RIYADH, June 13: Dashing hopes of an early end to the ban on women’s driving in Saudi Arabia, Interior Minister Prince Naif said he was surprised that the matter had been raised by a member of the Shura. Criticizing the calls to lift the ban on women drivers, he said the argument over the issue could harm the country.
Prince Naif, commenting on the issue of including women ministers in the Saudi cabinet, as Kuwait had just done, said Saudi Arabia would not rush to mimic changes elsewhere. “We should avoid being an echo of what is proposed in other countries,” he asserted.
In a separate statement, Prince Naif clarified that the amnesty deadline for anti-government militants waging a war against the government was over.
However, he reiterated that ‘whosoever admits his mistake and surrenders on his own will be appreciated’.
On the possibility of Riyadh requesting London to hand over a British-based dissident, Saad al Faqeeh, and Osama Bin Laden once they are captured, Prince Naif said the question of such a request could only arise after their arrest.
On the issue of women’s driving, he said: “Does he (Mohammad Zulfa) understand what the priorities are? ... We consider (the question) to be secondary, not a priority”.
“These matters are decided according to the general good and what is dictated by women’s honour, but I urge everybody to put a stop to this and not make an issue out of it that pits one group against another,” Prince Naif said.
Mohammad al Zulfa, a member of the Majlis-i-Shura, had submitted a resolution to the body’s secretariat calling for a debate on the issue. The secretariat turned down the request.
However, the issue has generated considerable interest in the country and newspapers have been debating the question in earnest.
According to analysts, the debate has added fuel to the ongoing tug of war between conservatives and liberals.
