This is the best pro-women’s rights stuff we’ve seen out of Saudi Arabia, ever. Saudi comedian Hisham Fageeh has posted his excellent No Woman, No Drive video to bring attention to the plight of women in the Middle Eastern country.
Fageeh’s No Woman, No Drive rendition of the Bob Marley classic No Woman, No Cry, is not only sarcastic and sharp, but it is topically relevant as well, knocking the absurd idea that driving could damage a woman’s ovaries.
Watch No Woman, No Drive video below
We’re not quite sure how the Saudi authorities are going to take this one, and hope that Fageeh, for his own sake has some ties to royalty or big oil money. For the third time ever on Saturday, the day this video was released, Saudi Arabian women took to the streets and drove – protesting what they feel is their God-given right. According to media reports, some 60 women took to the streets, and they felt no resistance by the police.
While driving cars isn’t our first choice of transport in the Middle East (we promote buses, trains, cycling and walking), getting the women out to drive is a first step in liberalizing their right to choose. And women, we know, have an immense impact on environment policy and practice.
Hisham Fageeh will definitely be going to Letterman with this one. And we’d love to see more activists from the Middle East poke fun at their own culture, if you dare.
As an aside, reckless driving is very common in Saudi Arabia, where as a past-time youngsters take part in this crazy, scary “sport” of drifting their cars into spectators. Drifting is a sin, but it’s still being done. It’s known locally as hagwalah.
Maybe women there should not only give up driving, but about getting into cars as well: Saudi Arabia has the highest rates of death by car accidents in the world.
Now for the lyrics…
Lyrics to No Woman, No Drive
No woman, no drive
No woman, no drive
No woman, no drive…
Say I remember when you used to sit, in the family car be’ backseat
Ova ovaries are safe and well
So you can make lots and lots of babies
Good friends we’ve had and good friends we’ve lost
On the highway
In this bright future you can’t forget your past
So you put your car key away
No woman, no drive
No woman, no drive
Here little sister don’t touch that wheel
No woman, no drive
I remember when you used to sit, in the family car be’ backseat
Of course the driver can take you everywhere
Because the queens don’t drive
But you can cook for me my dinner
Of which I would share with you
Your feet is your only carriage
But only inside the house
And when I say it I mean it:
Everything’s gonna be alright….
Everything’s gonna be alright….
Everything’s gonna be alright….
No Woman, No Drive
No woman, no drive
Oh little sisters don’t touch that wheel
No woman, no drive
Now for the real story: watch a Saudi woman defy the ban. She drove this past Saturday in Saudi Arabia. Below is a video of Manal Al Sharif driving in Saudi Arabia (with English subtitles):
[…] issues like transgenderism in sports, gay rights in countries like Kuwait. Or the right for women to drive in Saudi Arabia; men to hug freely in the Middle East all impact human rights, and inevitably our relationship to […]
[…] issues like transgenderism in sports, gay rights in countries like Kuwait. Or the right for women to drive in Saudi Arabia; men to hug freely in the Middle East all impact human rights, and inevitably our relationship to […]
[…] issues like transgenderism in sports, gay rights in countries like Kuwait. Or the right for women to drive in Saudi Arabia; men to hug freely in the Middle East all impact human rights, and inevitably our relationship to […]
Is this really a protest?
If you are pro this ban, won’t you just happily sing along?
It’s satire.
Using sarcasm, or irony to subtly (or not so subtly) criticize or ridicule something, i.e. “I certainly love this censorship, how could I say anything else?”
i was driving in a parking lot a few weeks ago and a taxi driver who saw me called the police! (i have no idea why he thought it was his business. maybe he was looking for expat brownie points.) the policeman was laughing the whole time. he didn’t have any interest in arresting an american for driving, so he let me go with the following warning: next time, go far, far out in the desert. then you can drive.
ksa will have to let women drive sometime soon, for two reasons, at least. one is the traffic. if i need to go somewhere, so i call a taxi driver to come get me, that means that there are two trips being made instead of one. empty cars on the road is not sustainable and adds a fair amount to the horrendous traffic. also, the highest rate of traffic accident fatalities is directly attributable to the driving ban. too much testosterone on the road and we need some estrogen to balance it. when a man is driving and he knows that all the other drivers are men, it is one big pissing contest. nobody wants to give in, slow down, or move over. i have seen a male driver back down immediately when he realized the other driver was a woman. we need the civilizing influence of female drivers.
Here’s a great musical presentation of the history of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/this_land_is_mine/
I applaud your creativity, talent and enlightened consciousness. THANK YOU for using your talent to bring awareness to an archaic injustice of women.
[…] Women in Saudi Arabia are defying the driving ban en masse, with the open support of numerous Saudi men including this guy. […]
This is so hilarious I had to share it! What an amazing person with a ton of courage! A man protesting the unfair treatment of women in a comedic way. Brilliant. Thus, showing the world that not all Muslims are bad people (which I adamantly disagree with but unfortunately with all the suicide bombings and roadside and honor killings, this seems to be the growing sentiment) in much of the word. Hats off to these two! Great, great job!
Agree w Ashley- beyond the issue of women driving in Saudi Arabia, this video shows a human and humorous side to Arabs we don’t get to see in our U.S. corporate controlled, button down NSA approved news and entertainment media.
We know there are butt heads everywhere… including the middle east- both in Israel and Arabia, but I want to see more of the good people from both sides.
Wow, that takes some courage! However, since it isn’t overtly anti-regime, I can’t imagine that it will cause much harm.
So sad, Bob Marley is cry from heaven above.