Saudi princess says women can drive cars

A Saudi princess has said she backs a campaign by women in the world’s dominant oil power to drive cars but criticised them for resorting to what she described as western media to promote their cause. Princess Najla bint Saud bin Abdul Aziz, a member of the Royal family, also supported women’s rights to enter municipal elections in the Gulf kingdom, saying this would help the society.

“Regarding the recent moves by Saudi women to drive cars, I think they can do so as long as there are no religious barriers and they get consent from their custodians…I don’t see any problem in this if some laws are enacted in the country to protect female drivers,” she told 'Sabq' newspaper.

The princess, who has just obtained a philosophy doctorate degree, was referring to last week’s Facebook campaign by Saudi women to push for ending a long-standing unofficial ban on female driving in the conservative nation.

Some women were reported to have been arrested while driving. Such moves ttracted much interest from newspapers and other media organisations in many countries while the campaign also won the support of US secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

“I am strongly against attempts by some Saudi activists to seek help from the Western media to shed light on our domestic affairs…we have a reasonable margin of freedom in our media so we can discuss these issues internally,” princess Najla was quoted as saying.“What we should know is that such issues happen every where but our issues are highlighted in a negative and bad way as if we are a new human breed that has just been discovered…unfortunately, our female activists think they are receiving support from outside, not realising that they are mere scapegoats by those media organs to hurt our country…how can our activists harm their own country which has brought them up and supported them even if they have some demands…they must realise that we are a conservative society.”

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