Saudi Women Still Can't Drive Cars, BUT........

I came across this news article and thought it was absolutely brilliant in defining yet again the outer limits of life here in Saudi Arabia. This article may seem a tad long to read, but I really recommend that it be read because it opens up a real, solid window to the inside of this country.
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All-female showroom launches in Saudi Arabia
Women still banned from driving, but they can buy and sell cars
Dec. 9, 2006. 01:00 AM
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia—Saudi women still can't drive cars, but they can now sell them.
Potential buyers can go to an all-women showroom where, for the first time, other women will help them choose a car and answer questions about horsepower, carburetors and other features.
But neither the saleswomen nor the female buyers can take the car out for a test drive because women are still banned from driving in Saudi Arabia — even though they have been allowed to own cars for decades and hire male drivers.
Almost half the autos in the country belong to women.
The kingdom's strict interpretation of Islam has long limited what women can do outside the home, seeking to keep them from coming into contact with men who aren't relatives.
So touchy is the issue of women driving that people who previously called for dialogue about whether Saudi Arabia should remain the only Arab nation that bans female drivers have been largely silenced by a wave of condemnation from conservatives.
Mindful of those sensitivities, the Riyadh car dealership that opened the all-women showroom asked that its name not be used.
The seven saleswomen at the large showroom insist they aren't pushing for female driving, but only providing comfort for women who want to buy cars and don't like to go to dealerships run by men.
With the sexes segregated in schools, restaurants and banks, interaction between salesmen and female customers is awkward for many Saudis.
"I don't support women driving even if a permission is given for them to do so, because the society is not prepared for such a step," said Widad Merdad, one of the saleswomen at the dealership, which is privately owned and offers a range of cars.
While the introduction of saleswomen into the workforce may seem a gain for Saudi women, some say that for every step forward, women suffer other setbacks.
Saudi writer Maram Mekkawi cited a recent incident in which female doctors attending a conference in the same room as men — a rare event in the kingdom — were asked to leave because one speaker refused to address a mixed group. The women left, sparking outrage among other women. (Saudi Sandy here: The original quote from this speaker indicated he would not speak in a room that was "Polluted" with the women in it.)
In a column in the Al-Watan newspaper, Mekkawi said the female doctors wouldn't have been kicked out had Saudi society not programmed them to accept such humiliation.
"I'm sorry to say that I have found, in the Western world, men and women with much more manly stands than ours here, where we claim a monopoly on values and principles," Mekkawi wrote. "Would I be blamed if I felt like a third-class or even 10th-class citizen?"
Some wonder if the new all-female showroom will meet the fate of a similar business forced to close shortly after it opened in Jiddah a few years ago.
One woman, who asked to remain anonymous, suggested anything that brings women closer to cars is seen as a threat by conservatives, who think female driving will open the way for women's emancipation.
It's not only men who oppose women driving, however. In a letter to the opinion page of Al-Watan, Ruqiya al-Duwaighry wrote that driving "strips women of their femininity" and puts them in situations that might violate the ban on the sexes mixing.
"(Driving) may subject her to give up the veil or mix with strange men, such as workers at gas stations or security men at checkpoints," she wrote. "Women, by nature, cannot cope with such hard work."
Others say women should at least learn how to drive so they can cope in emergencies, especially in households that cannot afford drivers.
The Saudi Gazette recently told the story of a woman who disguised herself as a man to drive her elderly father to an emergency room as he was having a heart attack.
At the showroom, where half a dozen cars sit on gleaming marble floors shielded from the view of people outside by blackened windows, Merdad said the employees get several weeks of training — but not in how to drive.
The showroom is attached to a dealership run by men with more than 100 cars on display. A female shopper can watch a live feed of that showroom on a flat-screen TV in a comfortable seating area. If she sees a car she likes, it is brought into the female showroom.
"It's better than seeing the car in a catalogue," said Maha Mohsen, a marketing representative.
Associated Press