Shoura intent on enabling women to drive

Article from Okaz and the Saudi Gazette on May 10, 2017 by Fatima Al-Dibais, that the Shoura Council postponed their discussion of the women driving issue. From reading the article, it appears that a Ministry of the Interior report must have recommended the law be changed, if the recommendations are to be incorporated into the actions of the Council.  A link to the story is: here, and the story is pasted below.

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Women members taking part in the Shoura Council deliberations in Riyadh on Tuesday. — SPA

By Fatima Al-Dibais
Okaz/Saudi Gazette
DAMMAM — A number of Shoura Council members are making preparations to come up with a solid recommendation to enable women to drive, according to informed sources.

The sources said the Council on Monday postponed the discussion on the Interior Ministry’s report so as to include in it a recommendation on the issue.

The sources said the members were notified about the postponement of the discussion only 48 hours before the start of the session.

No new date has been announced, but the discussion on the Interior Ministry’s report is expected to take place before Ramadan which starts on May 27.

The sources said the Council’s security committee was unable to draft a recommendation approving women driving to be included in the report.

They said the members late last December rejected the recommendations made by the security committee because it failed to mention anything about women driving. The sources said that a number of members at the time were determined to include a recommendation allowing women to drive in the ministry’s report which should have been discussed on Monday.

The issue of women driving was mentioned during the Council’s previous session in which about 30 women members participated.

Latifa Al-Shaalan and Haya Al-Manie, two women members, introduced the issue in 2013 but the security committee rejected it saying the recommendation was inappropriate.

In April last year, the two women members introduced the issue for the second time through a recommendation calling for the amendment of the traffic law to grant driving licenses to women also. But the Council’s consultants turned it down.

The issue of women driving was not raised in the Council’s sixth session, but it resurfaced in the current session in December when Al-Shaalan asked the security committee to take the initiative to adopt a recommendation that would enable women to drive.