Word: saudi
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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With hundreds of thousands of American troops stationed in the country, both U.S. and Saudi officials have been nervously watching for signs of a culture clash. So far, the tensions have been minimal. But the growing Western presence has emboldened a clutch of Saudi women to test the mood for change. At first authorities downplayed the challenge, but last week Riyadh switched signals and made clear that even mild protests would not be tolerated...
...controversy centers on a seemingly minor issue: Should Saudi women be allowed to drive their own cars? Two weeks ago, 47 women, most of whom had obtained a driver's license while living abroad, gathered in a supermarket parking lot, dismissed their chauffeurs and then drove themselves in an orderly procession through downtown Riyadh...
...suspended from their jobs as professors at King Saud University in Riyadh after organized bands of students staged angry protests. "Not one of my students understood what I was trying to accomplish," said a stunned victim. Leaflets passed out at mosques during Friday prayers accused the women of undermining Saudi morality and, worst of all, showing signs of "American secularism." The women's names, phone numbers and addresses were printed and distributed. Menacing telephone calls followed. Says a friend of one of the women: "They are afraid that they are going to end up like Salman Rushdie...
...fury increased, the government reversed itself. The Ministry of Interior issued a statement last week declaring that "driving by women contradicts the Islamic traditions followed by Saudi citizens." The careful wording took into account the fact that Saudi Arabia is the only country to hold that Islam bars women from sitting behind the steering wheel...
...Sheik Abdul Aziz ibn Baz, chief of the Presidency of Islamic Research, Ruling, Call and Guidance, an organization that rules on questions of dogma. Ibn Baz earned a certain notoriety in the 1960s by insisting that the sun revolved around the earth. He subsequently modified that view after a Saudi astronaut flew in a space shuttle and broadcast back TV images providing evidence to the contrary...