Kathy Cuddihy, Canadian by birth, has lived abroad for most of her life. A penchant for foreign cultures and languages has served her well throughout her extensive travels. Her varied career has included being a jillaroo (cowgirl) in Australia, a secretary at the United Nations in Geneva, and a public relations consultant in Saudi Arabia. This is the author’s seventh book. Her two children and four grandchildren reside in the US. Kathy lives with her husband Sean on Bantry Bay, Ireland. Source: Amazon.com
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People Kathy Cuddihy Books Anywhere But Saudi ArabiaAbout the Book: When Bechtel offered Sean Cuddihy a transfer to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 1976, his wife Kathy agreed to go along on one condition: that it was only for two years, not a minute longer. This reluctant commitment turned into a 24-year love affair with Saudi Arabia and its people. Kathy’s humorous anecdotes of her adventures and misadventures trace the journey of a country in transition. Never has a nation made so much progress in so short a time. As a trusted journalist and businesswoman, Kathy witnessed, recorded and participated in this spectacular development. From palaces to prisons and mud houses to private jets, Kathy’s perspective is unique and her experiences remarkable. Told with the wit and stylishness for which the author is well known, Anywhere But Saudi Arabia! is a treasure for all who know and love the Kingdom, and an eye-opener for those with no comprehension of what life was, and is, like for a non-conventional non-Muslim woman in a conservative Muslim population. At times hilarious, at times shocking, but always honest and entertaining, Kathy’s story is infused with deep affection for her adopted country. Source: Amazon.com Also by Kathy Cuddihy:


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