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Let Women Drive, a Prince in Saudi Arabia Urges

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2015. In a four-page letter posted on his personal website, the prince argued that “it is high time that Saudi women started driving their cars.”Credit...Fayez Nureldine/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

A prominent Saudi prince and business magnate has added his voice to the debate over women’s rights in his country, urging it to abandon its driving ban for women.

“Stop the debate,” the prince, Alwaleed bin Talal, wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. “It’s time for women to drive.”

In a four-page letter posted on his personal website, he argued that “it is high time that Saudi women started driving their cars,” and he couched his views in economic terms, noting that foreign drivers are typically paid 3,800 riyals, or about $1,000, a month to shuttle women around. The cost, he argued, contributes to capital outflows and strains household budgets at a time when Saudi Arabia is trying to shift its economy away from reliance on oil.

Prince Alwaleed’s statement seemed unlikely to affect policy.

In April, Mohammed bin Salman, the deputy crown prince, who has amassed power in Riyadh, the capital, and is seen as a contender for the throne, said he was “not convinced” that women should be allowed to drive, adding that his reservations concerned resistance in society rather than religious doctrine.

The driving ban is enforced by Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry, and it has been the occasional target of protests. Women were allowed to vote and run in local elections last December for the first time. But they have a low rate of participation in the work force, a problem for the kingdom as it tries to diversify its economy and rely less on foreign workers.

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‘Ladies First’: Saudi Arabia’s Female Candidates

In this documentary, The Times takes us into the largely inaccessible world of Saudi women by profiling three women running for public office, including Loujain al-Hathloul, in the first Saudi election open to female candidates.

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In this documentary, The Times takes us into the largely inaccessible world of Saudi women by profiling three women running for public office, including Loujain al-Hathloul, in the first Saudi election open to female candidates.CreditCredit...Yousur Al-Hlou for The New York Times

Prince Alwaleed is not in the government and does not speak for it, but as one of the world’s wealthiest investors he enjoys a higher profile than most other Saudi royals. A billionaire, he is particularly active in the hotel and construction industries and has extensive holdings in the United States and Europe.

Prince Alwaleed wrote that the ban could not be defended under religious law. “Such a ban on driving is fundamentally an infringement on a woman’s rights, particularly as it continues to exist after she had won her right to an education and a salaried employment.”

Ending the ban would allow the kingdom to eventually “dispense with” the services of an estimated one million drivers and would stimulate the economy by allowing women to work by driving other women who did not feel comfortable behind the wheel.

This is not the first time Prince Alwaleed has found himself at the center of a controversy.

In 2008, a 20-year-old model accused Prince Alwaleed of raping her on a yacht off the coast of the Spanish island of Ibiza. In 2012, a panel of Spanish judges dismissed the case, citing a lack of evidence.

Last December, Prince Alwaleed denounced Donald J. Trump, then a candidate for the Republican nomination for president. “You are a disgrace not only to the GOP but to all America,” he wrote on Twitter. “Withdraw from the U.S. presidential race as you will never win.”

On Nov. 9, after Mr. Trump won the general election, Prince Alwaleed wrote, “Whatever the past differences, America has spoken, congratulations & best wishes for your presidency.”

A correction was made on 
Dec. 29, 2016

An article on Dec. 1 about calls by a Saudi prince, Alwaleed bin Talal, to lift Saudi Arabia’s ban on women driving misidentified the body that enforces the ban. It is the Interior Ministry, not the religious police.

How we handle corrections

Follow Sewell Chan on Twitter @sewellchan.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 10 of the New York edition with the headline: Let Women Drive, a Saudi Prince Urges. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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