Life without Ijtihad

Miss Hanadi Zakariyya Al-Hindi has created history by being the first female pilot in Saudi Arabia. Prince Al-Waleed, a business tycoon, owner of The Kingdom Holding Company, has employed the pilot for next ten years through a lucrative contract. His company, The Kingdom Holding Company, is the proud owner of a full-fledged fleet of jet airplanes. Al-Waleed was genuinely concerned with the emancipation and uplift of Saudi women. He celebrated the commission of the first female pilot by publishing full-page supplements in the Kingdom's newspapers.
This all, however, did not go well will the hawks. They came down on the whole affair with heavy hands. The most thunderous was the voice of one Sheikh Yousuf Al-Ahmed, a professor of Islamic Law at Islamic University of Riyadh. The argument was that since a Muslim woman was not supposed to travel alone, unless accompanied by mahram (a male first relation like husband, father, brother etc) and since the pilot was a 'woman' without a mahram, the whole phenomenon was unlawful. The sheikh declared the entire publicity affair equally un-Islamic.
A place where even car driving by females is a crime, flying jets amounted, naturally, to height of audacity .It was in 1990 when late Sheikh Abdul Azeem Bin Baz, the Shariah-mentor of Saudi Royal Family, issued Islamic decree (fatwa) against car driving by females. In the same year 47 ladies demonstrated car-driving in Riyadh. They were thrown out of their jobs and were, along with their families, barred from leaving the country.
Even a perfunctory look at the social history will reveal that travelling then and now is not the same activity. In early Islamic days camel and horse were the main modes of journey. People would form caravans and would move in flocks. They were, frequently, attacked, plundered and killed. It was humanly not possible to travel for a woman on her own. But the mode as well as circumstances now are different. Imagine millions of Muslim families living in America, Canada, Europe, Australia and elsewhere. Every week thousands of married girls travel back - all alone - to see their ailing, dying fathers and mothers. The question which a common Muslim asks: Is it possible for every old man to accompany his wife to Europe, America or Australia to attend their children? Is it feasible for every husband to take leave from his employer to accompany his wife back home?