Saudi Arabia has a problem: Some of its women want to drive, but the kingdom wants to make sure there are virgins in the country. Based on a new report from the Saudi highest religious council — the Majlis al-Ifta’ al-A’ala — and a former King Fahd University professor, those things are mutually exclusive.
An Iranian news agency is reporting that the “Wahhabite scholars’” report was presented to the country’s legislative body and explained the possible repercussions of repealing the Saudi ban on women driving.
The report concluded that allowing women to drive would lead to a blight of virgins and lead to the proliferation of homosexuality, pornography, prostitution and divorce in the country.
The “Wahhabite scholars” scholars pointed to other Muslim nations that allow their women to drive, which they claimed have experienced “moral decline.”
Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that prohibits women from driving.
According to Fars News Agency, the researchers noted that a decade of of lifting the ban Saudi Arabia would have “no more virgins.”
Over the summer a coalition of Saudi women’s rights activists protested the ban and attempted to publicly pressure Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and European Union’s High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, into supporting their right to drive.
Women in Saudi Arabia are subject to corporal punishment if they are caught driving. Most recently a woman was sentenced to 10 lashes after being caught driving in Jeddah.
The Daily Mail reported last month the Saudi government is also considering a proposal to force already fully-covered women to cover their eyes if they are deemed too “tempting.”