Saudi cleric says women who drive risk damaging their ovaries.


  A conservative Saudi Arabian cleric has said women who drive risk damaging their ovaries and bearing children with clinical problems, countering activists who are trying to end the Islamic kingdom's male-only driving rules.

A campaign calling for women to defy the ban in a protest drive on October 26 has spread rapidly online over the past week and gained support from some prominent women activists. On Sunday, the campaign's website was blocked inside the kingdom.
In an interview published on Friday on the website sabq.org, Sheikh Saleh bin Saad al-Lohaidan said women aiming to overturn the ban on driving should put "reason ahead of their hearts, emotions and passions".

Reuters earlier wrongly identified him as Sheikh Saleh bin Mohammed al-Lohaidan, a member of the Senior Council of Scholars, one of the top religious bodies in the birthplace of Islam.

By contrast, Sheikh Saleh bin Saad al-Lohaidan, the person quoted in the sabq.org report, is a judicial adviser to an association of Gulf psychologists.

His comments reflect the extent of opposition to women driving among some conservatives in Saudi Arabia.

"If a woman drives a car, not out of pure necessity, that could have negative physiological impacts as functional and physiological medical studies show that it automatically affects the ovaries and pushes the pelvis upwards," he told Sabq.

"That is why we find those who regularly drive have children with clinical problems of varying degrees," he said.

He did not cite specific medical studies to support his arguments.

The ban on women driving is not backed by a specific law, but only men are granted driving licenses. Women can be fined for driving without a license but have also been detained and put on trial in the past on charges of political protest.

Sheikh Abdulatif Al al-Sheikh, the head of the morality police, told Reuters a week ago that there was no text in the documents making up sharia, or Islamic law, that barred women from driving.

King Abdullah has pushed some cautious reforms aimed at expanding women's freedoms in Saudi Arabia, including opening more employment opportunities for them, but he has not addressed the issue of driving.

(Reporting by Angus McDowall; Editing by William Maclean and Kevin Liffey)

Sprintcyclist wrote on Oct 12^th, 2013 at 4:35am:


So this has nothing to do with Islam. Perhaps that is why in the other 50 Muslim countries women are allowed to drive.

Sprintcyclist wrote on Oct 12^th, 2013 at 4:35am:


So this has nothing to do with Islam. Perhaps that is why in the other 50 Muslim countries women are allowed to drive.

|dev|null wrote on Oct 12^th, 2013 at 11:30am:
Why? Because it's true that many muslim fathers don't allow their daughters to drive.

|dev|null wrote on Oct 12^th, 2013 at 11:35am:

Planet earth. This is from Wikipedia. Travel and Movement For women In Islam.

Sheikh Ayed Al-Qarni, a Saudi Islamic scholar, has said that neither the Quran nor the sunnah prohibits women from driving and that it is better for a woman to drive herself than to be driven by a stranger without a legal escort.[96] He also stated, however, that he "personally will not allow [his] wife or daughters or sisters to drive."[96]

Big Dave wrote on Oct 12^th, 2013 at 11:49am:


And his authority to make such a statement is?   

Big Dave wrote on Oct 12^th, 2013 at 11:55am:



Depends on which Islam you're talking about.  You do realise that there is no central authority in Islam?   Every individual speaks for them self.  If others choose to follow that view, it's an individual choice.   The Western Media and Islamophobes can't seem to grasp that concept.   Some Muslims may believe this fellow, others don't.   There are effectively nearly as many different interpretations of Islam as there are Muslims!   

Yes, there is a lot of sexism among many Muslims but equally, there are many Muslims who aren't sexist.   The more traditional their viewpoint, obviously the more sexist they are.   Rather like how traditional Christians/Hindus/etc. treat women.  So, it's not as if it's an isolated problem.   The Christian Brotherhood treats women like baby-making machines - barefoot, preferrably pregnant and obviously in the kitchen!   

FLOGGING, amputation and death by stoning will be added to Brunei's penal code next year as the oil-rich and increasingly conservative Islamic kingdom applies the strictures of Sharia. The legal shift, to which Brunei has been moving inexorably for several years, was announced by the Sultan, Hassanal Bolkiah. - See more at: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/sultan-of-brunei-puts-flogging-stoning-on-the-statute-book/story-fnb64oi6-1226745083176#sthash.O4GH8ooG.dpuf