Dubai, Sept. 22 (Reuters): A Saudi cleric who said women should not drive because their brains shrink to a quarter the size of a man's when they go shopping has been banned from preaching, state television said.

Saad al-Hijri was suspended from all religious activity after advising against allowing women to drive in a speech that contained comments "diminishing human value", the broadcaster quoted a spokesman for the governor of Asir province as saying.

In a video identifying him as the head of the religious edicts department in the southern province, Hijri asked what the traffic department would do it if it discovered a man with only half a brain. "Would it give him a licence or not? It would not. So how can it give it to a woman when she has only half?" he said. "If she goes to the market she loses another half. What is left? A quarter..."