Prince Mit'eb Bin Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz, Deputy Commander of the National Guard for Executive Affairs, has suggested that allowing females to drive in the Kingdom could be tried out by bringing in foreign women and letting them get behind the wheel on the Kingdom's roads first. Speaking at a weekly gathering in Jeddah of several dozen invited male and female figures hosted by well-known businessman Abdul Maqsoud Khoja, Prince Mit'eb spoke Tuesday on a range of issues and answered enquiries from the audience. In response to a query concerning women driving, the son of King Abdullah said “it all depends on the acceptance or refusal of society at large.” “Women driving is something which requires steps to pave the way for it. Perhaps we could first permit the recruitment of women drivers from abroad and then assess the positive and negatives,” the Prince said. “People's current views have to change, and they have to regard women in a different light so that women don't face further problems,” he said. Prince Mit'eb then expressed his position on the reigning state of affairs. “I'm not against women driving cars, but personally I wouldn't be comfortable with my wife or daughters driving. I hope that it is not interpreted as me being against women driving cars, it's just a personal view due to the ideas, customs and traditions that pervade society and need to be improved for the better.” Prince Mit'eb responded to a range of other questions – “transparently and candidly, as is the policy of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques” – many concerning women's role at the annual Janadriya Festival, which he said was “open to all”. “The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques asked me six years ago to find a woman poet to write the operetta for the festival, but we did not receive the response we sought,” he said. “It seems that many women were afraid to come forward for such a project, I don't know why, but the doors remain open for any poetess to submit work that meets the standards required.”
