No Woman, No Drive
A cleric in Saudi Arabia had made a public health claim so bizarre that it shouldn’t exist in the modern world: driving damages women’s ovaries and causes birth defects. Hischam Fakih, a Saudi artist and activist, took that claim and weaponized it through parody. He recorded a version of Bob Marley’s No Woman, No Cry
with a friend, singing the official absurdity back to the people it was meant to control. In traditional dress, he mimics that same cleric, warning women away from the steering wheel: I remember you sitting in the family car, but in the backseat, so your ovaries stay intact and you can produce many babies.
There’s something almost beautifully stupid about delivering pseudoscience over reggae. It makes the lie impossible to ignore.
Fakih released the video as part of a larger action—a day when women were supposed to drive anyway, authorities be damned. The results were predictable and depressing. The regime had made its threats clear beforehand. Most women stayed home. At least sixteen who tried were stopped by police, fined, and forced to sign statements promising to follow the kingdom’s rules in the future. Not a rebellion. Not even close. Just an attempt, swiftly shut down.
What makes this even more absurd is that Saudi Arabia is the only country on earth where women can’t drive. It’s not even officially illegal; the whole thing rests on a single fatwa from 1990. No law. No legislation. Just one religious opinion that somehow became absolute fact for millions of people. And when someone tries to point out how ridiculous that opinion is, they get arrested for it.