An outspoken billionaire Saudi prince has called for an "urgent" end to his country's ban on women driving, saying it is a matter not just of rights but of economic necessity. "Stop the debate: Time for women to drive," Prince Alwaleed bin Talal said on his official Twitter account.
Alwaleed is an unusually forthright member of Saudi Arabia's extensive royal family. He is a longtime advocate of women's rights in the conservative Islamic kingdom, which has some of the world's tightest restrictions on women and is the only country where they are not allowed to drive.
In conjunction with his short tweet, Alwaleed's office issued an uncharacteristically long statement outlining his reasons for supporting an end to the ban. "Preventing a woman from driving a car is today an issue of rights similar to the one that forbade her from receiving an education or having an independent identity," Alwaleed said. "They are all unjust acts by a traditional society, far more restrictive than what is lawfully allowed by the precepts of religion."
