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Muslim women barred from driving cars

Student’s Name

Intuitional Affiliation

Prejudice, Discrimination, Power, and Privilege

Over the past generations dramatic social and legal changes have been pursued to pave the way for women’s acceptance today; changes such as affirmative action, reproductive rights, abortion, and the pursuit of higher education. Generations of women have come together to help build stronger ground to address women’s rights by participating in civil rights meetings, petition drives, lobbying, public speaking and non-violent resistance acts. Women have also overcome hardships such as rejection, isolation, discrimination, and unfair treatment in the workforce. In today’s society women now have more opportunities then ever before such as involvement in social clubs, career advancement, as well as being able to run for public office. In contrast women have faced inequalities with issues pertaining to the workplace, sports, and pregnancy. In many positions in which women hold the same titles as males they are typically offered less compensation then their male counterparts. The sporting arena, for example, is set up to be a male dominated event. Specifically in terms of sports such as basketball and tennis with players such as Venus and Serena Williams are not equally compensated financially compared to male players. Women are also not treated fairly when they are pregnant and in the workforce. Throughout history women have been frowned upon due to having to leave the workforce because of pregnancy and wanting to care for the child. Muslim women like any other women have the right to be treated equally and the right to exercise their religious beliefs and freedom without prejudice and discrimination. This; however; has not been the case as many Muslim women have undergone and are still undergoing ethnic; racial, gender, and religious discrimination harassment and discrimination. A good example of this discrimination has been seen in Saudi Arabia where for a very long time women have been barred from legally driving or acquiring driving licenses. This is one of the cultural discrimination that has been to bring a great dilemma to the rights and freedom of Muslim women as a cultural group. This cultural dilemma has resulted in many women activist being jailed for championing for the right of Muslim women to drive.

The Muslim and Arab women have been among the most discussed subjects in the Western parties for the last centuries. The veil and oppression of the Arab and Muslim women have been one of the most discussed topics at present than it was before the pre-colonial and immediately after the post-colonial period. Women from the Muslim and Arab cultures who live in the Western countries often engage in the issue of the veil. Once it is know that they are from the Muslim culture, the veil becomes the only prominent topic of discussion. This topic is everywhere in the Laundromat, train, universities or even at parties. The knowledge between those who discusses this varies, some of them show some ignorance on the Muslim and Arab societies, others base their claims on the experiences they had on their travels to the Muslim and Arab societies and others refer their claims to the films and books. All of them regardless of their evidence will adamantly admit that women in the Muslim and Arab societies had rough times in their societies

Although there was a historic move by Saudi Arabian government that gave women the right to drive, the fact is that Muslim women in Saudi Arabia are still under repressive laws that restrict them from making many formal decisions without seeking permission from their male counterparts or relatives (Thorsen, & Sreedharan 2019). Despite this complication, many Muslim women have come out to take driving schools and many driving licenses have been issued to qualified ones. Car manufacturing companies have also joined the campaigns that target Saudi women, and this could mean a positive step towards fighting against discrimination and prejudice against Saudi Muslim women.

Muslim women especially those from Saudi have powers and privileges especially from some of laws, international community, and human rights activists. During the year 2017 king Salman offered some royal decrees that lifted some of the restrictions and laws that barred women from driving, owning business, mixing with opposite sexes in public and attending sporting arenas. Some women are aware of these privileges and have come out even to share their videos behind wheels. Early in 2019, a top general in Saudi government said over 70000 women had been issued with licenses to drive. Many women however are not aware or are afraid to exercise these privileges because other abuses and guardianship laws still overshadow these privileges. Human rights activists for example the women by the name Loujain al-Hathloul, who championed for the right to allow women drive, is still in jail. Women who go against their guardians directives are subject to arrest on the charges of disobedience. This type of discrimination that barred Saudi women from driving can considered as overt because it originates from an Islamic law called wahhabism that is only acceptable among the Muslims that dictates that every woman must have a male guardian and that they cannot travel without who can drive her (Al-Asfour et al., 2017). The fact that it is acceptable by the Islamic religion only and not the society as a whole’ makes it an overt discrimination against Muslim women.

The application of prejudice, discrimination, power, and privilege has a negative impact on the African American culture. Recent studies have explained how police violation and killings have had a negative impact on the mental health of African Americans even those who are not directly involved in incidents like these but because of the diversity the young black men and women when being pulled over for a simple traffic violation is in fear of losing their lives (Smith College, 2016).

These discriminations on muslin women have many impacts on lives of Saudi women in various aspects. In terms of goods and services most of these Muslim women have no direct access without consulting their guardian. They cannot make decisions of their own in terms of goods and services they desire to acquire. Although human rights are making steps to ensure that Muslim women also ascend to positions of power and leadership, it still a being challenge especially Saudi Arabia because of the culture only allows men to in these positions of power. Women who make attempts to go against these cultural beliefs are arrested and jailed because they are considered to be law breakers. Very few Muslims women have access to education and other societal structures. The main reasons being fear of infringements, like harassment, threats, and assaults from others students in schools. Their lives have remained under the power and control of men within their society.

References

Los Angeles Times, (2019).

Thorsen, E., & Sreedharan, C. (2019). # EndMaleGuardianship: Women’s rights, social media and the Arab public sphere. New Media & Society, 21(5), 1121-1140.

Al-Asfour, A., Tlaiss, H. A., Khan, S. A., & Rajasekar, J. (2017). Saudi women’s work challenges and barriers to career advancement. Career Development International, 22(2), 184-199.