Women can now drive in Saudi Arabia. This might seem a trivial improvement in the personal freedoms of Arab Muslim women, but it is a huge victory for the few brave Saudi women who fought so hard and endured severe hardship from their male family members, their Imams, the Government and finally the King himself.
In the context of Islam as a religion needing to adapt itself to the modern world from the Sharia laws set in seventh century Arabia, this is a significant start. It is women who spearhead the much needed reformation of Islam and lead the liberals, the ex-Muslims and the atheists who at much personal cost to themselves have been in a painful but silent struggle against the conservative and fundamentalist 15 to 20% of Muslims in countries run by authoritarian regimes who uphold their religion's misogyny and violence and shut down the majority who are more sensible people. Perhaps one may allegorically say "God is not dead". Roland Francis Toronto.
