--- title: Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Says Saudi Women Should Drive description: In a letter, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal wrote that Saudi Women should be able to drive in the country, which bans women from driving canonical: https://time.com/4585511/saudi-arabia-prince-alwaleed-bin-talal-women-drive-2/ author: Madeline Farber article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-29T22:08:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:03:59.204Z og:title: A Saudi Prince Says It's Finally Time to Let Women Drive og:description: 'It is high time that Saudi women started driving their cars' og:url: https://time.com/4585511/saudi-arabia-prince-alwaleed-bin-talal-women-drive-2/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt594e31942bc85651/6988affafb4eac4a3f8900ad/prince-alwaleed-bin-talal.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Key Speakers At MiSK Global Forum og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A Saudi Prince Says It's Finally Time to Let Women Drive twitter:description: 'It is high time that Saudi women started driving their cars' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt594e31942bc85651/6988affafb4eac4a3f8900ad/prince-alwaleed-bin-talal.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A Saudi Prince Says It's Finally Time to Let Women Drive (29 Nov 2016) by [Madeline Farber](https://time.com/author/madeline-farber/) ## Madeline Farber Nov 29, 2016 10:08 PM UTC  Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal. Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal.Mohammad Obaidi—Bloomberg/Getty Images by [Madeline Farber](https://time.com/author/madeline-farber/) ## Madeline Farber Nov 29, 2016 10:08 PM UTC A member of the [Saudi](http://time.com/4514991/saudi-arabia-relations/) royal family has broken with long-established tradition and called for [the country](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/10/27/7-ridiculous-restrictions-on-womens-rights-around-the-world/) to allow women to drive. [Prince Alwaleed bin Talal](http://time.com/4146579/saudi-prince-donald-trump-alwaleed-bin-talal/) posted a letter Tuesday titled “[It is High Time that Saudi Women Started Driving their Cars](http://www.alwaleed.com.sa/news-and-media/news/driving/),” to his [Twitter ](https://twitter.com/Alwaleed%5FTalal/status/803672332485017600)account. Saudi Arabia is the only country where it’s illegal for women to drive. “Preventing a woman from driving a car today is an issue of rights similar to the one that forbade her from receiving an education or having an independent identity,” he wrote. Alwaleed went on to list financial, economic, social, religious, and political factors that women should be allowed to drive there. > [](https://twitter.com/Alwaleed%5FTalal/status/803672332485017600) Alwaleed wrote that allowing women to drive cars would lead to job growth, and notes that it comes as a “necessity,” not a “social luxury” as it has been in the past—writing that there’s an “urgent social demand predicated upon current economic circumstances.” But Alwaleed’s beliefs are a drastically different from [the country’s](http://time.com/4512509/president-obama-veto-override-mistake/) deputy crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud. In April, [he said](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/saudi-arabia-is-not-ready-for-women-drivers-says-deputy-crown-prince-mohammed-bin-salman-a7004611.html) that he’s “not convinced about women driving,” citing social, not religious, reasons for his opinion. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4585511/saudi-arabia-prince-alwaleed-bin-talal-women-drive-2/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4585511/saudi-arabia-prince-alwaleed-bin-talal-women-drive-2/"},"headline":"A Saudi Prince Says It's Finally Time to Let Women Drive (29 Nov 2016)","datePublished":"2016-11-29T22:08:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:03:59.204Z","description":"'It is high time that Saudi women started driving their cars'","url":"https://time.com/4585511/saudi-arabia-prince-alwaleed-bin-talal-women-drive-2/","keywords":["motto","Saudi Arabia"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt594e31942bc85651/6988affafb4eac4a3f8900ad/prince-alwaleed-bin-talal.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Madeline Farber","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/madeline-farber/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt594e31942bc85651/6988affafb4eac4a3f8900ad/prince-alwaleed-bin-talal.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Key Speakers At MiSK Global Forum","caption":"Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal. 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