BEIRUT — Saudi Arabia announced Tuesday that it would begin allowing women to drive next year, a groundbreaking lifting of a ban widely seen as emblematic of the conservative kingdom’s repressive treatment of women.
State television and the official Saudi Press Agency said the change to the longstanding practice had been mandated by royal decree and would take effect in June 2018.
Saudi women are subject to some of the world’s strictest gender-based social codes, forbidden to exercise many basic rights without the permission of a male guardian.
But women for years have been seeking to defy the ban, which is enforced by denying female Saudis any means of applying for a driver’s license. Some have been jailed or otherwise punished for daring to get behind the wheel.
The official Saudi news outlets said a panel would be formed to look into how to implement the order, with a report to be submitted in 30 days.
Depriving women of the right to drive has long been a public relations black eye for the kingdom, whose strictures are routinely denounced by human rights groups and Western governments.
Saudi Arabia practices a strict form of Islam, and ultraconservative clerics see women behind the wheel as a gateway to dissolute behavior. In the past, the ban has been justified with “health reasons,” with one cleric declaring it would result in childbearing problems.
Tuesday’s statement said that a majority of the country’s top clerical body “saw no obstacle to permitting” women to drive.
In Washington, the State Department hailed the news.
“We are happy! We are happy to hear that!” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said. “It’s a great step in the right direction.”
Mohammed Alyahya, a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council and a Saudi expert, described the decree as “historic.”
“This is a proud day for KSA,” he wrote on Twitter, referring to the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Aside from quelling some of the scathing international criticism directed at the Saudi leadership, the ban’s end will have major economic repercussions. The expense of hiring drivers has put a damper on women’s participation in the work force.
Although decreed by King Salman, the change is among a series of reforms attributed in large measure to the young Saudi crown prince, Mohammad bin Salman.
In the announcement, the king noted concerns of religious clerics, but said “the state is the guardian” of Islamic law and values.
“We will not wane in doing all that is necessary to preserve the security and safety of society,” it quoted him as saying.
Tribune writer Tracy Wilkinson contributed to this report.
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