Solidarity

Those men who spend their lives espousing ‘women’s rights’ are usually the first to fall silent when Saudi Arabia is mentioned. However with readers and presumably sisters from all around the world including the Middle East this week it would remiss of us not to express our concern over the news that a Saudi woman has been sentenced to 10 lashes with a whip for having the temerity to drive a car.

Most major religions have inbuilt insights into the will of God that invariably seem to be designed to bolster up the flagging egos of men, but one wonders by what stretch of the imagination somebody managed to come up with the interpretation that women shouldn’t drive cars?

In Saudi women drivers are usually stopped and questioned but let go after they pledge not to drive again. However since June dozens of female drivers have continued to take to the roads in a campaign to break the taboo.

Only recently King Abdullah promised to protect women's rights and went on to declare that women would be able to vote in municipal elections from 2015 and that a woman would be appointed to the all-male advisory body, the Shura Council. Activists saw the sentence as retaliation by the hard-line Saudi religious establishment that controls the courts and oversees the religious police.

Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that bans women - both Saudi and foreign - from driving. This stems from conservative traditions and religious views that believe giving freedom of movement to women makes them vulnerable to sins.

Sohila Zein el-Abydeen, from the National Society for Human Rights, burst into tears when asked about the punishment. "The verdict is shocking to me, but we were expecting this kind of reaction," she said. Adding: "How come women get flogged for driving while the maximum penalty for a traffic violation is a fine, not lashes?

Today our thoughts are with Shaima Jastaina who has been found guilty of driving without permission.