Opinion

Let us differ, but politely

October 29, 2017
Let us differ, but politely

Yousef Al-Muhaimeed

Al-Jazirah

SINCE a royal decree was issued enabling women to drive from next June, the noise has never ceased. This noise was made both by the people who supported the decision and those who opposed it.

What has actually drawn my attention was the vindictiveness of the supporters of the move. The people who were exulted by the decision showed a deep desire for vengeance against those who stood against it or who have been opposing women driving from the beginning.

We have every right to celebrate and rejoice over the historic decision but not with badmouthing of and sarcasm against the opponents, who will eventually realize that they were wrong.

The opponents of the move will come to know that their opposition to women driving was an attitude they adopted for sometime and they would soon get over it as they will sooner or later benefit from it.

They will discover that they have been naive to leave their children and women in the care of foreign drivers whom they hardly knew. They have no relationship with the expatriate drivers or any link with them except through the residency card.

Some drivers have gained absolute control over our women and children. On many occasions they would refuse to work and would threaten to quit the job for one reason or other.

The drivers were aware of their worth and value to the family and on several occasions would take advantage of this fact. The families, in need of their services, would bow down and accept all their demands.

In fact, this situation will disappear in a few years and will become a thing of the past. Our women will be driving by themselves and will not need the expatriate drivers any more.

I often question why some people want to divide society based on their attitudes toward certain issues. Why does each party fight against the other and dump on each other with accusations that may sometimes go as far as accusations of treason and unpatriotism?

Why some people are keen on rekindling the differences among us and pour oil into the burning fire?

Another question that often comes to my mind is where do the handles that suddenly appeared on social media have come from? How have they succeeded into making us soccer hooligans planting demagoguery among us?

Have we become so uncouth that we never shy away from uttering bad words or using foul language against anyone who does not stand with us on the same line? We have become intent on killing each other by irresponsible words.

The decision on women driving has uncovered our society. The citizens who call for openness and becoming a natural society are becoming vengeful of those who objected to women driving from the beginning.

They started recalling the tweets made by the opponents of women driving to pour them with sarcasm. The men are also becoming sarcastic of women and circulating jokes about their driving abilities. The women, on their part, are retaliating by showing the men that they have become triumphant at the end and that the men were silenced by the decision.

The women have gone to the limits in their sarcasm of men especially that they no longer need their approval to drive.

We are no longer a tolerant and open society in which everyone will respect the other. Is this just a passing stage or is it going to be a permanent situation?

Is our society too frustrated and is waiting for an occasion to pour out its anger before being suppressed or is this just a normal activity in any society?


October 29, 2017
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