MSNBC: Vote or drive? Saudi women would rather be behind the wheel

...“It’s as simple as that!” Mashael added. “You don’t want to send your girls to school, you don’t have to! You don’t want your daughters and wives to drive, you don’t have to let them! But what is so ironic, is that all these people who are against it now, in 20 years’ time, all their women will be the ones driving them around!”

‘Give me a day as king’ The appeal of being able to vote or stand in the 2015 municipal elections got a far more muted response. 

Wafaa, a Harvard University graduate with her own business, dismissed the idea that the proposed right to vote was a significant achievement. 

“I don’t think that voting in a process where we can’t effect change is a big deal at all. It sounds a lot more glamorous than it is because at the end of the day, even our men aren’t bothered with these councils or their elections,” said Wafaa. “I read somewhere that only a fifth of registered voters even bothered showing up, so this is all a bit of a show with no real substance at all. Give me a day as king and I will show you what real progress is all about,” she giggled. 

There is a definite contradiction that exists within this deeply traditional culture that most Western audiences fail to understand. Saudis, it seems, seek modernity without compromising their religious values or heritage. 

So whenever a controversial issue such as driving, or women’s voting crops up, there is almost a Newtonian response whereby the push and pull are almost equal. That might help explain why any real change to the outside eye is quite imperceptible, whereas to those within, it can be perceived as being monumental.[MSNBC]