Drive and Die? Leading Saudi Cleric Warns Women That Driving Will Result In Damage to Ovaries and Birth Defects

Al Arabiya is reporting a bizarre warning issue by a leading Muslim cleric that women who drive risk damaging their ovaries and pelvises and birth defects. The announcement from Sheikh Saleh bin Saad al-Luhaydan comes as women continue to demand to be able to drive in the Kingdom and international pressure is growing for Saudi to make fundamental reforms. Judging from today’s other Saudi story, I thought the greatest danger was the religious police on the roads.

A judicial and psychological consultant to the Gulf Psychological Association, al-Luhaydan warned that “Physiological science and functional medicine studied this side [and found] that it automatically affects ovaries and rolls up the pelvis. This is why we find for women who continuously drive cars their children are born with clinical disorders of varying degrees.” The real purpose appears evident in his observation that women who are demanding to drive are placing “reason ahead of their hearts, emotions and passions.” Clearly, he believes they need to think not with their emotions and passions but with the ovaries and pelvises. Another voice of reason among the Kingdom’s clerics. It is rather chilling to see a cleric serving as both a “judicial and psychological consultant.”

This is a new approach since previously the warning was the women driving would lead to fewer virgins in the Kingdom. Now they will be damning their children to defects and subjecting themselves to rolled up pelvises.