Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
SAUDI ACTIVISTS SAY more than 60 women claimed to have answered their call today to get behind the wheel in a rare show of defiance against a ban on female driving.
Saudi professor and campaigner Aziza Youssef said the group has received 13 videos and another 50 phone messages from women showing or claiming they had driven. She said they have no way to verify the messages.
No arrests
If the numbers are accurate, this year’s campaign is the most successful effort yet by Saudi women demanding the right to drive. Youssef said they have not received any reports of arrests or women being ticketed by police.
A security official said that authorities did not arrest or fine any female drivers today.
However, there have been a few roadblocks along the way.
Youssef said she and four other prominent women activists received phone calls this week from a top official with close links to Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, warning them not to drive today.
She also said that “two suspicious cars” have been following her everywhere all day. “I don’t know from which party they are from. They are not in a government car,” she said.
Laws
Though no specific Saudi law bans women from driving, women are not issued licenses. They mostly rely on drivers or male relatives to move around.
Powerful clerics who hold far-reaching influence over the monarchy enforce the driving ban, warning that breaking it will spread “licentiousness.” A prominent cleric caused a stir when he said last month that medical studies show that driving a car harms a woman’s ovaries.
The kingdom’s first major driving protest came in 1990 when some 50 women drove their cars. They were jailed for a day, had their passports confiscated and lost their jobs. In June 2011, about 40 women got behind the wheel in several cities in a protest sparked when a woman was arrested after posting a video of herself driving.
The atmosphere appeared more tolerant this year and state newspapers for the first time have run near daily commentary on the issue. Reforms made by the monarchy since the last 2011 driving campaign may have readied the deeply conservative nation for change.
Changes include allowing women to sit on the national advisory council and a decision by King Abdullah to permit women to vote and run in municipal elections in 2015.
Deputy editor-in-chief of the state-backed newspaper Saudi Gazette, Somayya Jabarti, said she envies her male co-workers who can jump in their cars and leave the office while she has to coordinate ahead of time for a driver or relative.
“The struggle is more that people should have the option to choose,” she said. “The logo of this current driving campaign is that women’s driving is a choice. ”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
So we ship peat in from Lithuania instead.. Brilliant government decisions once again
@Geoff Bateman: Why would anyone buy peat from abroad? There are loads of alternatives
@Mickety Dee: I believe this is being done for the horticulture industry.
The bogs are largely gone at this stage. It was over 30 years ago that campaigns were underway by David Bellamy and Dutch groups who were buying up bogs to stop them being destroyed. Bord na Mona have plundered a nations heritage, destroyed in 50 years what nature took 10000 years to produce and as this ecological asset was destroyed all the sequestered carbon was released into the atmosphere to contribute to the greenhouse effect and climate change. They have woken up very very late to their environmental responsibilities.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-08-26-mn-283-story.html
Absolutely destroyed the bog lands of Ireland with their large scale intensive cutting and yet it’s the small farmer who gets punished.
If a tonne of concrete emits a tonne of carbon how much carbon is emitted by Bord na Mona building wind farms on the bogs considering each pylon can take up to five hundred tonnes to stabilise them. Why are they not forced to go solar. Thanks
@Tony Brady: it’s not really about carbon… it’s about money! And right now wind is the most profitable energy source
@Piggy: Indeed – at the expense of the rest of us via an ever growing list of levies on bills
@Tony Brady: I would assume they’re probably using GGBS rather than Portland cement-based concrete in the builds , it’s becoming industry standard at about 4% of the carbon content with better long term compressive strength. The industry isn’t sleepwalking on that issue
@Brian Carroll: What does GGBS mean to ordinary people not involved in the industry?
We need to allow a certain amount of cutting if we are not offsetting correctly. Specifically in relation to imports from further afield. Bord Na Mona has started to become more environmentally responsible but it needs to up it’s game. Hopefully the China, India, Russia & US can get there acts together and stop pollution of the earth as they are far and away the worst. Ireland does have these wonderful bog lands which are technically lungs for the earth as they are natural carbon sinks. Hopefully as cutting decreases and bogs are allowed to return to more sustainable places we can do our little bit. But if the big polluters like CIRUS continue to act like a virus then we are all fecked.
Has anyone seen this bog rehabilitation in work? I have and it looks like a big waste of time and money to me. In the article BnM mention walkways, amenities etc. being built. Has anyone heard anything about these because I don’t remember hearing anything. I know its early days but would be nice to hear what plans they have in store.
@DK: When you get €108m from government to “restore” bogs, it’s easy do it, or shaping like you’re doing it. How much will government give to private developers who have also been stopped? Those bogs are far less depleted and far better subjects for restoration than the BNM ones. Once again, Irish government policy is on the big fake when it comes to looking good to Brussels.
Government took over a bog near Shinrone around twenty years ago and have allowed it dry out completely, to where restoration now, would be almost impossible.
The BNM “valuation” is as credible as its restoration work. As one esteemed great leader might have said, smokes and mirrors.
@DK: Some lovely walkways and trails, Loch Boora is a prime example
https://www.loughboora.com
@Francis Devenney: Lough Boora is there about 20 years, it has nothing to do with this ‘Just Transition’. Any examples of recent or upcoming walkways or trails?
@DK: The Gap trail in Donegal and Mountlucas are the only other two I’ve done. All three worth doing if you’re into walking.There’s also some really nice bog walks on the Leitrim way, not sure if they’re BnM lands or not,
@DK: why do you think it’s a waste of time?
@DK: It a big con job to say a bog is “rehabilitated” when you plonk an industrial wind farm on it.
If a tonne of concrete emits a tonne of carbon and each turbine takes up to five hundred tonnes of concrete to stabilise it how many tonnes of carbon is being emitted by Bord na Mona and others building wind farms. Why is solar and anaerobic digesters not used by them or is wind more profitable to their investors
@Tony Brady: Wind is the best harvester, not of energy, but of subsidies.
The Boglands if Ireland are also home to many wild birds some of which are endangeed species . Yet the wind turbines cut them to pieces as the birds cannot see the rotating blades .In the US there are reports of pikes if dead birds at the foot of these giant structures which are a terrible eyesore. Also , the carbon footprint of having to manufacture these wind turbines is not always included in the supposed benefits of wind power . Ditto fot the disposal of them after thier useful working life has expired , usually 20 years . Also the ” preparation” of sites on which these wind turbines have been located have caused ” bog quakes” with thousands of tons of turf sliding into rivers and resulting in major fish kills and destroying the spawning areas for salmon and trout for decades . This supposed “Green Technology” is not as green as they would have you believe .
@Tony Duffy: Very valid points you’ve highlighted there. I was quite shocked to hear that a wind turbine has only got an expected average lifespan of 20 years. There really needs to be much more awareness-raising of facts such as these.
Loose monetary policy and wild speculation
Great to read all the positive comments.
If a tonne of concrete emits a tonne of carbon and each turbine takes up to five hundred tonnes of concrete to stabilise it how many tonnes of carbon is being emitted by b na Mona and others building wind farms. Why is solar and anaerobic digesters not used by them or is wind more profitable to their investors
It would be nice to see BnM re-employ people displaced by this transition into new roles in an expanded BnM and more turnover and more jobs in the communities most affected by the stopping of turf cutting and processing.
On another note , an article like this on Coillte could be interesting too.
have your say