Technology Diary 3: Cars

Cars are a piece of technology that has become so common that most people would not know what to do without it. It not only helps us get from A to B but has also turned into something of a status symbol as the brand of car you drive can sometimes makes the first impression for you. However, in many ways, cars keep women from gaining equal treatment around the world. In Queering the Color Line, Sommerville talks about how researchers focused extensively on using “data” about physical features to judge gender or racial qualities. African women were said to be more sexually “accessible” because they had larger clitorises than white women. Somerville states, “women’s genetalia and reproductive anatomy held a value and presumably visual key to ranking bodies according to norms of sexualities. ” Since then, scientists have confirmed that many of these 19^th century findings have no real evidence and cannot be used to make generalizations about race or gender. However, making up fake scientific data to justify unfair practices is still happening today. In Saudi Arabia, there are no laws explicitly stopping them from driving but women are not given licenses. A conservative cleric went on record to say that driving causes damage to ovaries and can lead to bearing unhealthy children. Sheikh Saleh bin Saad al-Lohaidan, a judicial adviser to an association of Gulf psychologists said “If a woman drives a car, not out of pure necessity, that could have negative physiological impacts as functional and physiological medical studies show that it automatically affects the ovaries and pushes the pelvis upwards” but provided no scientific evidence to back up this claim. Sheikh Abdulatif al-Sheikh, the head of the morality police, admitted that there is nothing in Sharia law that bans women from driving. This false argument that driving can cause reproductive issues is being used as propaganda to continue the policy of preventing women from being able to drive. Not allowing women to have driver’s licenses goes hand in hand with the policy that makes them have a male family member accompany them whenever they leave the house. Cars are being used as a method of controlling women in Saudi Arabia which is important to remember because being able to have the convenience of going wherever you want with your car is a basic human right we take advantage of everyday.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/29/saudi-arabia-women-drivers-ovaries