After Many Years, Saudi Arabia King Salman Orders Driving Licenses For Women

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman has issued a historic royal decree granting driving licenses for women in the kingdom as of next June.
 
The royal decree issued on Tuesday also ordered the establishment of a high-level committee of involving the ministries of internal affairs, finance, labor and social development. They will be tasked with studying the arrangements of the edict within 30 days and to ensure the full implementation of the order by June 2018.

Saudi officials and clerics have provided numerous explanations for the ban over the years. Some said that it was inappropriate in Saudi culture for women to drive, or that male drivers would not know how to handle women in cars next to them.

Others argued that allowing women to drive would lead to promiscuity and the collapse of the Saudi family while one cleric claimed — with no evidence — that driving harmed women’s ovaries.