Saudi Arabia has some of the world’s tightest restrictions on women—they aren’t even allowed to drive.
But a billionaire Saudi prince is pushing to lift the ban because, he says, it exceeds the limits of religion.
Alwaleed bin Talal took to Twitter:
Talal is an “unusually outspoken member of the Saudi royal family,” says the Guardian, but he doesn’t have any official political powers.
The link in Talal’s tweet goes to a statement that outlines reasons Saudis should lift the ban on women’s driving. Among the reasons, Talal claims that the ban goes further than precepts of Islam allow. The statement says:
Preventing a woman from driving a car is today an issue of rights similar to the one that forbade her from receiving an education or having an independent identity. They are all unjust acts by a traditional society, far more restrictive than what is lawfully allowed by the precepts of religion.
The likelihood of this idea gaining traction appears to be slim, but it’s a start.
