Women! For Pity's Sake Don't Drive!

Saudi Arabia's ban on women driving must remain because they ‘lack the intellect’ of men, says leading cleric | The Independent

Women should not be allowed to drive cars because, at the best of times, they have only half the intellect of men and, when they go shopping, this falls to only a quarter!

This comes on the authority of Saudi Arabian cleric and head of the Saudi government's religious edict authority in the southern province of Assir, Sheikh Saad al-Hajari.

The reason for this lack of intellect is that women don't pray as much as men, being forbidden from praying during menstruation, so they only pray 115 times a month against a man's 150 prayers. These 35 missing prayers a moth make all the difference, apparently. Al-Hajari was speaking out against what he called 'the evils of allowing women to drive". He explained:

It is not their fault, but women lack intellect do they not? Would you give a man with half an intellect a driving licence? So how would you give one to a woman when she has half an intellect? And if they go out to the market this gets halved again! So they now have a quarter of an intellect.... Their lack of intellect does not harm their piousness because they are made that way.

Sheikh Saad al-Hajari (quoted the Saudi daily, Sabq)

He also added that driving cars would also mean women might forget their modesty and start vising friends! Of course, it goes without saying that if you don't control women and rigorously restrict their freedom, they'll be off in a flash, having sex with other people!

His intervention comes as pressure grows to rescind the 60 year-old ban on women drivers in Saudi Arabia. The ban was introduced because women driving cars was believed to be inconsistent with the Saudi fundamentalist brand of Sunni Islam, Wahabism. Last year, 14,500 Saudi women signed a petition calling for the ban to be lifted.

Sheikh Saad al-Hajari

Al-Hajari's comments have not met with universal approval in Saudi Arabia however. Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who called them “unjust”.

Of course, what this Saudi Cleric is failing to understand is how women can multi-task. It is well known that, in addition to parts of their brain dedicated to planning meals and pleasing their husbands, women also have a part dedicated to thinking about shoes! (It's a joke, folks! Unfortunately, that Saudi cleric wasn't.)

You really have to wonder about the inadequate little men who not only believe they have the right to control and restrict women, but believe they need to, and then hide that inadequacy behind a god and dress it up as a religion with the threat of eternal torture for non-compliance.

'via Blog this'

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