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How Uber Is Changing Life For Women In Saudi Arabia
An anonymous reader writes: Being unable to legally drive is hard for many women in Saudi Arabia, especially working women. With notoriously poor mass transit options, and the stigma attached to women riding the bus alone, Uber has changed the life of many Saudi women by giving them greater mobility and independence. While there are no official statistics on how many women use the service, anecdotal evidence suggest that 70% to 90% of Saudi riders are women. "A lot of them, I would say, are young women," says Saudi Arabia general manager Majed Abukhater. "We have some data to show that these women are starting to rely on Uber a lot more for their daily commutes; the proportion of trips that we see in Saudi during the weekday is actually very high relative to other locations. That's just kind of one indicator to tell us that women are really starting to rely on Uber for their daily commutes to work, or to school, or to university."
Eradicating blatant sexism is.
From TFA: "for regulatory reasons, Uber in Saudi Arabia does not work with contracted drivers using their own cars—all Uber rides go through existing companies"
So Uber can follow local laws when they're forced to. Who would've guessed?
We must repress this immediately. Women with freedom. Think of the Islam.
Many years ago, I worked with some Saudis who had brought their wives and kids over. They would be going to back when the work was done, but rather than spend a couple years away from the family, they brought them with them.
At one point, I was talking to one of the wives and mentioned how they must be enjoying being able to drive themselves around. She replied that she was looking forward to having a driver (the husband could afford to hire a driver for his wife when in Saudi Arabia). LA Traffic is not all that much fun and she'd far rather have someone else deal with it.
I wonder how well driverless cars will work over there? Of course, considering how badly they drive, a driverless car is definitely going to need some serious skills in accident avoidance...
If they enjoy Uber then perhaps theyd really enjoy a taxi service. Taxis, offer all the benefits of Uber with the convenience of government controls like licensing, inspection, background checks, and safety standards for vehicles as well as passengers. Then again, theres nothing like taking an uber from the Khalid international airport and being forcibly driven to the middle of Highway 40, your new final destination.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Sometimes 'unintended consequences' are beneficial.
so Uber is adding nothing. Nothing. All Uber is doing is trashing society by pushing their temporary contractors that aren't really employees and using them to put hard working people with jobs out of work. They are taking benefits from people that have jobs. They are killing jobs. Families are starving because of Uber's Republican-style hate of working people. The women in SA can already ride in a taxi and support society rather than riding in Uber and supporting our own destruction.
... not only that bud , but you can bet your last fucking penny their P.R dept will be pushing this shit everywhere to show what a "vital" service they supply..... but we all know you are spot on
The shari-ah holds that women are not allowed to travel alone without a proper male relative acting as chaperone. It is known as maharam or honor law. Women caught in Saudi Arabia without a proper male relative in the company of an unrelated male can be prosecuted. Since all uber drivers are male, (women can't drive in Saudi Arabia) and likely to be unrelated, unless these women have a constant supply of "proper" male relatives, they would not have freedom of movement, uber or no uber. I am no islamic scholar, so not very sure of this: The relatives who can act as chaperones are husbands, brothers, fathers, sons. Not very sure who among the in-laws are allowed to be chaperones as per mahram.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
I haven't been in The Kingdom (KSA) in about 7 years, but back then women couldn't go anywhere without an adult male relative (father, brother, or husband) to protect them unless there were no men there. They had massive malls that were staffed and accessible only to women, where they could freely walk and talk with other women wearing western-style clothing if they so wished.
Since only men can legally drive on public roads, how does this work?! Wouldn't they still need to bring an adult male guardian along?
How is there a social stigma that applies to riding the bus alone where there are dozens of witnesses to your behavior that wouldn't apply to riding alone in a strangers car?
I can only imagine that the autonomous cars will be a hit, but the driving there is truly frighteningly-atrocious. I was very glad to have ex-military drivers with special training and armor-plated SUVs, not for fear of some attack (honestly, they like us more than you might imagine), but because going out on those roads is taking your life into your hands.
I can't imagine it being any worse than it already is. Drivers there are unbelievably scary.
19 of the hijackers on 9/11 were Saudi. Osama Bin Laden was Saudi. We claimed to have "liberated" Iraq because Saddam's people were oppressed (after the WMD argument fell apart); so, why have we never "exported freedom" to Saudi Arabia?
Exactly what stranglehold do they they have on us (other than having gobs of oil)? And not like that's never stopped us before... I assume they must have Child-Porn pictures with Bush and Cheney. I can't quite understand the thinking of Dubya, assuming he was thinking at all....
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
"relied on private drivers (if they could afford them) or the limo companies that Uber now works with (for regulatory reasons, Uber in Saudi Arabia does not work with contracted drivers using their own cars—all Uber rides go through existing companies"
From the article, no change of labour is occurring in saudi, just a change in the access to it.
Yes, so the headline would still be just as accurate if they put the word "Taxis" in instead of Uber.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Half measures allow you to paper over the intolerance and sexism endemic to that society.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Even Uber lets women are who are not allowed to drive transportation, women not in the company of a husband, male relative or other man assumed to be such, are subject to prejudice and rude behavior from males. In other words, if you are a woman walking around with out a male protector you are considered to be a prostitute or someone who does not mind men thinking you are a prostitute.
I don't think Uber is a cure-all for the oppression women suffer in Saudi Arabia.
She can still hire a driver if she wants to when she has the right to drive.
Drivers are cheap in Saudi Arabia because they are practically slaves.
"Saudi Arabia general manager Majed Abukhater says that while his office doesn’t keep precise gender data, observation and anecdotal evidence suggest that 70% to 90% of Saudi Uber riders are women."
This article is a pro-Uber bunch of marketing bullshit. Uber isn't changing anything for women in Saudi.
blindly antisocialist = antisocial
Thanks for the negative mod points. Troll? Pointing out how this article is talking about Uber like they're the new Messiah for Saudi women makes me a troll? I love you slashdot, for all the horrible idiots with mod points.