Amidst a campaign to fight Saudi Arabia’s de facto rule that bans women from driving, a Saudi cleric said that women who drive risk negative physiological impacts that could damage their ovaries.
From Reuters:
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.
[…] 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”.
[…] “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.
It’s unclear precisely what medical evidence Sheikh Saleh bin Saad al-Lohaidan believes there is to support such claims, but Reuters reports that he did not cite any to support his arguments. He is reported to be a judicial adviser to an association of Gulf psychologists.
There is no specific law that bans women from driving, but they are not granted driver’s licenses in Saudi Arabia, according to the Reuters report.
In recent days, some have been organizing a campaign to defy the rule. On October 26th, many women plan to stage a demonstration and drive vehicles in an act of protest.
A petition at the Oct26driving.com website had already collected about 11,000 signatures late last week, as many women are hoping to bring more attention to the issue, according to CNN.
Women who want the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to lift a de facto ban that prohibits them from driving have launched an online campaign urging Saudi females to stage a demonstration by driving cars on October 26.
“There is no justification for the Saudi government to prohibit adult women citizens who are capable of driving cars from doing so,” reads part of an online petition on the Oct26driving.com website. Since Saturday, it has garnered close to 11,000 signatures.
In 2011, a Saudi women’s rights activist’s arrest sparked a similar action, as CNN summarizes.
In May 2011, prominent Saudi women’s rights activist Manal al-Sharif was arrested after uploading a video to YouTube that showed her driving in Saudi Arabia. She spent more than a week in jail and quickly became a hero to numerous women in her country and across the Middle East.
It was a sign of just how influential she had grown that on June 17, 2011, dozens of women across Saudi Arabia, emboldened and inspired by al-Sharif’s ordeal, participated in the “Women2Drive” campaign by getting behind the wheel, defying the ban, and driving throughout the streets of their cities.
At the time, Ms. Sharif also suffered significant pushback. The aforementioned YouTube video became inaccessible, as did a Facebook page she created called “Teach Me How to Drive So I Can Protect Myself.” Other things also occurred to make it seem as though she’d called off the campaign. But others saved the video and made replica accounts to keep the campaign alive.
CNN reports that some on the Oct26driving.com website have made reference to the 2011 campaign, as well as other similar prior actions, in imploring others to join on October 26th.
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Comments
Well, Islam must be doing something to the sexual mores of the people. After all, Google tells us that searches for “shemales” and “gay sex” come from predominantly Muslim countries.
Rather than diving in to homophobic attacks on Islamic countries, why not attack the absolute absurdity of: “women who drive risk damaging their ovaries and bearing children with clinical problems” whereas, therefore, presumably those that are “driven” do not?
I am not understanding your introducing gays and transgender in to a fight about men controlling women…
First of all, the word “homophobic” literally means, fear of self. I’m neither afraid of myself or of anyone with a different sexual orientation.
As for the “absurdity”, it all stems from Islam’s total approach to human sexuality. It begins with the total separation of the sexes beginning in childhood, which actually channels sexual curiosity into homosexual channels, especially for the boys. To prevent anything like this from happening to their women, they marry them off at nine and/or mutilate their genitals.
It’s all related. Only men with a totally fu*ked-up perception of women and sexuality can believe something so absurd. That perception is created by the institutional separation and insulation of the sexes from one another. It’s also created by a Fourth Century tribal religion trying to deal with advanced concepts such as the wheel.
Mustafa Kemal Attaturk was right about Islam being something dragged in by the desert Bedouins.
“which actually channels sexual curiosity into homosexual channels, especially for the boys”
I don’t know where you get your facts, but here in America the US military, my military school as a boy, many Catholic schools, etc… segregate the boys from the girls and have done so for as long as I can remember; and I am confident that they are not trying to promote homosexuality. No offense intended, truly!
“To prevent anything like this from happening to their women, they marry them off at nine and/or mutilate their genitals.”
Too broad. You are stating as fact that that is the rule in every Muslim country and occurs to all girls; that is just not true. As I understand it the practice is primarily in Africa. I haven’t seen anything related to Saudi Arabian girls. And in those African and Asian countries it is supported by the women, who see it as a source of honour and authority, and an essential part of raising a daughter well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_genital_mutilation
“In the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, it is practiced mainly among foreign workers from East Africa and the Nile Valley.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prevalence_of_female_genital_mutilation_by_country
Homosexuality is prohibited in Pakistan and all Muslim countries, so it should not be a shocker that the gay and transgender men and women would live a secret life, and use the internet because they cannot “come out” in public.
Maybe this will add a differing perspective, closer to reality:
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/06/14/homosexuality-not-tolerated-pakistan-google-searches-gay-porn_n_3440586.html
Views of homosexuality are particularly positive in Spain (88%), Germany (87%), Czech Republic (80%), Canada (80%), Australia (79%), France (77%), Britain (76%), Argentina (74%), Italy (74%) and Philippines (73%), the study found.
Nigeria (1%), Pakistan (2%), Tunisia (2%), Ghana (3%) and Senegal (3%) were among the countries were fewer than one-in-ten believe homosexuality should be accepted by society.
“Farahnaz Ispahani, an expert in Pakistani minorities and former member of Pakistan’s parliament, who says persecution of gays has hit an all time high.”
“Religious extremism is at a height today. Hindus are being forced to convert, Christians are being burned alive – there’s very little personal safety for those seen as ‘the other’.”
“So what do [gay Pakistanis] do? They turn to pornography because they can’t live their lives openly.”
Again, no offense to you, just additional information and perspective.
To equate anything in US or western culture with radical Islam is idiotic. Of course, this is an Internet argument, so I guess any extrapolation or connection is fair game.
I also presume you’ve never traveled or been in Muslim countries to any extent. While homosexuality is persecuted and prosecuted, it is rampant. Muslims persecute homosexuals for the same reason the French persecuted collaborating women.
So… Step away from the keyboard and out into the light of day. Spend some time actually doing things and then tell me how things are. I suggest you’ll know exactly what I mean.
Now, for proprieties’ sake, we’ll declare you the winner of this Internet debate. Step up, take your trophy and feel whole.
-30-
As far as Muslim countries, I have only been to Singapore and Malaysia, also France (a little sarcasm) but… I will not go to Africa nor the Middle East and I will throw an absolute fit if one of my daughters talks about going!
You are right about stepping out in to the light Trooper, I do need to get out in to the light and cut the grass sometime before this day is over – Dammit! First my wife and now you?
Stop citing drivel and google this: “in Kandahar birds fly with one wing”. Go find out about the rampant homosexuality and lesbianism in schools in Saudi Arabia. That will put to rest the whole nonsense about homosexuality being forbidden in Islamic countries. There is no society more homosexual than an Islamic one.It’s one thing to have segregated schooling for boys and girls; it’s another thing to have a totally segregated society.
Trooper,
Be careful on responding to these people. Soros has cranked up the social engineering bunch with the latest “crisis” and a number of them are hitting conservative sites to disseminate a very subtle leftist message to preaching overt Democratic talking points. They are worse than the trolls. Plus, the Muslims are out as well and have messages that their great religion is so loving.
“Conspiracy Theory” with Mel Gibson! I loved that movie!
Good effort driveby,
The use of the term “conspiracy” to set that subconscious image of one who rants about imagined injury and plots. Then linking that to Mel who is viewed by the liberal faction as crazy.
In fact, your response validates my concerns. How much do you get paid for social engineering?
Driving can damage women’s ovaries …
… and stoning can ruin their looks.
Not to mention totally ruining their day.
Wearing Burkhas while driving could be considered a danger, since vision is very obstructed as well. /sarc
My source was on this:
http://weaselzippers.us/2013/09/29/saudi-cleric-warns-women-not-to-drive-because-it-will-damage-their-ovaries-and-pelvises/
Get a chance check out the PIC that goes with it, to which I posted:
HA! Says A famed and noted Doctor of Female genital mutilation (FGM)..
and added:
Umm, hey ‘Doc Islammie’ could it be that the ENTIRE BODY MASKS you force women to wear, is/are (pick one)MORE of A potential problem, you little 7th Century thinkers?
I have a 90 mile commute to one of my offices that I make twice a week, usually at peak hours. So, I am afraid I have to agree with the Muslims on women driving. Between them putting on make up while going 70 miles an hour to talking and texting on their phones, I am lucky to be alive.
Besides, many liberal women support the religion of peace, so lets endorse some of their policies and see how long it takes for them to be so charitable.
All this shows is that we women can multitask under any and all conditions, even at high speed. It’s all part of the mom gene, keeping an eye on the kid while doing other complex and dangerous things, like baking from scratch.
How many pileups are caused by women? Not too many, said she, without looking at the stats!
Look at the stats, I am afraid that even women have issue with “multi tasking” at high speed.
Why would a Muslim cleric lie about how driving adversely affects a woman’s ovaries. Surely not to “control” their womenfolk as some have suggested. After all, these are holy men and they are only allowed to lie to infidels. Since there is no justification to lie to another Muslim, Sheikh Saleh bin Saad al-Lohaidan should declare his assertion a Fatwa. For those who don’t know what a Fatwa is, it is a learned judgment that holy man can pull out of his butt and it becomes religious law for the devout. Nice, huh?
Little Jack Horner School of Fatwas.
I wonder what the status of this jerk really is? He may not be able to issue a fatwa. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks and such embarrassments as the Bin Laden “fatwa,” the eight real schools of Islam got together and declared that fatwas could only be issued by persons with the appropriate credentials from one of the eight schools. This guy was originally identified as such a person, but correction has been made. So, now we know he’s not the prominent guy some people once thought, but we don’t know who he is, or his status.
http://theglamourwire.com/saudi-arabian-cleric-says-female-drivers-risk-damaging-ovaries/
Also, the head of the morality police in Saudi Arabia has told Reuters that there is no text in the documents making up sharia law that bars women from driving.
THere may not be, but in Saudi women are prohibited from going out without a male member of their family and are prohibited from moving around solo. The no driving rule is likely there to make sure the koranic rule stays in place, the one about the idiot woman needing a man’s guidance because she is soft in the head and not a whole person like a man.
The idiot barbarian has it all backwards, as usual.
Ovaries damage motor vehicles, not the other way around.
As one who has been accused of placing Rosaries on ovaries, I’m eagerly awaiting the feminazi retort, “Get your fatwas off my ovaries.”
Still trying to figure out why driving would “damage” internal organs like ovaries and yet leave external organs like testicles unharmed ~
But then again, some Muslims believe the Koran teaches that Mohammed split the moon, so it seems their grasp on science and/or biology leaves a lot to be desired…
It would damage ovaries because ovaries are not pendent and elastic like balls are. That’s why they’re called balls cuz they bounce when the road is really bad; they’re flexible that way, so no need to worry about them.
Ovaries, on the other hand, are stationary, rigid, fixed, held in place by something that could slide out of place or break resulting in the entire plumbing sliding out and causing the child, which might be in the womb, to suffer all manner of physiological and psychological problems.
Life would be much better and women would be able to drive safely if ovaries were like balls.
Let’s check with scientific authorities.
Hey AlGore is the science settled?
Heck, now I know why I have no kids. It’s not about celibacy. It’s about driving. Damn cars!
“It’s unclear precisely what medical evidence Sheikh Saleh bin Saad al-Lohaidan believes there is to support such claims”
Sheikh Saleh bin Saad al-Lohaidan has a long personal history that is relevant to his observations on rotation of the pelvis, from his decades of self examination of his own rectum. He has demonstrated extraordinary flexibility in his research. It is this research that has revealed his own observations of rotation of the pelvis, far in excess of what might be observed in females who drive. It obviously cuts off circulation to the testes, brain, and theoretically, by projection, to the ovaries. I say, by projection, because I have heard no evidence that he is an hermaphrodite. If he wants to submit such, we could take his testimony as authoritative.
This is absolutely true.
Every time I am in a car driven by a woman, her ovaries explode, spraying ovary all over the dashboard, windshield and my clothes. Enough already.
Perhaps this brave Saudi prince will be the first to expose how cooking, cleaning and child-care work causes negative physiological impacts on a man’s prostate.
I drove a LOT during my first marriage,and had 7 children with my first husband. If my ovaries WERE damaged,that might have been a good thing, or we might’ve ended up with FOURTEEN. HA! Just goes to show the ignorance of many of the spokesmen for the “religion of peace”.
Toldja it was the driving!
Of course this is abysmally stupid. There are some practices which actually cause physiological damage to Muslim women’s children. The first is the very common practice of marrying first cousins. The price of this is a much higher rate of congenital abnormalities. The second is the habit of Muslim women to perform the Ramadan fast while pregnant and nursing babies. The “fast” consists of no food or water from dawn to dusk, followed by rich food in the evening, for twenty-eight days straight. Along with the inbreeding, this can cause congenital problems.