Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — A statement that has warned against the dangers of allowing women to drive in Saudi Arabia was released on the Internet on Friday. More than 100 sheikhs, imams, judges, Islamic scholars, Islamic university teachers, several heads of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice centers in the Kingdom, as well as some teachers at the Grand Mosque in Makkah and the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah signed the statement.
The statement said that the enemies of Islam are seeking to destroy the great role women have been given in Islam by corrupting them and hence corrupting the Islamic world.
It said the enemies of Islam have portrayed the image of Muslim women being without rights and having “a broken wing,” saying that their homes are prisons, their husbands mistreat them, and their hijabs are a sign of backwardness.
It said that they have come up with the terminology of “injustice for women” in our country and have used it in the media lately introducing the fact that they are not allowed to drive as a sign of injustice.
They also said in the statement that the ruling in Islam that “closing all doors leads to corruption” was clear and was for the protection of people and society. “Women driving cars is not permissible because the ruling of ‘closing doors that leads to corruption’ applies to it directly.”
The statement also said that those who say allowing women to drive would be beneficial in some ways forget the ruling in Islam that if the act derives more misdeeds, then it is ruled as not permissible.
The statement added that though it acknowledged that foreign drivers are an economic burden on the country, their presence does less damage than the economic burdens of allowing women to drive which are: The multi-ownership of cars in one family instead of just one being used by the driver; the replacement of a car by another one since women are known to like everything new and the burden of the government having to open special female sections in all Traffic Departments.
It concluded by saying that no Islamic scholar or good figure in society has called for women to drive and that all those who have been calling for them to drive are people who tend to damage the image of Islamic women.
One of the signatories, Sheikh Muhammad Al-Ghamdi, head of the Commission of the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice in Al-Mikhwah in Al-Baha region, said a group of righteous people approached him and other sheikhs in the region to include their signature to the statement.
“They showed us the statement and we read it and agreed with its contents. That is why we signed it,” he said. “I was told that the statement would be delivered to the leaders of our country. But I had no idea that it was posted on the Internet,” he added.
Another signatory, Dr. Khaled Al-Shamrani, head of the Justice Department in Umm Al-Qura University in Makkah, confirmed to Arab News that the statement released on the Internet was true.
He said he found himself obliged to sign it after, what he called, a media campaign supporting the idea of women driving got attention that it deserved.
The Interior Ministry did not comment on the statement.