Islam faces pressures from all sides

Iran, ruled by supreme leader Ali Khamenei, faces tough social and religious challenges. © AP 

TOKYO -- Saudi Arabia may soon lift the long-standing ban on women drivers. News reports in November said an advisory council to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia had recommended allowing women to drive under certain conditions.

 

     According to the Shura Council's recommendations, only women age 30 or older would be allowed to drive, and only during the daytime. The move would be a small but significant step toward improving women's rights in the country.

 

 

     A handful of Saudi women in October drove cars in protest of the ban and posted online video clips of their acts. Their messages spread quickly on social media. It is becoming increasingly difficult for the kingdom to continue prohibiting women from driving. It is the only country in the world that does so.
     The Saudi monarchy, which is the guardian of the two holiest cities in Islam -- Mecca and Medina -- adheres to the Wahhabi sect of Sunni Islam. Wahhabism is often described as ultraconservative and puritanical.
      In Saudi Arabia, women's rights are harshly limited in the name of religion. As well as the driving ban, women also have to be accompanied by a male guardian when they go out. Religious police roam the streets enforcing the social restrictions on women.
Clinton's support
The country has been under growing international pressure to change.
     U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2011 voiced her support for a campaign by Saudi Women for the lifting on the driving ban, describing their action as "brave" and "right."
     Haifaa Al Mansour, who became the first Saudi woman to direct a feature film, says Saudi society is changing and that the areas where women can play active roles are expanding. Her acclaimed film, "Wadjda," portrayed Saudi women longing for freedom in a tradition-bound religious society.
     In November in Iran, where Shia Muslims are in the majority, a video showing a woman dancing to a British pop song on a subway train in Tehran was posted on Facebook. The woman appears to take off her hijab while dancing. Removing the hijab in the presence of adult males from outside of the family is prohibited in Iran.
     Many Iranian women have posted pictures of themselves online without the hijab. These acts signal a growing craving for freedom among young Iranians, raised in a country that has since a 1979 been ruled by a theocratic regime of Muslim clerics.
The revolution will be Instagrammed    
Calm defiance against strict Islamic doctrine is spreading on social networks that are difficult to control. It appears the transformative power of information technology, even in conservative Muslim countries, is irrepressible. Iranians' eyebrows were raised recently when the great grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini, who led the Iranian Revolution, joined Instagram.
     Saudi Arabia and Iran have resisted external pressure to change for longer than some expected. But the power of globalization is affecting conservative Muslim states, argues Satoshi Ikeuchi, associate professor at the University of Tokyo and expert in Islamic political thought.
     "As opportunities to know about the outside world increase, because of exposure to international media and immigration, existing societal norms are being shaken," Ikeuchi said.
     These Muslim countries are also facing pressure from a growing number of extremists aiming to push Muslim society in the opposite direction. The Islamic State, a Sunni extremist jihadist group, wants to establish a new order based on a strict interpretation of Muslim ethics and law.
     Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State group, has proclaimed himself to be caliph, or successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He criticizes Muslim countries for corruption. The group has gained some support from disenchanted youths.
    A 58-year-old construction worker in southeastern Turkey was shocked to find his son, in his 20s, has volunteered to join the Islamic State. He says he asked for help from the Turkish government and received none. With tears in his eyes, the worker said he wants his son to come back.
     Many Middle Eastern nations are grappling with the need to balance the push for modernization and the threat to social stability posed by extremists seeking to rebuild the Muslim world according to fundamentalist principles.