Gail Gottlieb on Politics: Driven to Distraction

With the summer driving season now upon us, we complain about traffic jams and endless hours behind the wheel, but think of the women of Saudi Arabia, who as a result of a decades-old religious ruling are prohibited from driving at all. If you think this has a negative effect only on women, consider that many Saudi men spend hours—day in, day out—chauffeuring wives, mothers, and sisters to and from jobs, shops, and schools. Here we have both an affront to the rights and dignity of women and a disgraceful squandering of men’s time.

Change may be coming. Human rights advocates from around the world have been heartened by the relatively non-confrontational campaign of Saudi women and their allies to bring a bit of enlightenment to one of the most politically, socially, and religiously intolerant nations on the planet—and, in fact, the only country to impose a driving ban on women.

Of course, Saudi Arabia is hardly the only country in the region ruled by a tyrannical regime, and the United States does often take a leadership role in defending human rights abroad. Nonetheless, America is often exasperatingly reluctant to offer more than tepid support of women’s rights. This is especially true when doing so might jeopardize America’s supply of imported oil—the life blood of its car-dependent culture. Our addiction to oil simply distracts us from fundamental principles, such as gender equality. One case in point: the brave Saudi women activists who last month wrote an open letter calling on the U.S. government to support their campaign to drive are still awaiting a response. And last week, the Saudi labor ministry piled on by issuing a new list of professions from which women are barred. The silence from our State Department is more deafening than any roar of traffic.

Saudi Arabia is by far the region’s greatest supplier of the petroleum needed to maintain America’s love affair with driving. While European governments steer their transportation systems away from reliance on privately owned vehicles, we cling to our car keys, road projects, and troubled auto industry—and to a repressive, oil-rich Middle Eastern kingdom that denies half of its adult population the simple right to drive. Perhaps the Saudi women’s driving problem has more to do with America’s driving problem than we care to acknowledge.