As if the ban on women driving have not already brought enough embarrassment to this country, now five members of the European Parliament are backing a bizarre campaign to ban Saudi men from driving in the EU. These five MEPs argue that a move to ban male Saudi nationals from driving in the EU would help the Saudi authorities to understand the very strong condemnation evoked in Europe by the ban on women drivers. One of these members is Roger Helmer, a British conservative who said, “the nationals of authoritarian countries assume that they can come to the West and enjoy our freedoms, while maintaining discrimination and denying basic human rights at home.” If at least half of the 316 members sign the motion, it will become a formal resolution of the parliament. Now, what are we going to do about this? Do we really want to be banned from driving in Europe?
29 thoughts on “EU to Ban Saudi Men Drivers?”
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Saudi Jeans 
Wow, couldnt help but be impressed at the idea of Saudi men being banned. It makes no sense but then again it doesnt make much sense to ban women in Saudi from driving either. I doubt this will happen though…
in a way, i hope the message gets across to the saudi men. all my friends accuse saudi nation of being hypocrites, because the saudis go to the west, or even to dubai, to indulge in all the freedom they wouldnt have in saudi. while i go out of my way to defend the saudis, this point even stumbles me.
mansur
The Saudi license is not valid in Europe anyway, you need to have a valid international license accompanied with the Saudi one.
From my own personal opinion it’s impossibile this to me seems a joke or something stupid the English would say, I’m a Saudi holder of two licenses (Saudi and Italian) I would like to see if they can stop me because I’m Saudi, that would be racist.
Being in Europe I have the same rights as the European (it’s in the constitution of each EU country) + the backing of my country (little good that would do)
The way we Saudis drive here, we should be banned ;)
Normally, the Saudi Community in European countries tend to be open minded, they will not disagree with the issue of women driving, but they will justify their situation that they are not the one responsible for these dicisions.
This is not a good way to push saudi arabia into women driving permission. Maybe this thing will set a pressure on the government, and all of us know that the problem is not with the government, it’s with the religious men.
The situation here as follows: they couldn’t convince saudi arabia to premit women driving using the discussion, now they want to do it using power. This doesn’t make any sense !
Our goal is to convince the men who are the problem , the religious men !
How to reach their mine ? I think this is the eternal question ! because when we solve it, we’ll be able to go much further in the reformation process.
Thank you ahmed for this nice topic !
Interesting. Being married to a Saudi I have had the “pleasure” of driving with many Saudis, male and female.
I think the EU would be doing everyone a favour to ban male AND female Saudis from driving.
All kiding aside, this is a good move I think, it will make the Saudi law look as stupid as it really is.
No, this is both a stunt by the legislators and a way to poke the Saudi gov’t with a stick for refusing to permit women to drive.
The proposed law has zero chance of being passed, but raising the question reminds Saudi officials that there’s unhappiness in Europe over Saudi laws.
But as khaled a and abu sinan point out, there are other, entirely justifiable reasons for banning Saudi drivers. I think India is the only place worse to drive, but Indian roads rarely permit speeds over 50 kph!
As a Saudi woman, I have always been pissed at the concept of the “driver”.. I always said that the only way a Saudi man could ever understand what that entitles, he himslef should be banned from driving and have to wait in line with the rest of the family for the (usually dim-wit, illiterate, and sometimes even hygienically-challenged) driver to enable him to run his errands..
“Alone” has a great point :)
I think they should be banned from driving in Saudi Arabia too!
This is so ridiculous it would never fly. Like John said, nothing more than a stunt — a terribly misguided one at that.
The Saudi people have no democratic process to tackle such an issue. And if they did, and they did agreed on enforcing such a ban, then it is the will of the people and frankly nobody else’s business.
But I am with the consensus of a general driving ban and rehabilitation process on every man, women, and child who is Saudi or has driven in Saudi for more than an hour. THAT is a true necessity.
I’m amazed by how many of you agree that Saudi men should actually be banned from driving :-) I, too, think it won’t be passed, but it was just hard to miss.
Women are leading shuttles into space but they cant drive in saudi arabi. Its quite stupid. The saudi answer is its our culture? If you ask them to explain why, they dont have an answer they say, outside forces should not interfere in our societ.
The whole driver thing is stupid. This from a country where otherwise a woman is not allowed in public without her “mehram”.
Is it better to have a strange, foreign man driving Saudi women? Why no need for a “mehram” there? Is the assumption that a Saudi female would never consider doing something “haraam” with a Pakistani, Hindi, Sudanese ect?
You’d be surprised……
inshAllah
this is funny and rude at that same time,
At first…I cracked up. Then…it hit me. Saudis are enjoying an all year F1 season here on their own highways…I myself would feel at home on the Autobahn.
Come to think of it…it’s pissing off in a way…and kind of tit for tat in another way.
The streets in Europe will be much safer I guess.
But if I had the Saudi plastic paper lisence and a nice French one, I wonder if they’ll stop me from driving in the EU regardless of me carrying an EU driver’s license…
What hurts me the most is how much people \\\”got carried out with the wind\\\’. Discussing our own internal issues in an intention to make things better is one thing, but what I read here is much way too far.
How come there is no single comment discussing the ignorant and arrogant behavior by those MEPs.
Wither we agree on the \\\”women right to drive\\\” or not. This doesn\\\’t give any foreigner, and specially ones whom are foreign government officials, any right to discuses our own issues, on behave of us, let alone calling for any types of acts that are designed to put any kind of pressure on us to take a reaction in there favor!!
Isn\\\’t Saudi Arabia an independent country?!, can\\\’t we decide what parties to support, why don\\\’t we discuses all kinds of discrimination that is supported by law in EU countries? Why don\\\’t we have members of our \\\”majless alshura\\\” talk about how women in UK receives less payment than men in the same job.
Ask your self the above questions.
EU allow women driving, Saudi Arabia doesn’t, let’s punish Saudi Arabia.
Netherland allow consumption of Marijuana, (most) EU don’t, let’s punish EU.
Japan allow sexual relations as young as 13 years old, EU don’t, let’s punich EU.
My point: EU aren’t very open minded in everything, but they think they are.
If you ask a nudist he will tell you he cann’t walk naked in the street, should EU allow it!! may be they should.
The question is where do we draw the line, and who draw it.
jirukun, if your wife is with you in Europe, do you allow her to have the same rights as european women? I hope you do. And I hope you (and other men) fight for women rights in Saudi Arabia.
That being said, the MEPs proposed ban is just stupid.
Congratulations on the blog, it’s very interesting.
Two wrongs certainly do not a right make.
The EU move to ban Saudi male drivers is every bit as preposterous as the law denying Saudi women their right to drive in their own country.
The golden rule always is be careful when you point at others; the remaining fingers will normally point back at you.
This is a typical case of negative externalities. The real decision makers who would make the change in the laws would hardly be affected by the ban. I am sure they’d rather be driven around than drive. And the people who’d be affected would rarely be in a position to influence a change. Plus, the entire move smacks of racism.
I think that some of you need to go back to the original fatwa by Sheikh bin Baz on this subject. Obviously a learned scholar would not just make things up in his mind about women driving. I have to agree that the men in Saudi can’t drive at all – they all need to back to school – but the problem is that more of the immorality in Saudi that goes on now will probably continue in the future.
Also, some of you have said that even though women can’t drive, they have drivers that drive them. Please! Again, go back and read the fatwa by Sheikhs bin Baz, Uthaimeen and Fawzan on this issue and they will tell you that it is totally haram.
For the Muslims on this blog, I think that you need to get off the politics and get educated about your religion. Some of you are all butt hurt about people memorizing the Qur’an without knowledge, yet you are all for women exposing themselves and men gawking at them. What hypocrisy! Next you will be dissing the niqab too, which, I might add, even the King’s wife defended.
Go back and read the texts provided by the scholars of the past and quit making excuses based on political ideas that have unfortunatley embedded themselves into Saudi life – and Muslims in general. Quit crying over the fact that women and drive, and be more aware of things that God disapproves of. We can live without driving, and it is not the end of the world because a few cannot.
Why doesn’t someone poll women in Saudi and ask them if they want to drive? I believe that CNN did awhile ago and most women said they didn’t care. Salam
Womwn should not be allowed to drive in Saudi or anywhere for that matter. Men need to take back the reins and end this worldwide feminist nonsense. Women should not be behind the wheel.
lol they should do it! we want ém 2 struggle like we do now! we had enough 4rm thz stupid drivers! all wat they r good @ is to run away! n then wat? how can we go 2 our jobs, schoolz. etc! plz stupid women n men (who dont want 2 allow their wifes, daughters etc! 2 drive) k dont let ur women drive bss leave us alone! we had enough from ur stupid close-minded politics ! btw it has nothin 2 do with islam ! its all bout ur stupid minds
who needs to drive in Europe anyway? most saudis hire drivers or use taxis when they travel. unless they shipped their cars with them fa hatha shay thani. ma fahamt elsalfa kwayes bas its not something i would care about.
A place that nurtured the natzis and fascists and caused so much pain to the world with their war crimes would do any thing, I’m not surprised!
Bro, sorry to say this but most of the drivers in Saudi need to be banned from driving – in Europe you’re bound to kil everyone else if not yourselves first.
I arrived here in Khobar last month, and all I can say is OMG!!!! You’re all nuts. Seriously I haven’t seen this kind of wreckless driving anywhere in the world – your fast lane is full of tailgaters, and the slow lane is full of speeding mad men and the middle lane is filled with the slow coaches.
People are swinging left right and centre!!
Traffic lights – sometimes I think some drivers think these are for decoration.
LoL having said all that yallah, i can;t wait to get on the road and rip the tarmac heheheh ^_^
Actually Saudi should be be banned across the world from driving including in Saudi Arabia.
banned in Europe !! Saudi men dirvers should be banned in Saudi they are mostly a menace and mad mad maniacs !! Its like F1 every day or is that banger racing ! Saw my fourth road kill body bag this week in 6 weeks, thats 4 more than I have seen in 25 years of UK driving. Totally agree with Faz. Just hoping i can recover my sane driving skills when i come back to the UK, thats if i make it back in one piece !!. Inshelah!