NOW's Nearsightedness

National Organization of Women's board member Jerin Arifa told the gathering at its 2011 annual conference this week, "Americans should focus more on stopping the abuse of the women in their own backyard rather than the women in the Middle East." Neveen El-Nawawy, a Muslim activist, apparently agreed. She reportedly said "Islam and Feminism are not conflicting ideals as some would think."

That would probably surprise Saudi Arabian woman activist Manal al-Sharif, who was arrested last month for driving a car. The Saudi driving ban has been in place since 1991, when Islamic clerics ruled it indecent for women to drive as it would reveal their hands and increase their chance of socializing with young men.

The Islam based theocracy in Saudi Arabia imposes certain laws which discriminate women in many ways from men including a ban on driving. Saudi clerics issued a non-binding fatwa, or religious edict, in 1991 banning women from driving. Following an earlier generation's attempt to protest the ban, the interior ministry decreed that women should never drive. Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world which issues driving license only to men.

Earlier this year, petitions were filed to the Shoura Council to discuss the freedom of women to drive in the kingdom, but the council denied the receipt of it.

According to the petition, many Saudi women acquire international driving licenses from other countries and drive when abroad. “We appeal to the Shoura Council to discuss the matter and permit it on an experimental basis, at particular times and in selected cities or places accompanied by harsh and deterrent regulations to protect women from any kind of harassment,” say signatories of the petition.

Saudi women appealed to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton "seeking her support for their right to drive in the country."

NOW must have missed Clinton's announcement this week voicing support for Saudi women.