deer
October 4th, 2017
Prompted by Saudi Arabia’s announcement that they’ll let women drive – don’t get too excited.
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How exactly do they look (?) angry, dear Author?
@European, I’m sure it’s all in the body language.
i like to think that author evokes swarm behaviour as an analogy for religion.
Body language, sure, but you can also see anger in eyes. Jesus must have used his telescopic vision to see the eyes of the burka-clad people from a distance.
Oh, wait, no …. I confused Jesus with Superman. Never mind.
Anyway, the important thing is that Mo can’t even see whether they’re coming toward the car. So … hmmm… you shouldn’t drive while wearing a burka?
Technically, since it’s Saudi Arabia, she is wearing a hijab and niqab to cover her hair and face, not a burka. In 2008, I predicted it would take another 15 years or so before women would be allowed to drive, that is, close to a generation. Thankfully, it looks like I underestimated.
An angry look from a burka wearer?
Uniform of sisters of terror
They always look mad
They wear a glad bag
Oft mistaken for trash, not an error.
It might be the knives and guns that make them look angry.
Although this is certainly great news, it does present a certain logistical challenge: the streets of Saudi Arabia are apparently already in a state of semi-permanent gridlock. Unleashing millions of learner drivers on roads like that seems like it could create interesting situations.
However, given that every single other country has managed it, they’ll have to just suck it up.
A related news item:
https://www.autobahn.eu/5808/autofabrikanten-duiken-massaal-op-saoedi-vrouwen/
(sorry, I only have a reference in Dutch)
Car merchants are targeting SA women like crazy: about 10 million, on average very rich, potential new clients.
And the first wave will undoubtably be the biggest….
Lots of Saudi women can drive already and do so in other countries, so probably many fewer learners than we might expect. It depends if they recognise driving licences already passed in other countries and just accept without any extra requirements. Most european countries do this for a selection of other nationalities.
“They look angry” hahahaha.
JDK:
I agree.
And in the light of the laws regarding unsupervised mixed-sex togetherness, I expect male driving instructors next to female driving students to be problematic. Even with a male relative present, because in a driving school car (afaik) the instructor needs to occupy the passenger seat with the extra pedals, ie, next to the pupil.
And I somehow have a hard time seeing the few SA women-with-licence working many hours as instructor.
So, expect many well-paying offers for capable female driving instructors from outside SA!!
Jesus, take the wheel!
My experience with Saudi traffic over two years (from the safe vantage of a cab) is that while it certainly looks helter-skelter, there seem to be fewer accidents than the tightly regulated freeways and other roadways of the U.S.
The real problems that I identified, in my own thinking anyway, are not those of training a cadre of new drivers but rather the profound new liberty and freedom of moving around the city and countryside that it gives women, along with the lack of direct supervision by a mahram (allowable escort) or cabbie.
This opens up job opportunities as well as opportunities for all sorts of Western-style mischief that one can get into when no one is tracking your movements. In short, it’s nothing short of a gender revolution.
This strip reminded me of “Keeping Up Appearances” with Jesus as Hyacinth and Mo as Richard!
This explains all those “Jesus Is My Co-Pilot” bumper stickers you see in the USA.
@jveeds,
Worth noting that Saudi roads are 2.5x as lethal as American ones though (27.4 deaths per 100,000 people vs 10.6; and that 10.6 is high compared to Canada or Europe).
Given that female drivers generally have a better safety record, hopefully they may calm things down.
Don’t put ideas in their empty heads.Now they’ll use burqa clad women to run over pedestrians and then claim they are poor women drivers, not terrorists!