SAUDI ARABIA: Women threaten to breastfeed drivers if they aren't allowed to drive

Many were stunned when Saudi cleric Sheik Abdel Mohsen Obeikan recently issued a fatwa, or Islamic ruling, calling on women to give breast milk to their male colleagues or men they come into regular contact with so as to avoid illicit mixing between the sexes.

But a group of Saudi women has taken the controversial decree a step further in a new campaign to gain the right to drive in the ultra-conservative kingdom, media reports say.

If they're not granted the right to drive, the women are threatening to breastfeed their drivers to establish a symbolic maternal bond.

"Is this is all that is left to us to do: to give our breasts to the foreign drivers?" a Saudi woman named Fatima Shammary was quoted as saying by Gulf News.

Obeikan argued in his decree that if the women give their drivers their breast milk, the chauffeurs would be able to mingle with all members of the family without having to worry about violating Islamic law. Some Islamic scholars frown on the mixing of unmarried men and women. Islamic tradition, or hadith, stipulates that breastfeeding establishes a maternal bond, even if a woman breastfeeds a child who is not her own.

Drawing from the cleric's advocacy, the women have reportedly chosen a slogan for their campaign that translates to, "We either be allowed to drive or breastfeed foreigners."

The current driving ban applies to all women in Saudi Arabia, regardless of their nationality, and it's been a topic of heated public debate in recent years.

The ban on driving was unofficial at first but was introduced as official legislation after 47 Saudi women drove cars through the streets of the Saudi capital, Riyadh, in 1990 in an attempt to challenge authorities.

The incident brought harsh consequences for the women, who were jailed for a day and had their passports confiscated. Many of them were said to have been forced to leave their jobs after the driving protest.

Still, every now and then, reports of Saudi women driving in defiance of the ban emerge in the media.

Two years ago, 125 women in Saudi Arabia signed a petition that called on the Saudi interior minister to lift the ban.

One of the Saudi female signatories, Wajeha Huwaider, posted a video of herself driving on YouTube in a direct appeal to the Saudi authorities to allow women to drive.

"For women to drive is not a political issue," Wajeha said as she sat behind the wheel. "It is not a religious issue. It is a social issue, and we know that many women of our society are capable of driving cars. We also know that many families will allow their women to drive." 

-- Alexandra Sandels, in Beirut

Photo: Saudi women look under the hood of a new car at a showroom in Riyadh, where women sell cars to female buyers. Women can still own cars in Saudi Arabia, but they are banned from driving them. Credit: Associated Press

Comments

[Puh-leeese]

That wretched country is an effing armpit.

[thegiggletest]

"Not allowing a mother to breast feed her own child? Anywhere she wants? Are the Saudis EVER going to get with the Current Times? Its already the 21st Century yet they are still back in the Stone Age treating women like animals and, incomprehensibly, women allow them to. Whatever it is that's holding women back, they need to get these jerky winky dinky scaredy cat men in line and abreast of modern-day REALITY. Or maybe the men can start having their own babies!

Posted by: Emily Dubois | June 22, 2010 at 12:56 PM"

As long as we're subsiziding their economies by buying their oil, this is the price that we're going to pay. That's the modern-day reality. Energy independence on the part of the West is the long term answer because only when these states literally go bankrupt will things change.

[Lars And]

Please burn that awful book (the Quran)!!!

[Hijazi]

If they are not comfortable to give their Milk to foreigners then milk sauidi drivers and I am sure by the noon they need a refill . LOL LOL MILK ME MAMMY

[TheIdahoKid]

Come on Obama, your part Muslim, get the (censored) storm started, ban women from driving in the US of A

[Linda S.]

Emilia X., I think youareuniquelikeeveryoneelse is asking why it's illegal for women to drive in Saudi Arabia. I've wondered that, too. I appreciate your explanation about breastfeeding and adoption - I learned something new!

[Religions are dumb]

This is udderly ridiculous.

[WriterWriter]

So, they're trying to find a way AROUND their ridiculous (as ridiculous as the Christian/Jewish 'bible') texts? My head is pounding from how STUPID religion is...

Instead of find a way around, why don't these people - all religious people - just admit that the tribal imaginings of their forebears have no truth, first of all, but secondly and importantly, no place AT ALL in a modern society.

Fer shite's sake! They banned women from driving so they wouldn't protest? And now these weirdo 'clerics' want to decide who Saudi women provide their breasts to??? And Muslim people are just sitting back and going , "Yeah, that all makes sense?"

Unbelievable.

[hf2hvit]

The muslims may be nuts but the US christians are right behind them! RELIGION KILLS!

[Emilia X]

Dear youareuniquelikeeveryoneelse,

The Quran says that if a woman breastfeeds a CHILD that is not her own, then she becomes like a mother to that child and her children like siblings to that child. The current clerics--clearly suffering from "group think"--have perverted G-d's law of mercy for children (primarily orphans, as this was basically a temporary or permanent adoption of the CHILD) and completely twisted it out of context, and have even brought down the prized ideal of modesty with it. In short, they have clearly made an extraordinarily stupid decision and brought shame to the name of Islam. Like we need more of that these days!

~Emilia X (a Muslim woman)

[Kiljoy616]

I guess the clerics had breast in their mind all day when they started pushing their illogical believes on others. Religion trumps common sense as always.

Primitive as always.

As for if this is in the Koran, like any religious text that makes no sense to normal people it probably is not there directly but can be infer by just throwing away any common sense. All religious text can be interpret any way you want.

[pril]

Emily, I think you should read the whole article.

[BOB]

Wow, Emily Dubois! You have the reading comprehension of a turtle. Neither article is about the right of a woman to breastfeed her own child. One is about a cleric calling for women to give breast-milk to men in order to "make them family" and therefore get around Islamic law that says women and men who are not related cannot mingle together.
The other story is about women threatening to give breast milk to foreigners, thereby making the foreigners "family" in the eyes of Islam. This is a threat because Islamic authorities would not like Saudi women to mingle with foreigners. This threat is being proposed because women in Saudi Arabia want the right to drive.
Nothing in either article has anything at all to do with preventing Islamic women from breastfeeding their children. That's only a problem sometimes here in America (public indecency laws).

[Fedup]

Well i sure wouldn't resist free All Natural Vitamin D milk after eating a piece of Arabian Baklava thats for sure! "Got Milk?"

[youareuniquelikeeveryoneelse]

Where do Saudi's come up with these idiotic rules? Is this some made up BS ruling or something that is actually in the Koran? Unbelievable.

[John]

They will never move out of the Stone Age. They can pretend how sophisticated and modern their society is, how great their religion is, but in the end, it's nothing more than men who is scared of women. My friend who fought in the Gulf War told me that men over there are the biggest closeted gays he's ever known.

[Kim]

Emily, do you have any idea what this article is about? This is about a fatwa allowing women to give breastmilk to non-related men so that they may mingle with them and skirt around the ban of allowing unrelated men and women to socialize. These women are threatening to flout this law unless they are permitted to drive on their own.

[MissMarple]

It isn't just Arabian women. The fatwa about breast feeding was first made by and Egyptian, and another by an Iranian. The Prophet never intended anything like this. This is a Control issue. The Prophet told people to be moderate in their dress, that is all. He never said that a woman could not wear what was then, modern dress. He never intended that women be crippled; he said they were equal.

Good for these Arabian women. I hope as many men support them, as have the courage of women.

[Emily Dubois]

Not allowing a mother to breast feed her own child? Anywhere she wants? Are the Saudis EVER going to get with the Current Times? Its already the 21st Century yet they are still back in the Stone Age treating women like animals and, incomprehensibly, women allow them to. Whatever it is that's holding women back, they need to get these jerky winky dinky scaredy cat men in line and abreast of modern-day REALITY. Or maybe the men can start having their own babies!