Let them drive

Imams, Academics Against Allowing Women to Drive by Raid Qusti. The reasons they offer?

• Women driving cars is not permissible because the ruling of 'closing doors that leads to corruption' applies to it directly.
• If the act facilitates misbehavior, then it is not permissible.
• The ownership of several cars in one family instead of just one being used by the driver.
• The frequent purchase of new cars "since women are known to like everything new".
• The burden on the government of having to open special female sections in all Traffic Departments.
• No Islamic scholar "or good figure in society" has called for women to drive.
• All those who have been calling for women to drive are people who want to damage the image of Islamic women.

Blogesque compares this to prohibitions against female Saudi college students' owning cellphones, and notes,

"Closing all doors leads to corruption" can be translated into Western parlance as "Forbidden fruit is always the sweetest." Instead, they're twisting it to justify their stance by claiming that driving leads to "corruption," so it should be forbidden to women.

And as for the other points:

• As for facilitating misbehavior, what about male misbehavior? And anyway, one could argue an awful lot of things makes bad behavior easy.
• If you think the ownership of cars is a bad thing, how about a blanket prohibition against car ownership; make people take public transport.
• Why not let male traffic officials deal with women?
• Just because Islamic scholars haven't called for something doesn't mean it's bad. And what's their definition of "good figure[s] in society"?
• People who call for women to drive are people who want them to have more opportunities. How does that damage their image?