Needless to say, her actions did not sit well with the Saudi authorities, who arrested and jailed her. A wave of public support for her case followed, although a counter-movement also arose on Facebook that advocated punishing women drivers.
Now the uppity driver has been released from jail, although she had to recant and grovel to the House of Saud to earn her “freedom”. Saudi women’s prisons, with their all-male guards, are probably not the most hospitable of environments for a middle-class professional woman. And, since the prisoner was a divorced mother, and therefore not a virgin, she could not be sexually assaulted while in custody. Whatever might happen to her inside, it couldn't possibly be called rape.
So she groveled and got out. According to ANSAmed:
Saudi Arabia: Female Driver Released, Stated Her Repentance
(ANSAmed) — Rome, May 31 — Manal Al Sharif, the Saudi mother who was arrested on May 21 after being filmed at the wheel and publicly challenging the regime on the ban on female drivers, was released by the police of Alkhobar, her home city. However she had to pay a heavy price: in effect, according to a report by Arab News, Manal promised that she will not join the demonstration of Saudi female drivers that she had personally called for June 17, and officially excused herself for breaking the law. Manal retracted her statements in a letter addressed to king Abdullah, Custodian of the two Sacred Mosques.
Manal’s case and, along with hers, the case of a group of Saudi women determined to gain the right to drive ended up on papers and websites all over the world. The woman, who became the symbol of the revolt against the too many bans imposed in the name of an ultraconservative Islam, had been renamed the Saudi ‘Rosa Parks’, in homage to the famous black lady who, by refusing to give up her seat to a white man, started off the battle for racial equality in the United States in the 1950s.
Manal, age 32, divorced with a child, works as an IT expert with Saudi Aramco. Within the ample premises of the oil company women are allowed to drive, but they cannot go out, which Manala instead did to take her child to school. On Youtube she explained that she had no choice, insofar as she lacked the money to hire a driver.
During her stay in jail more than 3,000 Saudi citizens signed an appeal to ask the king to set her free and to make a clear decision on the women’s right to drive. On her Facebook page, Manal received some 25,000 messages expressing support and solidarity. However, on the other hand the Saudi ultraconservatives launched a campaign against June 17, inviting men to take to the streets and beat any females caught driving a car.
It seems likely that the “Beat Those Uppity Women” movement has been given a real boost by Manal’s repentance and recantation. Now that she is safely in her place, the pious males of the Kingdom can concentrate on sending the rest of their recalcitrant wives and daughters back into the kitchen to rattle them pots and pans.
Hat tip: Insubria.
7 comments:
since our female troops cannot drive in suadi a either- I think it is time for the DoD and DoS take a stand-
Women drive or ...
no more US $$$$-
and-Oh- How about drilling for our own oil-then the saudis get NADA from us in the US!
Muslim treatment of women would be considered an abomination if done in any western culture. In Islam, it is merely a "cultural practice." Nonsense to all of you multi-culti's out there, If you aren't anti shairah for that alone, you lack the ability to feel.
A friend of mine years ago had to flee Saudi Arabia with her daughter who had been raped. The daughter was to have been whipped with 50 lashes for the crime of being a rape victim. Thanks Baron, keep pointing out these barbaric practices.
I have long ago given up hope in any "reform" among Muslims against their Islam.
The fact that every one of these female Muslim drivers continues to revere Mohammed, the Koran and Allah is enough (or should be enough) to despair, not to hope. The fall of the Communist Wall, I'm afraid, is about as good as it gets, historico-miraculous-wise. There's always an exception: and Islam is the Eternal, Implacable Exception.
Hesperado: There's always an exception: and Islam is the Eternal, Implacable Exception.
I continue wondering how long it will take the world to realize that Islam's self-anointed exceptionalism ― such as its inability to coexist and propensity for genocide ― will likely require a wholesale exception upon our own part with respect to the West's usual feelings of humanity and decency in wartime conflicts.
Everywhere, Islam sows the seeds of annihilation, most especially its own.
I wish Islam would annihilate itself. Unfortunately, it annihilates others. The whole of North Africa used to be Christian until wholesale massacres of men, women and children cowed the survivors into 'reverting' to Islam. The extermination of Islam is a rising priority in the world.
Matthew: I wish Islam would annihilate itself. Unfortunately, it annihilates others.
It will, sooner or later. Just not soon enough to avert irreparable and catastrophic damage to Western civilization. Unfortunately, in this case, patience is NOT a virtue. Recall Wretchard's prophetic prediction in his magnum opus "The Three Conjectures":
The most startling result of this analysis is that a catastrophic outcome for Islam is guaranteed whether America retaliates or not. Even if the President decided to let all Americans die to expiate their historical guilt, why would Islamic terrorists stop after that? They would move on to Europe and Asia until finally China, Russia, Japan, India or Israel, none of them squeamish, wrote -1 x 10^9 in the final right hand column. They too would be prisoners of the same dynamic, and they too have weapons of mass destruction.
Even if Islam killed every non-Muslim on earth they would almost certainly continue to kill each other with their new-found weaponry. Revenge bombings between rival groups and wars between different Islamic factions are the recurring theme of history. Long before 3,000 New Yorkers died on September 11, Iraq and Iran killed 500,000 Muslims between them. The greatest threat to Muslims is radical Islam; and the greatest threat of all is a radical Islam armed with weapons of mass destruction.
Note: Anyone who has not already read this seminal piece is urged to do so on the strongest possible terms. It is required reading for all who participate in the Counter-Jihad movement.
The only problem with taking a "wait and see" attitude is that Islam will take significant portions of Western civilization down with it as Muslims descend into new and unfathomable depths of chaos that are achievable only with nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.
The extermination of Islam is a rising priority in the world.
Congratulations, you have made the quantum leap which a huge majority of Western minds still refuse to make.
Islam is not just incompatible with Western culture, it is a lethal predator whose venom is fatally toxic to all civilized life.
Most modern minds recoil in horror when obliged to consider the "extermination of Islam". Little do they know or even remotely comprehend that Islam is Hell bent on exterminating all other social constructs in what I term as Global Cultural Genocide™.
All that remains to be seen is how many major Western cities will have to be vaporized before free people are galvanized into eliminating, for once and all time, the threat of Islam.
Zenster said... "Islam's self-anointed exceptionalism"
Indeed.
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