Saudi Arabia's powerful Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz criticised calls to lift a ban on women drivers and said argument over the issue could harm the kingdom. Dashing hopes of a swift end to the decades-long ban, Nayef said he was surprised the matter had been raised by a member of the consultative Shura council.
"Does he understand what the priorities are? ... We consider (the question) to be secondary, not a priority," Nayef said in remarks carried by the official Saudi Press Agency late on Sunday.
"These matters are decided according to the general good and what is dictated by women's honour, but I urge everybody to put a stop to this and not make an issue out of it that pits one group against another," Nayef said.
Women in Saudi Arabia face some of the severest restrictions in the Arab world. They were barred from voting in the country's first nation-wide elections this year, and should be covered up and accompanied by a male relative in public.
Last month the Shura council declined to discuss a proposal put forward by council member Mohammad al-Zulfa for a gradual lifting of the ban on women drivers.
But Zulfa said he was winning support for his case, arguing that the ban cost Saudi Arabia billions of dollars a year to hire drivers for women and that having foreign drivers was even less compatible with Islamic requirements.