Global Nice Time: Saudi Ladies First People In History To Use Rosa Parks Analogy Correctly

You know when someone is a Men's Rights Activist, or when someone is Ted Yoho, and they are all up in Rosa Parks's business claiming the mantle of Civil Rights and Rosa Parksiness for their very anti-Rosa Parks goals? It is sort of like NRA people who invoke Gandhi in their push to arm six-year-olds. But in what we hope is the beginning of a new trend, a group of people has invoked Rosa Parks -- and they have done it correctly! Per Think Progress:  

Brushing off threats from the government, more than 60 Saudi women got behind the wheel on Saturday in a bold protest of the nation’s de facto ban on women driving.

Sara Hussein, a Saudi woman involved in the effort, drew parallels to the U.S. civil rights movement: “Think back in history — Rosa Parks was the only person who sat down on the bus, wasn’t she? And then it started to happen gradually. It does have to start with the few brave people who are willing to risk whatever there is to risk.”

And that is how you do a Rosa Parks comparison, everybody.

So what’s the deal with Saudi Arabia? Apparently, they don’t ban women driving… they just don’t allow women to get driver’s licenses, so it’s a nice little end-run on women’s rights. Points for creativity, Saudis.

So how do women get around, NPR? 

Women must rely on men to drive them around. They may be male relatives or drivers who are part of the country's imported labor. But this is expensive and an intrusion into their lives, many women say.

In this country, we have a word for this: moochers. Women relying on menfolk to drive them around, it just ain’t right.

But we have to hand it to the women this time around. Not only are they driving, but they are straight up posting videos of themselves driving on social media sites, in order to “normalize” the sight of women drivers:

Women from around the country are driving and posting videos, which now number in the hundreds. While Saturday was a day where many women were supposed to drive, many activists are encouraging women to just drive any time:

"I need people to see that it is normal; we have to let people accept it," al-Yousef says. "It doesn't mean anything if you drive only one day."

However, not all folks are entirely happy with the prospect of women behind the wheel. Apparently, Saudi Arabia has its own version of a love child between Pat Robertson and a brain-damaged orangutan:

Last month, a prominent Saudi cleric claimed that driving would damage women’s ovaries and cause birth defects.

If we had a nickel for every time we heard that, we would have at least four nickels. Man, what a cliche!

[ ThinkProgress / NPR ]