No woman, no drive in Saudi Arabia, no foreigner, no drive in Bahrain

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This music video is called No Woman, No Drive. It is by a Saudi Arabia-born singer and comedian, Hisham Fageeh, with a satire song about women not being allowed to drive cars in Saudi Arabia; based on the song No Woman, No Cry, by Bob Marley.

Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world where women are punished for driving cars. Even in that other absolute monarchy Bahrain women are allowed to drive.

However, in Bahrain, there are other forms of automobile-linked discrimination. Look at the kingdom’s puppet parliament (where there has been xenophobia earlier, reminding one of Geert Wilders‘ xenophobic and Islamophobic party in the Netherlands).

From Gulf Daily News:

Driving ban backed

Monday, May 12, 2014

MANAMA: Shura Council foreign affairs, defence and national security committee has come to an agreement with parliament concerning a proposal banning expatriates from getting driving licences unless their job requires it.

Unless their job requires it … so mercenaries from Pakistan, from Jordan or elsewhere in the monarchy’s “security forces” will not have to worry they will be stopped while driving armoured cars to attack Bahraini pro-democracy demonstrators.

Parliament had approved a draft legislation – as part of a draft Traffic Law – which states that “resident expatriates living [in] Bahrain of non-GCC nationality

GCC countries are the other Gulf monarchies, like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, etc.

are not allowed to get a driving licence for a car or machine vehicle unless the nature of his/her job requires it”.

The committee is also in agreement with a parliamentary proposal banning a woman wearing the niqab from uncovering her face unless she didn’t mind it.

The article on expats’ driving isn’t unconstitutional, committee chairman Dr Shaikh Khalid bin Khalifa Al Khalifa told our sister paper Akhbar Al Khaleej.

So, the royal prince Shaikh Khalid bin Khalifa Al Khalifa thinks this discrimination fits in the royal constitution. Not everyone agrees.

From Gulf Daily News:

Expat driving ban idea is irrational…

Thursday, May 15, 2014

The news “Driving ban backed” (GDN, May 12) is totally irrational and biased. This is a clear case of discrimination towards the expatriate community.

The expat community fails to understand how the Shura Council’s foreign affairs, defence and national security committee has come to an agreement with parliament on such a law. Does Bahrain have a proper public transport system? Can any individual in Bahrain say that he can arrive at any destination in 15 to 20 minutes using a public transport system?

Does the ministry have enough buses to ply on all possible routes for a passenger to commute anywhere in Bahrain?

Let the ministry increase the number of buses and check for themselves whether passengers can reach anywhere and everywhere in Bahrain. If that is the case, then I am sure no expats would require a car as he/she can rely on public transport.

…

It’s not that sitting inside an air-conditioned room you decide that expats are to be blamed. I was also shocked to read the new proposals that “based on salary driving licence will be issued”

So, presumably, Big Oil fat cats, or Rupert Murdoch on a visit to his Bahraini royal friends, or United States American or British top bureaucrats in the Bahraini police, or high level US officers of the Fifth Fleet base in Bahrain with fat salaries will be able to continue to drive. A construction worker from India or a housemaid from Nepal will not.

and “expats who don’t require driving for their job should not be given a driving licence.”

Are you treating expats as bunch of fools?

Grow up!

A well wisher and a tax paying expat

Saudi women troll men telling them ‘You won’t drive’: here.

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