EDITORIAL : THE HINDU, INDIA

You go girls

As an ‘Arab spring' sweeps through West Asia, one country has managed to remain insulated from the unrest. Early on, the Saudi monarch, King Abdullah, bought peace with a hefty $137 billion largesse for his subjects in unemployment, housing, and other benefits. It included a $200 million package for the religious establishment that had obligingly decreed that street protests were forbidden in Islam. The move paid off. Still, a slight whiff of jasmine over the kingdom was unmistakable when a handful of Saudi women took the wheels of their cars on June 17 in protest against an official ban on women driving. Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world with such a ban. Driving was prohibited after a similar protest in 1990 by a group of women who decided it was time to challenge the unofficial ban that had existed until then. The prohibition was based on the dubious ground that it led to ikhtilat or ‘gender mixing,' ruled by Saudi clerics as not permitted in Islam. Paradoxically, women can own cars. In some rural areas, and inside compounds such as a university or an office layout, they drive them too. But the ban is strictly followed in most places, with women dependent on men to chauffeur them around. Manal al-Sharif was doubtless emboldened by the democracy movements in the neighbourhood when she used social media networks to launch Women2Drive, a campaign urging Saudi women to break the ban, starting from the third Friday of June. The call evidently rattled the Saudi government, as seen from its swift moves to snuff out the campaign by arresting the 32-year-old Aramco engineer for over a week and taking her pages off the Internet. But the idea had already found resonance.

Mobility empowers women, and Saudi women see driving as the first step to win more freedoms from a brazenly anti-women regime. But Saudi women want to drive for some practical reasons also: it makes more economic sense than employing a driver and allows better time management. Many even argue it means less ‘gender-mixing,' as it reduces dependence on non-family male drivers. That the Saudi authorities decided, after the initial reaction, not to use a heavy hand against the women who participated in the protest is a sign of its caution in the present regional environment. Two decades ago, it sacked the protesting women from their jobs, and penalised their male relatives. The regime's maximum response this time — a traffic ticket to one woman for driving without a Saudi licence — may mean one of two things: hope that ignoring the protest will make it go away; or a possibility of relaxation of the ban in the belief that such limited ‘reform' will act as a safety valve, keeping the lid on demands for more far-reaching political reform. Either way, it is a small step forward for women.

Will Tiger roar again?

Thanks to a lingering knee injury, Tiger Woods was absent — for the first time since 1995 — from last weekend's U.S. Open. But has his game been wounded in a much more debilitating and lasting way? Ever since the sex scandal destroyed his marriage and family life in late 2009, Woods has not won even one tournament; he has lost the last 22 in which he played. Notwithstanding his promises to return to his earlier form, rivals such as Luke Donald, Lee Westwood, and Martin Kaymer have climbed to the top of the rankings ladder as he has slipped to a lowly 13th. Before the stories about his infidelities broke in rapid succession, it seemed only a matter of time before Woods, with 14 titles in golf's four major tournaments — the U.S. Open, the U.S. PGA, the British Open and the Masters — would surpass Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 victories. Now the chances of his doing so, and establishing his place as the greatest golfer ever beyond a smidgeon of doubt, have virtually vanished. He seemed to have it for the asking and he blew it. This is what makes the Tiger Woods story so painful for the legion of fans, who marvelled at his genius, celebrated his victories, and believed they were witnessing history in the making.

Of course, it is too early to write Tiger off. At 35, he may no longer be young, but golf is a sport where champions often blossom in their thirties (the current number one Luke Donald is 33) and, on occasion, remain in bloom until much later (Jack Nicklaus won his last major when he was 46). Recently, he has made radical alterations to his golf swing. While these have been fiercely criticised by some experts, the new swing probably needs more time to settle in and more time before a proper assessment is made of its merits. Golf is very much a mental game and it is possible that Woods may return to form with the return of some focus and equanimity in his personal life. But one thing seems certain. It will be impossible for Woods to recapture those glory days in the early 2000s when he routinely won tournaments by huge margins, when he rewrote golfing record after golfing record, when he alone was on Mount Olympus while the others seemed to merely labour in the foothills. In fact, Tiger had lost that kind of supremacy well before he was scandal-scarred; to hope to regain it now is simply unfeasible. What he can do, however, is to show he has the talent and the appetite to win tournaments again and re-establish himself as one of the world's top-ranking golfers. It would be a personal triumph and an emotional catharsis if he does this. For his many fans, it would be a fitting end to a shining, if chequered, golfing career.