Women driving in Saudi Arabia
Victory belongs to the Victor, just as History Belongs to the Writers not the Princes.
I think a lot about Loujain Al-Hathloul. What she went through all that time in prison. How it feels to be banned from travel and watched now at every step, her phone calls monitored, her contact with the outside world limited on pain of return to prison. I doubt they will execute her simply because creating martyrs is a dangerous business, and for many of us, that is what she is. A Shining symbol of freedom in Saudi Arabia. Victory over women driving belongs to the brave women who dared to challenge the system, the ones who drove down the streets banned together as sisters. The royal family may see it as their victory and their gift, but all I see is a prison warden throwing out scraps of food and then saying gleefully, “There, I have given you food. Be grateful” When it was his job to provide food in the first place.
I think about the great alliance of brotherhood that united our country not just through the joining of Ibn Abdul Wahhab with the Al-Sauds but through the warriors that were used to unite the territories and then when they refused to back down they were put to the slaughter. True they got a little overzealous in their raiding, but it’s always like we make extremists, use them and then punish them. Hey, you made Frankenstein, let him out and then decided, oh well, maybe he doesn't deserve to live after all. We stopped women from having almost every right they see day in and day out on TV and then we call them crazy when they start shouting for freedom, when they drive down the street and when they run away from home. We lock them up, shut them down and force them to be silent like poor Lujain. I can’t imagine after so many years of being silent how it would feel to be forced into silence again.
Maybe it’s time for a woman sisterhood in Saudi Arabia, banded together to enact change on a grand scale. Maybe it’s time we took to riding camels and striking fear into the hearts of those who would only see us as mothers, sisters, daughters and wives. When we are so much more than that! Maybe it’s time we all tweeted what we think. Maybe it’s time.
Signed,
Elise Evans
