Mohammad Al-Qahtani is the head of Saudi Arabia’s Civil and Political Rights Association.
He accompanied his wife in the passenger seat on June 17 and says he will make sure his 13-year-old daughter learns to drive too.
“Women’s driving is part of it but it’s not the whole thing. You have other social restrictions, religious restrictions for women not to work in certain professions,” Mohammad says.
“You add all these together and you get this bleak picture of 17% participation, which is one of the lowest in the world.”
Even without the full participation of women in the labour market, Saudi Arabia has huge unemployment problems.
One in three people under the age of 25 is jobless in Saudi Arabia. Foreign workers – and that includes the thousands of drivers working for Saudi women – outnumber the Saudi nationals working in the Kingdom.
So what is the solution?
“We should accommodate small and medium sized enterprises, we should create more jobs in the private sectors,” says Mohammad.
“If you ask any typical Saudi female businesswoman you get this sense of resentment that she’s forced out of her business. She has to hire a male guardian to take care of her business.
“All these restrictions tend to force women to quit their business altogether. It’s a big loss not only for them but the economy as a whole.”