Sam: You seem to be taking it more personally than logically. These women were never told it’s okay to drive. It’s not some bolt of lighting out of nowhere ban, taking away an age old right. It was just something that was apparently never enforced to this degree because it was self understood. Nowadays with the growth of our communities rules need to unfortunately be set in stone for them to stick, as among so many people there are always “ober chachachim” that challenge everything and contribute to the yeridas hadoros.
Look around you at the secular public and you’ll realize how true this is especially in regards to modesty. Or better yet don’t look. The dropping of standards happened relatively quickly because individual women decided they can wear A or B or remove C and D and no one can deny them the right to “self-expression”.
Tznius is not black and white like many other halachos, so you taking issue with something you don’t understand and were brought up differently is understandable. What I don’t understand is your denying others the right to enforce their own community’s standard.
Let’s say for example Satmar, following the Chasam Sofer’s ruling, decides that women who wear their own hair beneath their head covering — a minority “prohibition” — their children can’t be allowed into Satmar schools, would you be also be up in arms? Well, I don’t know if it’s the case or not but it would make sense for them since it’s one of the principles of Satmar, even if to you it seems alien.
Most frum schools have rules for the parents, whether they like it or not…