Facebook campaign launched threatening to WHIP Saudi female drivers

[Antumul_alona]

Re: Facebook campaign launched threatening to WHIP Saudi female drivers

@Deeba1234

**‘Whip them if they take the wheel’: Saudi men launch Facebook campaign in response to women planning protest against driving ban
**
By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 6:27 PM on 25th May 2011

A Facebook campaign has been launched urging Saudi men to whip women who drive with their cord from their headdress.

The online page urges men to attack women in response to a burgeoning protest movement against the law banning them from driving in the ultra-conservative nation. They were angered after Saudi woman Manal al-Sharif was jailed for defying the ban and are claiming they need to drive to ensure their own safety if their chaperone was to fall ill.

The page, titled ‘The Iqal Campaign: June 17 for preventing women from driving,’ refers to the Arabic name for the cord used to hold on the traditional headdress worn by many men in the Gulf, advocating the cord be used to hit women who dare to drive.

It has drawn over 6,000 ‘likes’ on the popular social networking website.Some on the page proposed distributing boxes of Iqals to youths and encouraging them use them to hit women who participate in the June 17 protest.

One joked about the price of Iqals going up due to men buying them before the protest. The issue has sparked debate in the Saudi press.

The renowned novelist Abdo Khal, writing in Okaz, deplored the ban on women driving, and said he did not know ‘whether to laugh or cry’ over the proposed Iqal campaign.

Ahmed Sayed Atif, writing in Al-Watan, called for women be allowed to drive, and that they not arrested for not possessing a driver’s licence, as can happen now.

Meanwhile, a Facebook page titled ‘We are all Manal al-Sharif: a call for solidarity with Saudi women’s rights,’ has been growing in popularity, with its number of ‘likes’ rising by about 5,000 to more than 19,000 in a day.

‘It is not a revolution, it is not a plot, it is not a gathering and it is not a protest - we are only requesting to drive our cars,’ one post on the page said.

And a petition launched by Gulf intellectuals calling for the release of Sharif has garnered over 300 signatures.

According to Al-Watan, a 37-year-old Saudi woman who had repeated Sharif’s experiment in driving in the town of Al-Ras, northeast of Riyadh, was arrested at a supermarket by a police patrol accompanied by members of the religious police.

She was driving with her mother and aunt at the time, according to the newspaper, which said she was released a few hours later.

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1390806/Saudi-men-launch-violent-Facebook-campaign-response-women-taking-wheel-safety.html#ixzz1NOkYgRWr

Salams!

WOW - Ever since I have been paying a lot more attention to the changes in the Saudi society over the last decade (and really I have due to personal interests), I have been waiting for this to happen.
Aal Saud cannot keep the people oppressed any longer. There is un rest in the Saudi youth due to joblessness, lack of educational opps across genders, and a misfitting education system that only provides clerk level skills.

Here are some facts that everyone should keep in mind:

1. Abdul Aziz bin Saud became King of unified Saudi Arabia (a third time attempt by the Saud’s to attain rule over nejd and arabia) in 1932 after many conquests spanning from 1902 to 1925.
   Saud family was the military wing of scholars who held this view or you can say the scholars were alligned with the formation of this govt. Those scholars imposed a ban on women driving from the get go either in 1932 or later in or around 1938 when oil was discovered and british and American govts starting pouring in money to buy out the Sauds for long term favors. Which apparently has worked like a charm for them.

2. One of the more recent scholars who upheld this fatwa and law was Abdul Aziz ibn Abdullah ibn Baz who is very revered among todays Saudis specially those who follow the govt. His opinion about impermissibility of driving for women can be found in many books published on his fatawas (religious decrees)

3. About 2 decades ago during the first Gulf war (desert storm imposed by Bush Senior) an incident took place where an American Female soldier came out of US compounds into the city area driving herself. It was a breach of law but she was not punished (at least I don’t recall). As a result some local Saudi professional women protested in Riyadh led by a Saudi woman. They were arrested and the uprising was squashed.

4. The US and UK govts are backing Aal Saud and don’t want a replacement. So they will keep quiet untill the masses overtake the roads and there is no turning back for the House of Saud. This however seems to be further away then near.

So to sum it up, Aal Saud can’t stop this now. Good or bad, and today or tomorrow, the people are going to make a stand. Their govt. Scholars will give fatwas of “fitna” left and right, but I don’t think they can stop this now.