拉瑪·阿爾蘇萊曼每天都在數(shù)還有多少天到6月24日,因為那天她就可以在沙特開車上路了。她是沙特城市吉達商會的副會長,在國外有多年駕齡,但兩周前才終于獲得人生中第一張沙特的駕照。她表示,報名駕校的沙特女同胞們心情復雜,有喜也有憂。 “這讓人百感交集?!痹诔鱿敦敻弧冯s志最近于倫敦舉辦的全球最具影響力女性峰會期間,阿爾蘇萊曼這樣表示。她指出,過去很多年沙特禁止女性開車有多種原因,既有安全方面的擔憂,也因為傳統(tǒng)觀念里認為女性不愿開車。“眾多女性努力爭取才有今天的突破……經歷了(多年來)自下而上的不斷推動。” 阿爾蘇萊曼還說,允許女性駕車的另一個益處是,國際社會討論沙特時終于可以轉向其他話題。“我非常希望討論其他內容,”她說,“女性駕駛權力變成了一種負擔。人人都在討論女性開車,卻忽略了沙特其他的重要問題?!? 阿爾蘇萊曼是沙特女性先驅,曾兩次當選吉達商會的領導。2015年沙特首次有女性參加的市政議會選舉中,她是20名當選市議員的女性之一。后來由于沙特政府制定法規(guī),要求在市政委員會會議上女性座位必須和男性分隔開,她辭去了議員職位。阿爾蘇萊曼表示,駕車方面的進展最積極影響在于,沙特女性擁有了選擇。 阿爾蘇萊曼表達了沙特女性的挫敗感,因為沙特國內的保守派男士和世界各地的自由派人士都自以為了解沙特女性的需求,主動為沙特女性代言,然而往往離實際很遠。她指出,大多數(shù)沙特女性仍然更喜歡辦公室里與男性隔開,還有很多女同胞蒙上面才覺得更舒服。她說:“都是之前女性無權選擇的結果。”(財富中文網(wǎng)) 譯者:Pessy 審稿:夏林 ? |
Lama Al Sulaiman is counting down the days until June 24, the day when she can finally get behind the wheel. The vice chair of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce & Industry in Saudi Arabia, who has long driven outside her country and who received her first-ever Saudi driver’s license two weeks ago, said the mood of fellow women enrolled in driving school has been both happy and frustrated. “It’s very emotional,” she said at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women International Summit in London recently, noting that over the years the rationale for keeping women off the road ranged from safety concerns to the sense that it wasn’t what women wanted. “A lot of women have worked hard to make this happen…there has been a lot of bottom-up struggling” over the years. Al Sulaiman added that another benefit is that the world can finally move on to other conversations about Saudi Arabia. “I’m excited to talk about other things,” she said. “It became a burden. No one wanted to discuss anything that was important about Saudi Arabia except that women can’t drive.” Al Sulaiman, a pioneer who was twice elected to the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and who was one of 20 women to win a spot in her country’s first co-ed municipal elections in 2015—she resigned from her position when Saudi Arabia made regulations that women had to be segregated from men at municipal council meetings—said the driving development is most positive in that it gives Saudi women choice. She expressed frustration that Saudi women are often spoken for by both conservative men in the country who think they know what women need and by liberals around the world who think they know what they want. She noted that the majority of Saudi women still prefer segregated workplaces and that many feel more comfortable having their face covered. “It’s the choices we’ve been missing,” she said. |