Saudi Women Driving

International Women's Day: Celebrating Saudi Women

2012-03-09T07:46:00.000-08:00

From Forbes magazine. The article is pasted below, a link to the story is here.

I write about the Middle East for Forbes

International Women's Day: Celebrating Saudi Arabian Women

This International Women’s Day, a ForbesWoman post asked: “What Are We Celebrating, Anyway?” Well, perhaps it’s not a “what” but a “who” – Saudi Arabian women. Spearheaded by the Saudi women’s driving campaign, 2011 saw groundbreaking changes in regulations that allow women to work and participate in the Kingdom’s political bodies.
Women2Drive
In the wake of the Arab spring’s internet presence, it should come as no surprise that Women2Drive, the hashtag which symbolized the Saudi women’s driving campaign on Facebook and Twitter, trended internationally last year. Its Facebook page currently has over 17,000 likes.
The slogan represents a movement which seeks to overturn the de facto ban on women driving in the Kingdom. Although there is no out-and-out law banning female drivers, licenses are not issued to women, even if they hold other international permits. Women risk sentences of fines, jail or floggings for driving.
Supporters of the Women2Drive campaign claim the ban is a costly restriction on Saudi women, forcing them to pay thousands of dollars a year for a driver.
Saudi Billionaire Alwaleed: This End Of America Talk Is Baloney
The movement, which peaked with a series of women’s drives last June, drew worldwide attention to the issue. The repercussions for women drivers were far smaller than a similar 1990 campaign, when 47 women were arrested. Last year one activist, Mania al-Sharif, received 10 days in prison. Another driver, Shaima Jastaniah, was sentenced to 10 lashes, which was later overturned by Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah.
Abdullah has not yet indicated when women would be allowed to drive.
Employment
New legislation means monumental changes in women’s opportunity for employment in Saudi, as women are now allowed to work as sales clerks in lingerie stores. Now, this may seem like a small change, but the move counts for more than just meaning women no longer have to discuss their bra sizes with men. Advocates consider it an important step for the increasing number of young women who want to enter the workplace.
A staggering 45.8% of Saudi females are unemployed, according to 2008 figures. The BBC reported the new law could create up to 40,000 jobs for ordinary Saudi women who have had little prior opportunity to work in a job market where employment is usually limited to the educated female elite.
Politics
2011 was also a year of political improvement for Saudi women. King Abdullah announced that starting in 2015, women will have the right to stand and vote in future local elections. Women were barred from the Kingdom’s first municipal elections in 2005, but were promised permission to vote in the next round, scheduled for 2009. These elections were pushed back to 2011, when women were once again excluded. Abdullah’s decree comes as a welcome step in the right direction.
Abdullah also declared women would be able to join the consultative Shura council as full voting members. Women first joined the Shura council – an advisory board to the King – in 2006, when six women were appointed. That number has now increased to 12, and looks set to keep rising.
Whilst 2011 may have been a year of change for Saudi women, problems still persist. Saudi Arabia recently invoked international outrage when it declared it would not be bringing a women’s team to the London Olympics in 2012.

Amnesty International: Support Saudi Women in Their Driving Struggle

2012-03-06T07:59:00.001-08:00

In honor of International Women's Day on March 8, 2012, Amnesty International has issued a call for people around the world to voice their support for lifting the ban on Saudi women driving. They ask people to upload photos of themselves with signs of support onto Flickr. Here is the link for posting your photo.

A link to their press release is here and below, their video on YouTube.

The excerpt about Saudi women driving from their press release:

Drivers of change in Saudi Arabia

Due to Saudi Arabia’s male-controlled “guardianship” system, women are discriminated against and denied control over their own lives on a wide range of social, personal, and economic issues.

Perhaps one of the most unusual, yet pervasive, restrictions is a de facto ban on Saudi Arabian women driving in the country, even when they hold valid international driver’s licenses and freely drive elsewhere in the world.

Last year, women activists re-launched the campaign to protest against the ban called “Women2Drive”, which used social media to urge women with international driver’s licenses to take to the roads from 17 June 2011 onwards.

Scores of women participated in the action, with many arrested and forced to sign pledges never to drive again. At least one woman was tried and sentenced to 10 lashes for defying the ban.

Although Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah announced women would have the right to vote in municipal elections in 2015, the divisive driving ban has yet to be overturned.

Amnesty International sees the ban as symbolic of the many areas of life where women in the kingdom continue to have their human rights heavily restricted.

The organization is calling on people around the world to share images and messages of solidarity with Saudi Arabian women activists, supporting them in their “drive to freedom”.

Saudi Women Driving: A Counter View

2012-02-25T07:43:00.000-08:00

Interesting and thoughtful blog post by Abu Muhammad, a self-described American Muslim in exile. A link to the post is here and the text is pasted in below. In essence he says the situation in Saudi Arabia regarding women driving requires some kind of a tipping point. And he suggests a few.

By Abu Muhammad
In the wake of the un-ending debate about women driving, as a college professor in Saudi Arabia, I have a bird’s eye view of what many Saudi men are saying over the issue.

Many people on both sides of this emotional argument only see what they perceive to be important to their side of the problem—and that ‘right’ is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ is ‘wrong’. It reminds me of the perennial slap-stick movie gag about a guy who demands to have a closet door opened after ignoring the attempts of his companion to warn him of the impending avalanche of content waiting to bury him.

Most Saudi male students I’ve talked to about it for the last several terms do not have any trouble with women driving. The real issue is the lack of serious enforcement of traffic laws – something most westerners seldom factor into the problem. It is perhaps the true reason why females in the Kingdom do not have driving privileges.

The reality of most impeccably covered Saudi woman walking the streets; or even being driven around by the family driver, is that most excursions are usually a perilous undertaking. This is the reason Riyadh and cities like it have ‘ladies’ or ‘family only’ malls with rent-a-cops to keep the free grazing ‘shebob’ (male youth) from harassing women shoppers.

The majority of the Saudi population (percentage wise) are hormonal teenage boys driven crazy by the notion that they need to wait until some time in their 30’s to get hitched and then come up with an obscenely high bride price to get to the alter after that. Outside their tribe, women (young or old) are fair game for being proposition by unmarried Saudi boys as can be seen in this video.

As you might notice in the 26 second video, a young woman is strolling through traffic down a busy street in the city (cities in Saudi typically have no sidewalks; thereby making any lengthy walk a street maneuver through traffic). Despite being accompanied by a small boy (usually an indication she is spoken for), you would think she was wearing a bikini by the racket they are making. Saudi and expat women take a surprising amount of heat in a country where religious police roam the streets looking for violators of the public moral scruples.

While discussing the issue with one of my students, he related the following story:

“I put on an Abaya and had a non-Saudi friend drive me through the streets of downtown Jeddah one night. I sat in the back and rolled down the window half way so they could see that (besides the driver) I was alone. As we drove, boys jeered and whistled at me from cars and on the street. Boys in cars tried to force us to pull over. They pleaded to talk; begged to get in and screamed obscene comments. Six cars chased us to the beach front in Abhor where we finally pulled over. I jumped out and took off my Abaya. They scattered like bugs when you turn on the light. It was really funny.”

Many students also admit that if the women in their family were involved in an accident, they would be compelled by an honor to exact revenge—a custom that is practiced within tribal circles; back streets and beyond serious concern or attention of the local police and the jurisdiction of Saudi courts. Knowing how Saudi boys love their moms, such a situation could give Saudi its first murder rate statistic, letting women drive now could be the beginning of the end to the relative security residence experience on Saudi streets.

Contrary to popular belief, women driving in Saudi Arabia is not a human rights cause—but largely a social one.

If this is indeed the case, the solution should be addressed not as a human rights violation where big; bad men are oppressing weak; defenseless women —but as problem that can be easily solved through modifying certain environmental factors.

In Malcolm Gladwell’s book The Tipping Point: How little Things Can Make a Big Difference, he explains how changes in an environment can make significant differences in the way people act or how they see things.

In an interview with NPR Radio in America, Gladwell attributes the dramatic decrease in crime in New York in recent years to certain environmental changes. He believes that cleaning up the New York Subway and posting police to keep people from jumping the turnstiles created a ‘tipping point’ that caused the crime rate to drop. He said by using the “Power of Context” small changes can generate big ones. In brief, Gladwell says if you show people that someone cares about what is going on and maintain the surroundings accordingly, people will change their behavior. To paraphrase Muhammad Qutb, people want to do right, but they need imposed restrictions (laws and rules) to help them to do it.

With Gladwell’s theory in mind, I believe the following measures would create the conditions for a ‘tipping point’—that is, a context where women could drive in Saudi Arabia:

• Police need to enforce all traffic laws. If you are increasing the number of inexperienced drivers on the roads, the police need to make sure everyone obeys the rules so that everyone can obey the rules. As a licensed driver in Saudi, I find myself many times disobeying the law to keep from having an accident on a road where anything goes.

• The tribalism that conditions people to be merely concerned with their own and that of their relatives rather than the general public good is a socio-psychological pillar of the Bedouin mindset. Community leaders and schools should try to change this way of thinking by supporting a more civic prospective to public well being in all school through the college level. Besides giving lip service to the idea, this change to a more community-centered approach to life in Saudi could be initiated by the current anti-littering campaign if it is vigorously supported and modeled by police, community leaders and even the crown.

• Police need to be in the community (walking or bike patrols) as a deterrent to the street justice everyone in the Saudi ‘hood’ practices because police aren’t around. In a society where family honor is a big deal, having someone around that could catch you in the act usually is enough to keep undesirable behavior in check.

Since Saudi religious conservatives aren’t budging on the matter of women driving (perhaps rightfully so, but that’s not the subject of this article), maybe a more practical; tactful and more patient approach should be considered.

Opening the door to a situation without fully considering the consequences could cause an avalanche of problems and ills that may cause more harm

Princess Ameera al-Taweel on driving with Charlie Rose

2012-02-22T09:04:00.000-08:00

On 2/7/2012, Princess Ameera al-Taweel, along with her husband, were interviewed by Charlie Rose on his show. The video link is below. She addresses the driving issue at around 4:00 into the interview. The link is here

Saudi set to reject woman’s plea to drive car

2012-02-09T07:09:00.000-08:00

According to Emirates 24/7, Sheikh Mutraf Al Bashar will be hearing the complaint filed by Manal al-Sharif and Samar Badawi about women driving in Saudi Arabia. A link to the story is here, and it's also pasted in below. Interestingly, the headline is a bit misleading because the judge says that there are no administrative reasons for denying women the right to drive. Stay tuned!

Judge says accepting case does not mean agreeing to woman’s plea

By Staff - Published Thursday, February 09, 2012

Sheikh Mutraf Al Bashar (SUPPLIED)

A Saudi judge indicated on Thursday he would reject a plea by a local female activist demanding that women in the conservative Muslim Gulf kingdom are allowed to drive a car despite a long-standing social ban.

Sheikh Mutraf Al Bashar, who heads an administrative court, better known as grievances court, said the case filed by Manal Al Sharif is against a government department since women are denied driving licences by the traffic police.

“Agreeing to hear the case does not mean that I accept her demand to allow women in Saudi Arabia to drive cars,” he told Saqb newspaper.

“Such cases are not accepted by normal courts but grievances courts since it is against a government department.…these women base their case on the fact that the traffic police law does not discriminate between men and women…but we should also take into account the general trend in the society…this fact will determine whether women have the right to drive or not.”

He said his court remains “controlled” by certain social norms, adding that the Saudi society could still be not prepared to accept such things.“In such a case, we need to work to prepare the society to accept these things and should also devise a new legal system that will define punishment of those who will harass or abuse women who drive cars.”

Bahar said he saw no difference between males and females in the traffic law “from the administrative point of view” but added that a final approval is needed from the Monarch even if the society accepts that women drive cars.

Al Sharif, who hit headlines last year for spearheading a female campaign to allow women to drive cars in Saudi Arabia, filed the case at the administrative court in the eastern region, demanding a decision to force the country’s traffic police to allow women to have driving licence.It was the first case of its kind in the largest Arab economy and follows intensifying calls by women on Saudi authorities to end the ban.“The court has accepted the case filed by Manal al Sharif on the grounds there is no law in Saudi Arabia stipulating a ban on driving licences for women by the traffic police,” her lawyer Abdul Rahman Al Lahim said last week.
“It is the first case in Saudi Arabia..…we have based our argument in this case on the fact that the kingdom’s constitution calls for equal treatment between men and women and an international agreement signed by Saudi Arabia ending any discrimination against women.”

Lahim said he hoped the court would issue a positive sentence, adding that this would support women’s rights.He said the court had not yet fixed a date for hearings and expected it to issue a sentence that would end the ban on giving driving licences to women.

Wall Street Journal - Saudi Women Sue for Right to Drive

2012-02-07T13:20:00.000-08:00

This report from the Wall Street Journal (via Fox News) states that a court has agreed to hear the arguments in the law suit about Saudi women driving, and that a new government commission has been established to consider issues like this. Link to the story is here and the text is pasted below.
____________________________________________________
Published February 07, 2012 | The Wall Street Journal

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- A court in Saudi Arabia agreed to hear the first lawsuits by Saudi women challenging the kingdom's de facto ban on women driving, a lawyer for one of the women said.

The legal push is a shift by activists after years of simply appealing to Saudi leaders for permission to drive and, more rarely, taking to the roads in small numbers to test enforcement.

Since mid-2011, the limited push to win women the right to drive has been one of the few fronts in a country largely bypassed by the Arab Spring activist movements of the past year.

The lawsuits, one of them by Manal al Sharif, who founded a small movement last year called Women2Drive, risk a backlash from the public and officials in the conservative kingdom.

But with no breakthroughs in a campaign for the right to drive begun by Saudi women during the first Gulf war in the early 1990s, it was time to change tactics, said Sharif, a 32-year-old Saudi computer consultant. "It's 22 years now," she said. "We have to just finish it."

Government officials contacted about the case did not respond to requests for comment.

No written law bans women from driving in Saudi Arabia, and King Abdullah has said he sees nothing wrong with women driving. But in a country founded by followers of the strict Wahhabi interpretation of Islam, women are uniformly denied driver's licenses and risk sentences of fines, jail or floggings for driving.

Advocates of a ban say it is in line with stringent interpretations of the Koran that discourage the mixing of unrelated women and men. A report prepared by a Saudi academic in December for an advisory body to the king said allowing women the freedom to drive would lead to widespread loss of virginity among unmarried Saudi women.

Advocates of the right to drive call the de facto ban a crippling and costly restriction on millions of Saudi women, forcing them to pay thousands of dollars a year for a driver, depend on male relatives for rides, or simply stay at home.

Sharif started her campaign last year, the same day a Saudi court jailed her for more than a week for driving and having herself videotaped driving.

Sharif's lawyer, AbdulRahman Allahim, said Monday that a court that hears citizen complaints against the government, the Board of Grievances, had agreed to hear the case. Prosecution of women drivers is typically handled elsewhere, in religious courts.

In a possible shift that could improve the chances of women seeking the right to drive, among other issues, a local newspaper reported on Saturday that Saudi authorities would create a new commission to handle social issues such as women driving.

While the government has not confirmed the report, the suggestion that cases of women driving might be moved out of religious courts electrified both sides of the debate.

MIA Video - Bad Girls driving in the desert

2012-02-06T08:36:00.000-08:00

MIA's video clip of "Bad Girls" is said to be a poke at the women's driving ban. I like it, but it seems more about being a 'bad girl' in the desert with a bunch of guys. It is pretty powerful in any case.

Also, the outfit she wore with Madonna in the Super Bowl 2012 half-time show seems to be a cross between Bedouin and Drum Majorette. Headdress - awesome. Skirt? Not so much. And the obscene gesture? What do you expect? She's a 'bad girl' after all.

So if you haven't seen the video, here it is. What do you think? I'm including this video because it deals with the idea of women out driving in the desert. Has a sort of James Dean rebellious feel about it. And, it's kind of fun. Love the guys folk dancing and having a good time.

Saudi activists sue government over driving ban

2012-02-04T17:16:00.000-08:00

This from Agence France Press today: Text below, and link is here

RIYADH — (February 4, 2012) Two Saudi female activists have filed law suits against the government for refusing to issue them driver's licences and banning them from driving a car, they told AFP on Saturday.

Manal al-Sherif, the icon of an Internet campaign launched last year urging Saudi women to defy a ban on driving, and human rights activist Samar Badawi filed their suits against the interior ministry.

Sherif, who was arrested in May 2011 and detained for 10 days after posting on YouTube a video of herself driving, said she decided to file the lawsuit after having been denied a driver's licence.

"There is no actual law that states woman can't drive" in Saudi Arabia and therefore "no justification for preventing them from issuing a licence," said Sherif, one of the activists behind a "My Right, My Dignity" campaign aimed at ending discrimination against women in Saudi Arabia.

Badawi said the grievance board at the interior ministry had informed her to "follow-up in a week" to confirm a court appointment for her lawsuit.

Ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia is the only country where women are not allowed to drive. However, they sit behind the wheel in desert regions away from the capital.

Women in the kingdom who have the financial means hire drivers while others must depend on the goodwill of male relatives.

They also have to be veiled in public and cannot travel unless accompanied by their husbands or a close male relative.

Women and the Arab uprisings: 8 'agents of change' to follow

2012-02-04T09:13:00.000-08:00

Saudi women driving activist Manal al-Sharif is featured in this major CNN story. The text is below and a link to the story is here.

- Story by Lauren Bohn
(CNN) -- Women have been at the forefront of the uprisings that started in Tunisia and soon cascaded west to Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria and across the Gulf. Over the past year, Arab women have relished the promise of a change -- and found a new sense of equality long suppressed under sclerotic patriarchal regimes.

But many women activists fear that promise is now receding; and that women's rights are being left on the political back-burner. In Egypt's first post-Mubarak parliamentary elections -- largely seen as the nation's first free and fair vote -- only nine of the newly elected 498 parliamentarians are women.

Popular Egyptian activist blogger Dalia Zaida says shortly before the elections, she conducted an informal poll of 1,400 voters across Cairo and found not a single person, male or female, who said he or she would vote for a female presidential candidate. Women across the region worry about this growing chasm between the reality of women's unyielding participation on the streets and their stark absence from the formal political process.

Some secular female activists also fear that the rise of Islamist parties, whatever their professed moderation, will curtail their political space.

In Egypt, women have faced brutal treatment at the hands of the caretakers of the revolution -- the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. Activists describe its handling of protests as incompetent at best, and malevolent at its worst. Back in March, when the military forcibly expelled protestors from Tahrir Square -- the epicenter of pro-democracy protests -- 18 female activists were arrested, 17 of whom say they were forced to undergo "virginity tests," (the military has claimed the tests were done to protect the army from possible allegations of rape).

Recently, hundreds of women from across the Middle East attended a conference in Egypt to discuss how technology and the Internet, namely social media, can be used to protect and advance women's goals in the region. The Egyptian-American pundit Mona Eltahaway moderated the conference, taking the stage with both arms in casts. In November, she was sexually assaulted and beaten by soldiers near Tahrir Square. The plaster didn't preclude her from articulating her message: "The most revolutionary thing a woman can do is share her experience as if it matters."

As countries across the region struggle to dismantle inequitable systems and build civil society anew, these are just a few of the female "agents of change" who are sharing their experiences and have no intention of backing down.

Manal al Sharif (Saudi Arabia)
Follow on Twitter: @manal_alsharif

Last May, 32-year-old information security consultant Manal al Sharif got into her car in Saudi Arabia for a joyride -- of sorts. And because, simply by driving, she was breaking the law. As her friend recorded her behind the wheel, al Sharif harangues Saudi Arabia's notoriously strict gender laws. She posted the video online the next day, helping to catalyze the "#Women2Drive" movement of Saudi women who openly defied the ban on driving. She was promptly detained in jail for nine days. Al Sharif has since expanded her campaign to "My rights, my dignity," which fights for women's right to drive and the annulment of male guardianship (under this tradition, Saudi women must obtain permission from their guardian -- usually a father or husband -- to work, travel, study, or marry) among other things. "We're half the society, but we give birth to and raise the other half," al Sharif says. "So we are actually all of society."

Her fight has just begun. Next month, she and fellow Saudi women will apply for drivers' licenses to push the claim that the kingdom's ban on female drivers is not explicitly laid down in law, but merely a retrograde custom propped up by religious rulings, or fatwas, from the kingdom's conservative clerics. And if they are denied? "We will appeal," she says defiantly.

Dalia Ziada (Egypt)
Follow on Twitter: @daliaziada

Dalia Ziada, 30, ran, but lost, in Egypt's parliamentary elections as a candidate for the El Adl ("Justice") party, a new party founded by young revolutionaries that espouses a moderate religious and political ideology. Through the party, she founded the first partisan women's organization in Egypt to promote political literacy and help empower qualified women to run.
Ziada is an award-winning blogger -- whose website was censored twice under ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak -- and a staunch advocate for women's rights. As a child, she was subjected to female genital mutilation. The practice was made illegal in Egypt in 2007, with the country's top Christian and Muslim religious authorities also expressing unequivocal support for the ban. In 2005, research by UNICEF found that 96 percent of Egyptian women ages 15 to 49 who had ever been married reported they had been circumcised. Ziada, the Egypt director of the American Islamic Congress, was recently named by Newsweek as one of 150 most influential women in the world and honored by The Daily Beast as one of world's 17 bravest bloggers.

"The biggest challenge facing women is how they see themselves and their role in the political, economic, and social changes going on around them," says Ziada, who wears a headscarf and is an observant Muslim currently studying International Relations at Tufts University in Boston. "The spring cannot come without flowers. And women are the flowers of the Arab Spring, but if they do not appreciate their own value and societies fail to include them in democratic transformation, the end will not be nice."

Maria Al-Masani (Yemen):
Follow on Twitter: @al_Masani

Maria Al-Masani says she grew up with an abusive father who tried to marry her off at the age of 14. She is now a public relations specialist based in Canada and the founder of Yemen Rights Monitor, a nonpartisan initiative for recording human rights violations in Yemen.
"Since I can't physically be in Yemen, my goal is to save lives by making it easier for the media to shine light on human rights abuses in Yemen," she says with warm hazel eyes and an unshakable poise that helped her win "Miss Congeniality" at the Miss Universe Canada pageant. She says her heroine is a veiled woman in her hometown of Taiz who walked up to a firing squad, urging them to put down their guns.

"My dream is that one day," she says, on the verge of tears, "the president of Yemen will get in her car and drive to Saudi Arabia to shake hands with the king."

Yasmine El-Mehairy (Egypt)
Follow on Twitter: @SuperMamaME

Yasmine El-Mehairy is the co-founder and CEO of Super Mama, the first online parenting community in the Middle East that serves as an information hub for Arab mothers. El-Mehairy says many Arab women grew up in a didactic culture in which they are used to being told what to do -- especially when it comes to parenting. She hopes to change that through information, so that "the woman can finally choose what's best for her."

El-Mehairy says that oftentimes the main source of advice for Arab mothers is their own mothers and grandmothers. But in many cases, she says with a laugh, their experiences are outdated. "We're witnessing generational shifts that have ushered in more Arab mothers working and earning their own money," she says.

One of the most popularly read sections of the website is called "Daddy Darling." "In our region, most men aren't involved at all in raising the children. They are the money makers but leave all the parenting to us," she explains. "Many mothers want to share critiques with their husbands in an indirect way, so we thought the woman could send her husband articles from the website."
El-Mehairy says the section has become so popular with men that they now have volunteer male writers contributing. "We are creating change without breaking cultural and traditional characteristics of the region."

Lamees Dhaif (Bahrain)
Follow on Twitter: @LameesDhaif

"I come from a country where a mother burned herself because her son was repeatedly tortured," Lamees Dhaif, a 32-year-old journalist, resolutely proclaims. "I come from a country where protests happen every day, but no one talks about it. We are the women of the forgotten revolution."

Dhaif is from Bahrain, a tiny island nation between Saudi Arabia and Iran where the United States bases the Navy's Fifth Fleet and where the Shiite majority has frequently protested its political and economic marginalization by the ruling Khalifa dynasty, which is Sunni.
When the Arab Spring broke out, the Shiites, with some Sunni allies, took to the streets in huge numbers, demanding a representative and constitutional democracy. Dhaif, a vocal supporter of the protests, left the country in March 2011 after several death threats against herself and her family.

"Women are punished doubly for speaking out-- one time as a rebel, the other as traitor. If you protest, you're called a prostitute. They used to censor my words, but I don't care," she laughs. She says the number of her followers on Twitter (almost 60,000) exceed the circulation of almost all Bahraini newspapers. "They can stop some now from telling stories, but they can't stop us forever."

Shahinaz Ahmed (Egypt)
Follow on Twitter: @Shahinazahmed

The numbers don't always bode well for Egypt, the fourth-largest economy in the Middle East. The country is grappling with high unemployment, inflation, shrinking foreign investment, labor strikes, declining tourism, and foreign currency reserves that have tumbled to about $10 billion from $36 billion. Forty percent live below the poverty line and unemployment in Egypt has hovered around 12 percent all year.

Sixty percent of Egyptians are 30 years old or younger, and at least one of every four between ages 18 and 30 are out of work. That's where Shahinaz Ahmed comes in. Ahmed is the CEO of Education For Employment Foundation, a nonprofit that tries to help disadvantaged youth via market-based education. "One of the greatest challenges facing women in the region is freedom of choice," she says. "In order to have such freedom, economic independence is critical."
At the EFE, almost half of the job candidates are women. EFE provides them with instruction that qualifies them for entry-level positions with private sector companies. It's been able to place 96% of its graduates in formal employment. "A woman's salary in her hand at the end of the month means that she will owe allegiance to herself and not to anyone else," she says. "It is that autonomy and empowerment that influences women's independent choices."

Fida Ouri (Palestinian Authority)
Follow on Twitter: @Nisaa_FM

Ouri, 23, is the deputy director and webmaster at 96 NISAA FM ("Nisaa" means women in Arabic), the first women's radio station in the Middle East, based in Ramallah in the West Bank. Ouri, mother of one son, says she's the only Palestinian female webmaster. Born in New York and educated in Florida, Ouri moved back home after her studies in America to "create more opportunities and options for women."

Ouri says about 70 percent of Palestinian women use the Internet, yet there is still a dearth of outlets designed to address their concerns. The radio station boasts several programs, including "Qahwa Mazboot" ("Coffee that is just right"), which discusses everything from proper nutrition during pregnancy to workplace decisions.

"We want to inspire women," she says, "as mothers, as wives, as workers, as people."

Danya Bashir Hobba (Libya)
Follow on Twitter: @ceoDanya

Danya Bashir is only 20 years old, but she's already a business owner. She is a two-time winner (the first and only female) of the United Arab Emirates Young Entrepreneurship competition, helping her launch her company "Relora," which focuses on stress management. But the biography on her Twitter account reveals her most lofty goal yet: "The next president of Libya." Just last year, this seemed impossible in a country where Moammar Gadhafi's notorious "Green Book" of political philosophy decreed that a woman's place was in the home.

Born in Arizona and educated in the UAE, Bashir spent summers in Libya, but had limited contact with most people, even her relatives.

"My father was a political exile on the blacklist, so I wasn't able to fully connect to the country," she says, deeming her father her hero. "The biggest crime Gadhafi committed was corrupting people's minds."

During the revolution, Bashir organized shipment for medical treatment and basic needs in Libya. She says 57 percent of the population in Libya is made up of women, and they mostly played a role behind the scenes -- running weapons, smuggling medicine and gathering intelligence. With the fall of Gadhafi, they are reveling in a new freedom to mobilize, but the male-dominated, tribally based society still has a long way to go. Though the country has witnessed a blossoming of dozens of nongovernmental organizations led by women, the 51-member Transitional National Council has just one female member.

"They need guidance on all fronts, we are starting from zero," Danya says, "but the good thing about this is, people here in Libya are motivated and thirsty to learn about their rights, what it means to really be free, and how they can voice their opinions -- we just need the place and people to help guide and teach us. We'll get there."

Saudi woman driver reported killed in car crash is alive

2012-01-25T07:37:00.000-08:00

A link to the story is here, and the text is below.

Anti-driving ban campaigner Manal al-Sharif says unnamed desert woman was victim in fatal Jeddah crash

reddit this Martin Chulov
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 25 January 2012 09.57 EST larger

The woman reported killed in car crash in Saudi Arabia has told the Guardian she is alive, and the real victim was an unnamed member of a desert community.

Manal al-Sharif, the figurehead of a Saudi female driving campaign, said the woman who died in the fatal accident near Jeddah on Monday was not part of a group trying to overturn laws that ban women from taking the wheel.

Sharif and Rasha al-Dowiia, another woman who has defied the kingdom's laws banning female drivers, said officials largely ignored the small bedouin community to which the dead woman belonged, in an area named Ha'el. They said women regularly drove there but police left them alone because the bedouin were detached from mainstream Saudi society.

The dead woman's family is withholding her name. A second woman was injured in the accident and remains in hospital.

A slowly growing number of Saudi women are trying to force changes to laws that stop them from driving. Saudi Arabia enforces a hardline interpretation of Islamic law, and is one of the very few countries in the world to deny women the right to drive.

A vigorous internet campaign began last year, in which women such as Sharif, 32, a computer security consultant, were filmed behind the wheel. Videos posted to YouTube led to renewed scrutiny of the issue but failed to force a change to the law.

Sharif and Dowiia were both briefly jailed last year, and a third women who also drove was sentenced to 10 lashes. However, the sentence was overturned after the intervention of King Abdullah.

© 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.

Saudi female driver defies ban, has fatal accident

2012-01-23T06:20:00.000-08:00

A link to the story is here, and text pasted in below.

A Saudi woman who defied a driving ban in the kingdom was injured and her companion killed when their car overturned in the northern Hael province, a police spokesman said on Monday

AFP - Published: 17:18 January 23, 2012

Jeddah: A Saudi woman who defied a driving ban in the kingdom was injured and her companion killed when their car overturned in the northern Hael province, a police spokesman said on Monday.

One woman was immediately killed and her companion who was driving the car was hospitalised after she suffered several injuries" when their four-wheel-drive vehicle overturned late on Saturday, said police spokesman Abdul Aziz Al Zunaidi.

Ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world where women are not allowed to drive.
However, they get behind the wheel in desert regions away from the capital.

There have been several incidents reported in recent years of women being killed in accidents while driving despite the ban, one of a host of restrictions imposed on women in the kingdom.

In November 2010, a Saudi who defied the driving ban was killed along with three of her 10 female passengers when her car overturned in a crash.

A group of activists launched an Internet campaign last year urging Saudi women to defy the ban on driving.

The icon of the campaign, Manal Al Sherif, a 32-year-old computer security consultant, was arrested on May 22 and detained for 10 days after posting on YouTube a video of herself driving her car around the eastern city of Khobar.

Since then, women regularly get behind the wheels of their cars, according to the activists.
Five Saudi women were arrested while driving in late June in Jeddah.

Women in the kingdom who have the means hire drivers while others must depend on the goodwill of male relatives. They are also obliged to be veiled in public, and cannot travel unless accompanied by their husbands or a close male relative.

Saudi Women Shatter the Lingerie Ceiling

2012-01-22T09:15:00.000-08:00

Big story in today's New York Times - about the lingerie law. By now, readers of this blog should know that a new law has taken effect in Saudi Arabia, making it mandatory for Saudi lingerie shops to be staffed by women. This is a huge step forward, and it is, in my opinion (as well as Thomas Lipman the author of this piece) a step to preparing Saudi society, and Saudi women for greater things, like driving. On the NYT page there is an interview with Reem Asaad who led the lingerie campaign. As Lippman mentions in the last paragraph, he expects women will soon be permitted to drive. Notice the graphic of a bra and car keys! A link to the story is here and the text is below.
_____________________________________________
Saudi Women Shatter the Lingerie Ceiling - Thomas Lippman

SOCIAL revolution began in Saudi Arabia this month, and it has little if anything to do with the Arab Spring. Women are going to work in lingerie shops.

(drawing by Kelsey Dake)

The Ministry of Labor is enforcing a royal decree issued last summer ordering that sales personnel in shops selling garments and other goods, like cosmetics, that are only for women must be female. More than 28,000 women applied for the jobs, the ministry said. Anywhere else in the world, it would not be news that sales assistants in shops selling panties and bras were female. In Saudi Arabia, where women have always been excluded from the public work force, it is a critical breakthrough. This is not just about intimate garments; this is a milestone on the arduous path to employment equality for women in a country where they are systematically excluded from retail activity.

Saudi Arabia’s economic planners recognize that if women are going to be educated at public expense, as they now are in increasing numbers, they will expect to work and the country will need their economic output. Society has increasingly accepted the idea that women will work outside the home. They have long been employed in medicine and education. Retail commerce, however, has generally remained closed because such work usually requires interaction with men, which is prohibited. The lingerie shops are breaking that taboo.

One of the oddest sights in Saudi Arabia is that of fully veiled women, hidden from others by their enveloping garments, going into the Saudi equivalent of Victoria’s Secret stores in the many upscale malls and being greeted and assisted exclusively by male sales clerks, most of whom are from South Asia. This absurd situation so embarrassed many women that they waited until they were out of the country to buy their underwear and nightgowns.

The campaign to change the rules began several years ago, and was led by Reem Asaad, a fashion-conscious financial adviser who speaks flawless English and is comfortable with the Western media. It appeared to have succeeded in 2006 when the government ordered that the sales jobs be transferred to women. But social conservatives and the religious establishment objected, arguing that Islam prohibited women from working outside the home and that putting women in retail shops would expose them to the view of any passing stranger. If the sales clerks were female, the shop windows would have to be covered, the opponents said.

Shop owners objected, too, saying that no women were trained to do such work. In addition, the 2006 decree failed to address the transportation problem: if women were going to work in those shops, they would need a man to drive them because they are prohibited from driving. Saudi cities have virtually no public transportation. So the decree was never enforced. Ms. Asaad then used Facebook to organize a boycott of the shops, and arranged for some women to be trained in retail work.

This time, King Abdullah has put his personal authority behind the new decree. Last year he also installed a new minister of labor, Adel Fakieh, who had embraced the idea of employing women at a supermarket chain owned by his holding company. Under the new rules, the country’s thousands of lingerie and cosmetics shops have until June to replace their male employees with women. The feared religious police, who are really the behavior police, have been ordered to cooperate.

King Abdullah generally supported an expansion of opportunities for women, but steps in this direction can’t be traced to any burst of enlightenment within the royal family. They are happening because the kingdom’s women need and want jobs and are learning how to make themselves heard — and because, in an increasingly expensive country, their husbands often want them to work.

Over the coming generation, this is likely to be the farthest-reaching transformation in Saudi society. While women are still constrained by law, religion and custom, more and more are likely to enter the work force. They will be better educated than their predecessors, will marry later and will have fewer children. The range of jobs and professions open to them will expand. The Ministry of Labor is already compiling a list of jobs women will be permitted to hold. It won’t include all jobs — no female miners or construction workers here — but it will be a much longer list than in the past, including some positions in law enforcement.

These changes will meet entrenched opposition, but the economic and demographic forces behind them seem irresistible. The transition would be easier if women were permitted to drive (the 2011 decree failed to address that issue), but that is bound to come, too — if not this year, then soon, if only because growing ranks of employed women will build pressure for it. Thousands of Saudi women have driver’s licenses issued by other countries; they will be ready when the day comes.

Thomas Lippman is a scholar at the Middle East Institute and the author of “Saudi Arabia on the Edge: The Uncertain Future of an American Ally.”

VOA seeking interviews with Saudi women involved in driving campaign

2012-01-11T12:20:00.000-08:00

Today I received an e-mail from David Arnold of the Voice of America. His message is as follows. If you are willing to speak with him, please contact him by e-mail at: voadavid@gmail.com

I would like to interview by telephone 2 or 3 Saudi women who are making a substantive effort to change Saudi custom regarding the ban on women driving cars in the kingdom. Perhaps Manal al-Sharif, a lawyer, someone who has access to a member of the royal family who would be available for interviews on Thursday or Friday of this week. I'm interested in learning of a practical political strategy that effects change and how they hope to accomplish it. Please reply to my e-mail address: voadavid@gmail.com

Regards,
David Arnold
English for the Middle East
Voice of America

Saudi girl steps into the world of automobile mechanics

2011-12-30T07:00:00.000-08:00

Great story in the Saudi Gazette - a link to the story is here, and the text is pasted below. Not sure if the photograph is of Kadeeja herself, or another woman mechanic.

Saudi girl steps into the world of automobile mechanics
By Ayesha Lorenz Sayeed

An aptitude and fondness for cars, gears, mechanics and electronics do not only fascinate boys now, girls are also slowly and steadily entering this field. They have again proven their worth and caliber in another distinct male cherished and dominated sector.

Kadeeja Y. Al-Saeed, a young Saudi girl with a fervor for automobiles, has completed a two year theoretical and practical program of auto repair and maintenance from Portland Community College in Oregon, US.

She had, however, not planned to get in this field. She was taking a pre-requisite course at her community college, when she was offered the basic auto-repair course. Hesitantly, she took up the course and was surprised to find a number of female students, and female instructors, too. Over the course, she discovered that she excelled at it, and was asked to help other students in her class. Her instructors were very proud of her diligent attitude toward her studies, and her lively nature and friendly smile which lit up the class and the auto lab.

She is inspired by her father, a flight engineer. He instilled her with the confidence of pursuing a higher education abroad, and has always shared a special bond of understanding and love with his children. He had also gently advised her to pursue another career, when she chose to enter the auto-repair and maintenance feild. “I hope to study or learn many things in my lifetime that will be useful,” remarked Al-Saeed.

Bedriya, her eldest sister, was awarded with the Best Business Plan in 2007 by Jeddah Economic Forum. She has done her post graduation from Emirates and is now working for General Motors.

“It’s great to think ‘outside the box’ like she does. Innovative ideas enrich society,” she said. She is content with her studies and achievements, and is extremely happy of her siblings, accomplishments. She feels that children strive to work hard and succeed in life, when parents pay attention in their interests, and praise them for their efforts.

Al-Saeed dreams of owning an auto-repair shop where she can cater to women in need of services for their cars. She explains, “It’s really important for females to be able to feel comfortable and at ease when they come for a repair. I was better able to understand this when I dealt with my own car in US.”

Many women want an auto-repair shop run by women themselves as they would prefer to go,for their cars, maintenance, to a female instead of a male. This will also comply with the Islamic ruling of segregation for both genders. __

The Saudi women brain drain

2011-12-27T08:03:00.000-08:00

Saudi writer Maha Akeel has penned this opinion piece that first appeared in the Arab News. She deals with the driving issue, among others. Maha is a former staff writer for the Arab News who is now managing editor at the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). You can link to the article here and the text is pasted below.

The Saudi women brain drain

By MAHA AKEEL
Published: Dec 27, 2011 00:40 Updated: Dec 27, 2011 00:40

Wherever I travel East or West, I meet Saudi women who have chosen to live far away from home. Some have been there for decades, they were exceptions at those times, deciding to make a career abroad when there were few graduate and post graduate Saudi females and even fewer job opportunities.

Today, there is a plethora of female graduates in diverse fields of study, but the opportunities remain limited. It is no surprise therefore, with doors being shut on their faces here, to see so many decide to pack and leave toward the doors opening up for them outside. There are the Saudi women scientists, the researchers, the academicians, the teachers, the doctors, the media professionals, the businesswomen, the engineers, the lawyers, the artists, and others in almost every other field.

What a loss. A brain is a brain whether it is in the head of a man or a woman. So much money is invested in the education of girls, yet the return on that investment is minimal. Why let the fruits of that investment grow in foreign soil even if it is a neighborly country?

It is not just the limited job opportunities, but also having a real career. Abroad, the Saudi women are appreciated for their knowledge, skill and talent. They are given, in general, equal opportunity to advance in their career, paid a good salary and work in a comfortable work environment despite it being “mixed.”

The same cannot be said about their work here, especially in the private sector where they are discriminated against in salary, bonuses, training, career advancement and almost every aspect of their work. And being segregated from their male colleagues at the work place does not mean they are safe from harassment. Moreover, the segregation puts them at a disadvantage because they are removed from the decision-making places and process, which is of course male-dominated.

Even the education sector, which employs the highest percentage of women, most of the decisions concerning girls’ education and schools are made by men who have never set foot in a girls’ school. Appointing a woman as deputy minister for girls’ education corrected that a bit, but it is not enough.

And let us talk about driving. Yes, it makes a difference, for any woman let alone a workingwoman. Why should a chunk of a woman’s salary go to a driver? Why should a financially independent woman remain at the mercy of the whims of a man to drive her places? For many of the Saudi women working abroad being free to drive their own cars or use public transportation is enough reason.

How about being able to conduct their business without a male manager, which is a requirement here? I know several businesswomen who took their businesses outside because they found it much easier to work there rather than deal with the hassles and harassments in a country that claims to protect and care for its women (I hesitate to say citizens because legally we are not, we are constantly asked to be identified, represented and permitted by our male guardians).

In addition to the tens of thousands of high-school and university graduates searching for jobs suitable to their qualifications, there is a flock of young women who will be returning from their studies abroad with high expectations, new ideas and dreams of making a difference in their society. What will they find? Brick walls and concrete ceilings. I hope we can offer them the opportunities they desire and deserve.

McManus: Change in Saudi Arabia

2011-12-26T06:44:00.000-08:00

Los Angeles Times Op-Ed piece by Doyle McManus; deals with the driving issue among other things women are talking about and fighting for in Saudi Arabia. A link to the story is here and the text is below. It includes an interview with Saudi blogger Eman Al Nafjan, though he spells her name wrong. Eman's blog is here. She is also author of the op-ed in the Arab News that we posted here.

For Saudi women, progress comes slowly, and not at all surely.

Doyle McManus
December 25, 2011

Women in Saudi Arabia won a small but promising victory this year. No, they aren't being allowed to drive; that's still forbidden. Most of the time, they still can't work, travel or even open bank accounts without the approval of a male guardian. But they do have this: Saudi women can now buy lingerie in stores from female salesclerks, instead of the sometimes leering men who used to staff the counters. If this modest wave of liberalization continues, they may even get fitting rooms.

It doesn't sound like much, but in the glacial process of modernization in the tradition-bound kingdom, it's an important step. "This is the beginning of a real social change," Eman Nafjian, one of the new generation of Saudi women's activists, told me over coffee in Riyadh, the capital, last week. "It will allow more women to work in shopping malls. And that's a step toward more opportunities for women's employment in general."

It wasn't easy to win the right to sell lingerie. The change has been debated since 2005, but it was resisted by traditionalists who oppose allowing women to work outside the home — even though, in this case, the prohibition forced women to bargain with men over bras and panties. The rule was changed only after women spent two years agitating through a Facebook campaign called "Enough Embarrassment," and only after the (male) minister of labor was emboldened to obtain and enforce a decree from King Abdullah. (You'd think the king has more important things to do, but a royal decree is the only way anything of significance gets changed in Saudi Arabia.)

That's a microcosm, Nafjian said, of how life is improving for women in Saudi Arabia: slowly, and not at all surely. In Saudi terms, Abdullah is a modernizer; he's promoted education for women, including thousands of college scholarships in the United States, and he's even promised to begin appointing women to his official advisory council, the Shura — but not until 2013. (There's no elected legislature.) Still, each tiny step forward prompts furious resistance from traditionalists, including Islamic scholars who warn that change is irreligious and conservative women who say they like the old ways better.

The debate goes on even in Nafjian's own family, an affluent-but-not-wealthy clan in Riyadh's upper middle class. Her conservative uncle is furious at her for speaking out in public and has demanded that she stop. "He says I'm going to make us all pariahs," she said. "But my father and my brothers stood up for me."

Nafjian, 33, started a blog in English a few years ago, "Saudiwoman's Weblog" (www.saudiwoman.me), that brought the concerns of educated, upwardly mobile Saudi women to a global audience. She's written about basic rights (Saudi women still can't vote), child marriage (in rural areas, girls as young as 8 are sometimes given to older men in marriage) and issues of everyday life, like driving and shopping. "My father would prefer that I blogged about Saudi cooking," she laughed.

She walked into a hotel lobby for our meeting dressed in a black abaya, the head-to-toe garment that Saudi women wear in public, and a veil that concealed most but not all of her hair. She was trailed by her brother Khalid, who came along cheerfully as driver and chaperon. He said he supports her activism. "All these restrictions on women are nuts," he said. Her husband, a telecommunications engineer, supports her stances too, she said. She has three small children, she teaches English, and she's finishing work on a doctorate in linguistics.

The Saudi women's movement won international attention last June when at least five women were arrested for daring to drive their own cars in the country's cities. (Nafjian, who never learned to drive, videotaped the protest as a passenger in a friend's car.) But driving wasn't the main thing that made the government angry (driving by women is tolerated in rural areas); it was the challenge of a noisy, well-publicized protest.

"The driving issue has become a little tedious," Nafjian said. "The ban will be changed one of these days; I'm sure of it. But for the moment, they're happy that all we're asking for is women driving instead of the downfall of the government."

More important than driving, she said, are issues such as basic legal rights (a woman's testimony in court still gets only half the weight of a man's), employment (women are still restricted to jobs where they won't have to mingle with men — mostly teaching, nursing and, now, sales work in women's shops), and the persistent rural practice of forcing young girls into marriage. "It's socially unacceptable to most Saudis," Nafjian said, "but it's a tradition, so there's a lot of resistance to outlawing it."

Does that mean Saudi Arabia's modernizing urban women want to scrap the monarchy — the ultimate patriarchal system — and fast-forward to democracy? Quite the contrary. "A revolution like the ones they had in Egypt and Tunisia would be the worst-case scenario here," Nafjian said. "Most Saudis are conservative. A popular uprising here would make the [militant] Salafists in Egypt look like liberals. We would turn into Taliban."

If she's right, the country's liberals, democrats and cultural modernizers are trapped in the odd predicament of relying on an 87-year-old king and his male heirs for protection. The best-case scenario, she said, would be for a progressive wing of the royal family to rise to power once Abdullah is gone, men who would continue nudging the Saudi economy into the 21st century while keeping the nation's politics firmly rooted in the 7th. But there's no guarantee; the heir to the throne, Crown Prince Nayef, is a noted conservative — and an apparently healthy 78.

Meanwhile, Nafjian said, Saudi Arabia's women will keep organizing through private coffee circles and Internet chatrooms. "We can't be a formal association," she noted. "That's illegal."

And they'll welcome all the foreign attention they can get, as they did during the one-day driving protest in June.

"When foreigners make noise over women's rights, that's a good thing, because we're not allowed to," she said. "The more embarrassing an issue is to the government, the more likely it is to be resolved."

After all, they did get that change in the lingerie stores. By this time next year, with luck, they might even be allowed to drive.

doyle.mcmanus@latimes.com
Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times

Saudis could still flog woman who dared to drive

2011-12-22T18:03:00.000-08:00

A link to the story is here; story pasted in below.

Supposedly pardoned, Shaima Jastaniya could yet punished after Crown Prince's intervention

LAST UPDATED AT 08:44 ON Thu 22 Dec 2011

A SAUDI woman sentenced to ten lashes for flouting the country's ban on women driving has not been officially pardoned, despite reports to the contrary - and her sentence may still be carried out at any time.

Shaima Jastaniya, 34, was given the draconian sentence by a court in Jedda in September after she persistently ignored the ban, which is not enshrined in law but handed down in fatwas by Muslim clerics, making Saudi Arabia the only country in the world where women are not allowed to drive.

Then 87-year-old King Adbullah, who has overseen a gentle thawing of his hardline rule in recent years, announced he had pardoned Jastaniya – a move much reported in the world's media.

Now The Times reports that the increasingly powerful – and conservative – Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz has exerted his influence to make sure Abdullah’s pardon has no real force.

Jastaniya's father was summoned to the Interior Ministry last week, the paper reports, to be told that his daughter was pardoned. However, when he asked for written guarantees that she would not be flogged, his request was refused.

The newspaper says it has learned that the original punishment could still be carried out at any time – and the verdict has not been overturned. Activist Mohammed al-Qahtani told the paper: "They will keep this hanging over her in case she does anything else."

Jastaniya has become the focal point for a campaign of civil disobedience by women drivers which culminated in a 'mass drive' where 50 women flouted the ban in convoy, writing about it later on social networking sights.

Aware that it was the focus of world attention, the authorities let the protest go ahead unhindered. It seemed like a watershed moment, but there has been a quiet crackdown since.

One woman activist in Riyadh told the Times anonymously: "The campaign is dying right now. People are afraid. They have seen what happened to Shaima and the others." ·

Women driving: Topic is getting tedious

2011-12-18T18:28:00.000-08:00

Op-ed by Saudi writer Eman al-Nafjan. A link to the story is here text pasted in below.

By EMAN ALNAFJAN

Published: Dec 18, 2011 23:23 Updated: Dec 18, 2011 23:23

Supporters and opponents of the ban agree it is a petty issue

The ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia is a topic that has become tedious due to the uncountable times it has been written about since the 1980s.

Saudi Arabia is infamous for its gender discrimination When it comes to who gets to sit in the driver's seat. The only thing that rivals it in what the country is known for globally is our never-ending supply of oil. What is ironic is that on both sides, Saudis who oppose and those who are calling for lifting the ban, is that they are in agreement that the whole issue is petty.

Both sides, though, come to this same conclusion of pettiness from different perspectives. Those who are calling for the lift of the ban on women driving point out how the ban is basically put in place as an obstacle to women who otherwise would go out into the workplace and most probably compete with men. However, this obstacle consequently extends to obstructing ease of access to education, health care, work in completely gender-segregated environments and even the basic right to socialize or leave the house for a change of scenery.

Another reason that the ban is in place is the argument that a man in the driver's seat is a deterrent to neighboring cars from flirting with the women passengers. This whole line of reasoning is easily shot down. First of all, who is to say that the employed driver himself won't harass the women passengers? Secondly, I cannot count the times I've come across Saudi men who completely ignored the driver's presence and dangerously harassed and chased cars that carry women passengers.

Harassment on the streets will not stop until as a short-term measure we have strict laws that deter men from even considering lifting up their pre-written signs of their cell phone numbers while they drive precariously next to family cars driven by foreign drivers. The long-term measure would be to throw out the whole wolf-hunting-lambs rhetoric that we keep drilling into the heads of our young people until they really believe that being hunter and prey is just the way it's meant to be rather than mutual respect. For those who oppose women driving, they come to the “pettiness” conclusion from the perspective of prioritization. They, in a rather elitist tone, put the ban mildly as an occasional inconvenience rather than a full-blown obstacle. And since it is merely an occasional inconvenience there are more pertinent women's rights issues to speak out about.

They keep asking people involved in women driving campaigns why they aren't putting this energy into calling for the rights of divorced women to child custody and stable and secure alimony. Or why aren't they putting this energy into equal rights in pension plans regardless of gender. Or even audaciously demanding that instead of facilitating women transportation we should be calling on the government to pay women a stipend to stay home.

Those who oppose women driving have come to this pettiness conclusion after being cornered because their previous religious and traditions arguments have deteriorated in front of Saudi religious scholars and sheikhs who have publicly stated that there is no religious reason to prohibit women from driving and traditional Beduin women have been driving in rural areas for years. The best thing about this decades-old argument and dialogue is that it's not as stagnant as it might seem to the Saudi people.

Having reached the same conclusion, especially for the latter group of those who oppose, we can be much more optimistic about actually reaching a breakthrough. In the 1980s and 90s we were calling for something that according to the public forum was a threat to our religion, traditions and our very way of life. Now after all this back and forth, it has whittled down to a petty cause that is not worth the time and effort of national campaigns.

Although this could be considered an insult to those of us who have worked long and hard on these campaigns and have spoken out against this ban, I think most of us are extremely happy that we have made this much progress and are optimistic that this is only a sign of the ban being lifted in the near future.

Manal Alsharif Honks for Driving Rights

2011-12-13T10:31:00.000-08:00

In honor of the UN's Human Rights day, December 10th, Saudi woman driver Manal Alsharif made a YouTube video in Boston. Link to the video below. She invites supporters to make their own videos and e-mail the YouTube link to: honkforsaudiwomen@gmail. Once you watch the video, click on the many related links to see other peoples' videos. There is also a facebook page you can follow, http://www.facebook.com/honkforsaudiwomen This campaign has been going since last summer, but it's fun to see Manal in Boston doing something on Human Rights Day. Ya halaa, Manal!

If you are on Twitter, don't forget to check out the hash tag #women2drive. There is also a daily Twitter compendium of news on the subject that you can find by searching the #women2drive hash mark.

The Wheel of Progress - Shaima Jastaniah and Anne French Bush

2011-12-12T06:15:00.000-08:00

If all politics is local, then a writer in Concord, MA is correctly connecting Shaima Jastaniah's case with the pioneering driving life of Anne French Bush, the first American woman known to have obtained a driver's license. Below is the text (link is here) Concord Patch writer Maureen Belt writes today about the life of Anne French Bush, noting that today is the appeal day for Shaima Jastaniah's lashing case. Stay tuned to see if she appeals. Meanwhile, enjoy the story. (I blogged about visiting the cemetery in this blog post).

The Wheel of Progress - Maureen Belt
Concord, MA - December 12, 2011

As you know, I can go on and on about the wonderful things about Concord and I am always amazed at how I can link our community into the news of the day. Here’s a for instance. Today, Dec. 12 is “appeal day,” for Shaima Jastaniah, the 34-year-old Saudi woman who was caught driving in her hometown of Jeddah in September, and sentenced by her conservative government to 10 lashes. Shaima was hardly joy riding, she was on her way to visit someone in the hospital. Her crime was simply driving while female, a serious offense in Saudi Arabia. Her punishment, if today’s appeal falls through, is being publicly whipped on the back 10 times.

There are hundreds of blogs and news stories about Shaima’s plight, which her supporters hope pave the way for all women in Saudi Arabia to have the right to drive. Some of the more right-winged conservatives of the Kingdom believe authorizing women to drive a vehicle automatically reduces the number of virgins while spontaneously spiking the number of divorces and promiscuous women. (Reflect on that next time it’s your turn to carpool, ladies.)

This world news made me think of Anne Rainsford French Bush, the first known woman to receive a drivers license in the United States. Anne, who was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in 1962, was licensed in March 1900 to drive a four-wheeled steamed or gas-powered vehicle. Anne Rainsford French was living in Washington, D.C., at the time and learned to drive from her father, a renowned physician who let her take his locomobile out solo.

In a 1952 Life magazine article, Anne said her mother was a little concerned about her daughter behind the wheel, fearing that “no gentleman would be interested in any lady who didn’t stay where she belonged and act like one.” Hmmm. Sounds a little like the flack Shaima Jastaniah is receiving. Fortunately, Mrs. French’s fears did not keep Anne off the road, and though Anne did not drive too much longer, she paved the way for women pretty much everywhere to get behind the wheel of a car and take control of their destinations.

Anne married Walter Meiggs Bush and they settled in Concord and raised a family. According to the Life article, Walter did all of the driving during their marriage, even when his wife reminded him she was this country’s first female licensed driver. When she asked him to let her drive, he told her, “Driving is man’s business. Women shouldn’t get soiled by machinery.”

Even though Anne endured such comments from her husband, she never had to worry about being publicly humiliated or physically harmed for getting behind the wheel of a car. Instead, Anne got some serious mileage out of being the first woman licensed driver. She was named Miss Locomobile for 1900, and was honored at the AAA Golden Jubilee event in 1952, and has her name in the U.S. history archives. Here’s hoping as bright a future awaits Shaima Jastaniah in Saudi Arabia today.

(Some interesting side notes about Anne. She was the niece of Daniel Chester French and he used her as a model for, among other projects, the “America” statue that stands with the sculptor’s Continents collection outside the Old U.S. Custom House in New York City’s Battery Park. Here is more on Anne from Harry Beyer’s Sleepy Hollow Cemetery series.)

You can e-mail the author Maureen Belt at: mcb23@comcast.net

Saudi Woman to Be Lashed for Driving, Despite Royal Pardon

2011-12-08T08:24:00.000-08:00

Shaima Jastaniah is back in the news. She was caught driving in Jeddah and was sentenced to ten lashes. The King pardoned her, but the sentence still stands. I've chosen this article about the case since it's written by a college professor who knew Shaima when she lived in Houston and was able to interview her. We are with you, Shaima. A link to the story is here and it's pasted in below.

---------------------------------------------------------------
Saudi Woman to Be Lashed for Driving, Despite Royal Pardon

By Nivien Saleh

Shaima Jastaniah had become a symbol of Saudi Arabia's movement for female driving rights

An unidentified woman in Jeddah poses to illustrate driving a car - Reuters

Remember Shaima Jastaniah, the Saudi woman who made international headlines in September by being condemned to ten lashes for driving a car through the coastal city of Jeddah? King Abdallah pardoned her personally. But it now turns out that she may be lashed after all.

On Saturday, November 12, she was served with an official notice that, notwithstanding the royal pardon, she will be flogged unless she wins a legal appeal in mid-December. She has kept this private, hoping to resolve it quietly, until now. Her quiet options seemingly exhausted, Shaima called me and asked me to help tell her story. "I want to be able to drive, just like I did back in the States," she told me. "And I want other women to be able to do the same. It's a basic human right."

Her only offense was driving while female. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where women are not allowed behind the steering wheel, this is a serious breach of public order.

Although Shaima now lives in Jeddah, she had spent many years in Houston, Texas, where she became my student and friend. In 2000, at age 23, she arrived with her husband, who worked towards a license in accounting, and two young children. In 2007, she enrolled in the Master of Liberal Arts program at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, concentrating in international studies, because she wanted to understand the values, dynamics, and contradictions of Middle Eastern countries. I taught her in four courses and came to know her well.

Shaima fit right into Houston society. Texans are larger than life, and so is she. Discard your images of the veiled female Arab: Her dedication to Islam is sincere -- she recently completed the hajj to Mecca -- but she is not demure and does not attempt to fade into the background. When she enters a room, you notice.

Though she is not one to seek the limelight, Shaima freely speaks up in front of others when an issue matters to her. And she has strong ideas of what is just and fair.

There is no doubt that her time in Houston changed her. I saw her grow intellectually and come to recognize that, deep inside, she was a passionate individualist who saw life as full of possibilities.

Her marriage, which had been arranged, did not survive her personal development. In 2010, when she returned to Saudi Arabia, diploma in hand, she was on her own. As is customary in situations like hers, she moved back in with her parents.

In Houston, Shaima drove a luxurious black BMW X5, which she shipped back to the Kingdom upon her return. But even with her international driver's license, she is not allowed to drive the SUV there. Instead, she has to employ a male chauffeur, who is a stranger to her. As she is now gainfully employed, her parents leave it up to her to pay the driver's salary. That renders her inability to steer the vehicle doubly galling, she says. In her view, the prohibition against female driving has nothing to do with Islam and everything with the maintenance of patriarchal rule. After all, did Aysha, the favorite wife of the Prophet Muhammad, not ride her own camel into the Battle of Basrah in 656?

On a sweltering summer day at noon, the Texan in Shaima came out. Longing for some time alone, she grabbed her keys, fired up her BMW, and drove off. Three hours later, the authorities stopped her.

In Saudi Arabia, when a woman is caught driving, the typical police response is to extract a signed pledge not to "misbehave" a second time and let her go. There are a few women who broke the prohibition against driving several times and pledged betterment again and again. Shaima's case, however, never went through that stage. The matter was immediately referred to the country's conservative shariah court system, which is controlled by the Kingdom's religious establishment.

The judge happened to pass his verdict on the heels of a government announcement that, five years from now, women will receive the right to vote and run for public office. Possibly to register his disapproval, possibly to discourage the other women who had recently taken to the road, or maybe for some other reason, the judge assigned the unusually harsh sentence of flogging. Shaima was shocked. "What I did was a misdemeanor. The court could have fined me, and I would have been happy to pay up," she told me. "Instead, they decided to criminalize me. I am not a criminal!"

In keeping with judicial protocol, the judge asked if she planned to appeal. She said yes. He explained that upon receiving a copy of the verdict, she would have 30 days to register her appeal with the Court of Cassation.

Then came the tweet. On September 28, Princess Ameerah al-Taweel, wife of King Abdallah's billionaire nephew Al-Waleed Ibn Talal and a longstanding champion of women's right to drive, declared, "#women2drive Thank God, the lashing of Shaima is cancelled. Thanks to our beloved King. I'm sure all Saudi women will be so happy, I know I am." Her husband had spoken to the King on Shaima's behalf. In Saudi Arabia's tribal society, where wasta -- which loosely translates to "connections" -- is everything, this should have been enough to close the case. But it wasn't.

As Shaima told me, this tweet was the most official statement of royal pardon that she received. Whether the Kingdom's clerics are consciously snubbing King Abdallah's second-hand declaration or whether they lack the digital awareness to appreciate Twitter as a means of policymaking is unclear. But the tweet left them unfazed.

Shaima received a copy of the verdict in November, and unless she successfully appeals the sentence by December 12, it will be administered. Not only is the punishment painful, it is also humiliating to her and to all Saudi women who believe that a right to education should go hand in hand with freedom of movement.

But her options are limited. She might submit and take her lashing, hire local counsel who could quietly attempt to both appeal and obtain another royal pardon, or hire an international human rights counsel who could take the case to a foreign tribunal under international law. A small circle of local feminists is encouraging her to spearhead their movement, however fledgling it may be, by alerting the media. But that would mean becoming the center of attention in a country where hierarchy is respected and opposition regarded with suspicion.

When she asked for my advice, I turned to a friend with knowledge of the country, who said: "Her options boil down to two strategies: She can either hire a local lawyer and bow and scrape; or she can go nuclear by dishing this to the international press."

Shaima Jastaniah is no scraper.

Allowing women drivers in Saudi Arabia will be 'end of virginity'

2011-12-02T10:05:00.000-08:00

The UK's Telegraph and many other papers are reporting this story. A link to the Telegraph story is here, and the text is pasted below.

Allowing women drivers in Saudi Arabia will be 'end of virginity'

Allowing women drivers in Saudi Arabia will tempt them into sex, promote pornography and create more homosexuals, according to some conservative Muslim scholars.

By Andy Bloxham - 8:15AM GMT 02 Dec 2011

Academics at the Majlis al-Ifta' al-A'ala, which is Saudi Arabia's highest religious council, said the relaxation of the rules would inevitably lead to “no more virgins”. Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world where women are banned from driving.

The academics, working in conjunction with Kamal Subhi, a former professor at the conservative King Fahd University, produced the conclusions in a report for the country's legislative assembly, the Shura Council. It warned that allowing women to drive would "provoke a surge in prostitution, pornography, homosexuality and divorce".

Within 10 years of the ban being lifted, it claimed, there would be "no more virgins" in the Islamic kingdom. It pointed out that "moral decline" could already be seen in those other Muslim countries in which women are allowed to drive.

In the report Prof Subhi described sitting in a coffee shop in an unnamed Arab state where "all the women were looking at me".

"One made a gesture that made it clear that she was available,” he said. “This is what happens when women are allowed to drive.”

Women caught driving in Saudi face corporal punishment.

In September, Shaima Jastaniya, 34, a Saudi woman, was sentenced to 10 lashes with a whip after being caught driving in Jeddah. There has been strong protest in the country about the sentence, which was later overturned by King Abdullah, and about the law generally but resistance to reform remains strong among the traditionally conservative royal family and clerics.

The Saudi government is currently considering a proposal to ban women – already forced to cover up most of their body in public – from even displaying their eyes, if they are judged too “tempting”.

Foreign Policy: What Do Saudi Women Want?

2011-11-28T07:38:00.000-08:00

Excellent essay by Saudi writer Eman Al Najfan about Saudi women and human rights. She mentions the driving issue a couple of times, putting it into the context of Saudi society. Well done, Ms. Al Najfan. A link to the story is here and text is pasted in below.

What Do Saudi Women Want? It's not as simple as driving, voting and property
by Eman Al Najfan

What do Saudi women want? I wish I could give you an easy answer. But Saudi Arabia is a diverse land -- spread out across a vast territory almost a fourth the size of the United States and divided by religious sects and among some 45 tribes. Divining the Saudi people's demands, never mind those of Saudi women, is no simple task.

By law, every Saudi woman has a male guardian. At birth, the guardianship is given to her father and then upon marriage to her husband. If a woman is a widow, her guardianship is given to her son -- meaning that she would need her own son's permission for the majority of her interactions with the government, including the right to travel abroad. Legal recourse is difficult to obtain, especially because abuse is only recognized when it's physical abuse. Even then, the Saudi justice system is patriarchal, bordering on the misogynistic. For example, to this day the Justice Ministry has not issued a law banning child marriage, leaving the decision at the discretion of the girl's father.

You would think that women living under these conditions would long for liberty, independence, and civil rights. Many do -- as this year's driving campaign makes clear. However, it's just not that simple. Millions of others are still not sure they are ready for change. Some explain their indecision as a fear that they might have to assume responsibilities they are incapable of undertaking. One fellow Saudi tells me that she sees what women have to put up with abroad: "I see how American women have to run around the city running errands, and I don't want to open that door. As long as women driving is banned, no one will have these expectations for me," she says.

In fact, Saudi Arabia may be even more conservative than most outsiders think. There are some who are not only passively happy with the status quo but also loud in their resistance to any form of change. In 2009, a Jeddah woman named Rawdah Al-Yousif, in collaboration with members of the royal family, organized a campaign to strengthen the guardianship system. It was called "My Guardian Knows What's Best for Me." They urged the king not to give in to local activists and international human rights organizations regarding the guardianship system. Another campaign gathered thousands of signatures from both men and women calling for the extension of gender segregation laws to hospitals -- the same segregation laws that have led to Saudi women only making up 15 percent of the national workforce and an unemployment rate for women so high that the government won't release the numbers. The only public places where these laws are not enforced are malls and hospitals. Yet there are Saudis who would like to see segregation even there.

None of this is a surprise, considering what is being taught in the public school system. In religion classes, students learn that the Saudi interpretation of Islam supersedes any worldly concepts of human rights. Women have the most to lose, yet these ideas are so ingrained that I defy you to find a report of a Saudi mother complaining about what her children are being taught.

Women in most countries may take their aspirations for freedom for granted, but for many of us, it is brand new. An exasperated expatriate in Riyadh once expressed to me how frustrated she was with the requirement to wear an abaya everywhere. She wondered: How do you all put up with having to cover your faces for your whole adult lives? What she didn't realize was that many Saudi women look at her and wonder: How can she walk around without an abaya? How is it that she doesn't feel exposed and naked?

Yet I am happy to say that I am one of many women hungry for self-determination -- women who have realized that though liberty and rights come with responsibility, it also gives them and their daughters the autonomy to pursue their happiness.

And yes, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of Saudi women who are fighting for their rights -- and the well-covered driving campaign is just one of many battles, from fighting for the right to manage their own businesses to being allowed to freely leave and enter the country without their guardian's permission. Even something as simple as recognizing women lawyers in our judicial system could be transformational. And that, of course, is why it is so hard.

Female Driver Storms Crowded Saudi Beach

2011-11-13T12:21:00.000-08:00

Emirates 24 reports the following story taken from the daily Sabq. A link to it is here, and the story is also pasted in below.

Female driver storms crowded Saudi beach
Defies driving ban to spark panic among visitors
By StaffPublished Sunday, November 13, 2011

A Saudi woman defying a ban on driving cars by females in the conservative Moslem Gulf Kingdom stormed a crowded beach at high speed, causing panic among the visitors and prompting many of them to flee.

The woman, who was accompanied by several girls, veered off the road with her Toyota land cruiser four-wheel vehicle and entered the long sandy “Half-Moon” beach in the eastern province.

"She caused panic among beach revelers and many of them screamed and ran away….she was driving in a reckless way, prompting some visitors to phone the police,” Sabq Arabic language daily said.

The paper recalled that a Saudi woman driving at high speed in a desert area last year lost control of her vehicle, causing it to overturn many times. The accident resulted in the death of the driver and four female passengers and the injury of six other women who were in the car.

Saudi Women Drive Change Despite Mixed Signals

2011-11-10T10:33:00.000-08:00

Wonderful piece on NPR by Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, that is based on interviews with Saudi women that Ms. Nelson conducted in Riyadh. I find this refreshing in that it actually has Saudi women speaking - their voices audible - stating their opinions. Well done Ms. Nelson. You can link to the article (and listen to the story) here. The text is pasted below.

Saudi Women Drive Change Despite Mixed Signals - Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson
November 10, 2011 Saudi women are getting conflicting messages from their government about whether it intends to expand their rights.

They received a boost from King Abdullah, who pledged to give them more political power in the coming years. But new Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdel-Aziz Al Saud is known for his opposition to women's rights.

Such mixed messages stir up hope, fear and frustration. Several Saudi women tell NPR they simply want a say in how they live.

Tug-Of-War: Women In The Middle
Even finding a public place where they can meet with a reporter is a struggle. They are kicked out of a Starbucks because it is prayer time, when shops must close. A nearby hotel lobby won't work, either, because there are men inside. Saudi women lingering in the same space as men could trigger a visit by the dreaded mutawa, or religious police, who enforce a strict segregation of the sexes in public spaces.

So the women decide to gather in the reporter's small hotel room. But even that proves a challenge, as they search for an elevator with no men inside.

Nuha al-Suleiman says such obstacles take the fun out of going anywhere.

"I feel just frustrated when I go out because I have to find my driver. I will have to stay in some places. I cannot walk in all streets," she says. "There are religious police everywhere, and they can complain about anything, so I just prefer staying home."

Middle East
After The Revolution, Arab Women Seek More RightsThe 28-year-old businesswoman and other Saudi women interviewed for this story say they are tired of waiting for rights most other women around the world take for granted.

The mixed signals especially bother them. In a historic speech in September, Abdullah pledged to add women to his all-male advisory council and allow them to take part in the next municipal elections. Two days later, a court in the port city of Jeddah sentenced a young mother to 10 lashes for driving a car.

The king later set the sentence aside. Even so, analysts say it was an unusually harsh punishment for violating a female-driving ban that isn't enshrined in law.

Ruba, a 21-year-old university student, calls the sentence shameful. She believes it was a backlash against the decision to offer women political rights. Ruba, like several women in this story, asked that only her first name be used to protect her family.

"Of course, it felt like a game of tug-of-war between the liberals and the conservatives," she says. "When the liberals pulled harder and won, the conservatives pulled even harder.

"So it just felt like women were that rope between the two parties."

'Society Is Ready'
Nevertheless, Saudi women these days are going after their rights like never before, says Fawzia al-Bakr, a 45-year-old Saudi columnist and college professor who defied the driving ban in 1990.

"I remember when I [went] to any gathering, or social gathering or the family, everybody [looked] at you as odd — totally odd — because you were asking for something that is against the religion and against the social ... code and all that," she says. "Now ... I can actually talk to my students about things. It's an interesting time."

Activist Manal Al-Sharif's Drive
Saudi activist Manal al-Sharif drives in Khobar, Saudi Arabia, while talking about the difficulties women face. She was later arrested for driving and spent 10 days in jail.

She credits greater educational and work opportunities for their empowerment — that, and the Internet, which has made it easier for women to network and draw attention to their efforts.

Activist Manal al-Sharif posted a video of herself driving in the city of Khobar in May, leading to her arrest. Supporters quickly created a Facebook page for her and demanded that she be released.

Public pressure and an apology by Sharif, who also signed a pledge that she wouldn't drive again, led authorities to release her 10 days later. Still, the news spurred other Saudi women to get behind the wheel, including Rasha Alduwisi.

Alduwisi, a 30-year-old banker, says she's tired of paying one-third of her salary to drivers to take her to and from work.

"The society is more accepting now, that's for sure," she says. "Like, you can see people waving to you and giving you the thumbs up and all that. ... That tells me society is ready."

It isn't as if Saudi women have any choice but to drive, adds Mohammed Fahad al-Qahtani, who heads the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association in Riyadh. He says a growing number are working or going to school, and the kingdom has no public transit system, making cars the only viable option.

al-Qahtani explains that the ban is hard on men, too. They often have to play chauffeur, as he does for his wife and children.

"I drive my kids in the morning, and I drive her to work, too, and I collect them in the afternoon," he says. "Can you imagine this busy schedule, and sometimes I'm the family driver, too, at night?

"So when I travel — and I do, I travel a lot — she'll be alone standing in the street with her kids, flagging a taxi to take them, and they are not reliable."

Beyond Driving
Ending the driving ban is not the only change many Saudi women want. Some say it's more important for the Saudi government to establish an age of majority for women.

Under current Saudi law, a woman is the dependent of a male relative, be he her father, brother, husband or even her son. She always needs that male guardian's permission to do almost anything outside the home throughout her life.

She can even be married off without being told, says Sarah, a 23-year-old marketing specialist.

"When we get rid of that law, I will be able to tell you that Saudi Arabia is headed toward change," she says.

Prominent Islamic cleric urges Saudi king to let women drive

2011-10-31T08:55:00.000-07:00

News from the daily Egyptian paper, Al-Masry al-Yawm. Speaks for itself. The text is pasted in below, and you can link to it here.

Prominent Islamic cleric urges Saudi king to let women drive
October 31, 2011 -
Author: Staff

President of the Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS) Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi has called on King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz of Saudi Arabia to allow women to drive cars.

Qaradawi's official website said he has sent a letter to the king hailing his statements on the rights of Muslim women and his recent decision to allow women to put themselves forward for positions in the country's municipalities and Consultative Assembly.

In his letter Qaradawi said, "As I send you my regards and express my happiness and appreciation for your statements and decisions, I hope that your dear country will allow Muslim women to drive cars in conformance with Islamic regulations, like other Muslim countries."

Qaradawi added that both the Quran and tradition clearly outline prohibited practices, and that neither forbid women from driving.

The website said Qaradawi received a thank you letter from the king in response to his message.

Saudi Sheikh Abdul Rahman al-Barrak has called for sentencing women who drive to death, after several Saudi women began a movement on 17 June to call for allowing women to drive.

He described their cause as evil and said such women are "Westernized women seeking to westernize the country."

Marwa - Saudi woman race car driver

2011-10-18T09:40:00.000-07:00

Nice interview with Marwa Al-Eifa, a female Saudi racecar driver who lives in Dubai. The article was printed in "Girl Racer", a UK publication. A link to the story is here. Go Marwa!

MARWA - SAUDI RACE CAR DRIVER (October 18, 2011)

She wears a traditional black abaya cloak to work and prays five times a day, but religion hasn't stopped Marwa Al-Eifa of Dubai from becoming the fastest female driver in the United Arab Emirates.

The 25-year-old marketing executive won first place in February 2005 at the First International Women's Rally car race held in Dubai, making her the first Saudi female rally driver to win the competition.

Marwa, who lives in Dubai with her family, did not receive any special training and relied on her own driving skills.

"My love for the racing car world tempted me to join the rally. I had never participated in such a contest before, neither have I received any special training. But I joined to prove to myself whether my driving skills were as good in a rally as they are on the streets."

Asked about her victory Marwa said, "I was overjoyed. I had an inner feeling that told me I would win that stemmed from my confidence in my skills. But I am not arrogant that I won. I only proved something to myself and was successful in doing that, especially when my male colleagues thought I would lose," she said.

"I would want to see more Saudi women participate in such rallies to show their skills. My family was overwhelmed with my victory. They did not believe I actually won first place," she added.
The feisty young athlete also holds a black belt in karate, and is fond of sports, travel and drawing. But her main goal is simple, and she hopes other Arab women live by it.

"Anything that Arab men think women can't do," she says, "we should 'just do it.' "

Marwa received her BA from a local college and made a career for herself in marketing and PR. She works as a business development executive for Dubai Land, a theme park with hotels and rides, which opened in 2007. By Abigail Langerak

How The Occupy Wall Street Protesters Can Learn From Saudi Women

2011-10-12T16:43:00.000-07:00

Interesting column in Forbes by Moira Forbes - advising those involved in the "Occupy Wall Street" movement to take a few pointers from Saudi women and their quest to gain the right to drive. A link to the story is here, and the text is pasted in below.

Wall Street Protesters Can Learn From Saudi Women - Moira Forbes

Social media has revolutionized political discourse in countries around the globe, not to mention a few blocks from my apartment in New York City. “Occupy Wall Street,” the grassroots movement decrying the lack of economic parity in the U.S., began three weeks ago with a small group of unorganized protesters. But thanks to multi-media efforts on Facebook and up-to-the-minute tweets from protesters and sympathizers alike, “Occupy Wall Street” has morphed into a multi-city campaign that has captivated the nation’s attention. Protests spanned over 70 cities this past weekend alone.

Inspired by the events of the Arab Spring, occupy Wall Street has evolved into a catch-all movement of frustration. It still remains unclear as to what activists are actually fighting for or what they intend to accomplish. From the very beginning, the movement has lacked a clear, unifying statement or a focused action plan that would result in something more than hundreds of arrests and depleting the city of New York, and others around the nation, millions of dollars for security.

In other parts of the world where the political climate is far less open than in the U.S., social media has been the critical catalyst in effecting actual change. Yet in a country where we have the precious freedom to protest, Occupy Wall Street should look to the Middle East not just for inspiration, but also for guidance if driving change versus making noise is their ultimate goal.
Occupy can start by the following the example set by Saudi women this summer as they made extraordinary strides in galvanizing global support around breaking the country’s archaic ban on women driving.

What are the lessons to be learned?

In a region where women lack the power‑-and the protection–to take to the streets, Saudi women leveraged social media in clever and strategic ways unique to other activists in the region. In June, a small group of women launched “Women2Drive,” a grassroots campaign rooted by just a Facebook page and twitter updates aimed at protesting the kingdom’s driving ban. Women were urged to take to the streets on June 17th, not in massive gatherings, but rather by getting behind the wheel of a car– and filming it.

Dozens of Saudi women posted videos of themselves driving online, rarely even speaking and never seeking public attention. And the Twitterverse responded in support. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi tweeted, “Beep beep and solidarity to the Saudi women & supporters challenging the driving ban!” Rep. Donna Christensen, the first female physician in the U.S. Congress tweeted, “In my doc practice some US did everything to prevent wives driving. They couldn’t! Drive SA women Drive!) And Rep. Karen Bass, who retweeted Pelosi’s message, added one of her own, “I stand in solidarity with Saudi Arabian women participating in the #Women2Drive Campaign today.”

The campaign was hugely successful except for some notable exceptions including one Saudi woman who was sentenced to 10 lashings for defying the ban. And social media once again served as the clarion call to action perhaps motivating Saudi King Abdullah to revoke the ruling last month.

The second lesson to be learned from the women’s driving campaign is to stay extremely focused. The women chose one specific injustice—the ban on driving—and used it to illuminate the other social and political injustices inextricably linked to this ban. Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that bans women from driving or even riding a bicycle, a stunning reality that compelled tens of thousands around the world to sign online petitions through groups such as Saudi Women for Driving. Selecting a less politically charged issue such as the right to vote also enabled key political leaders like Hillary Clinton to publicly support this campaign despite the US’ diplomatic balancing act with Saudi Arabia.

In a shocking and historical move, King Abdullah granted women the right to vote, and as the women’s driving campaign so brilliantly illustrates, protesters may need a Trojan horse to drive reform around some of the most sensitive issues facing a country and a culture.

Finally, the Occupy Wall Street protesters need to learn to be patient. Now, more than ever, we expect change overnight, and while it appeared to change that quickly in the Middle East this spring, deep, meaningful and sustained change takes a long time. Even if you can usher in new legislation, it doesn’t mean that Americans’ daily lives of will change overnight. What’s more, embracing diverse perspectives remain core to our democratic process and with that comes compromise and a balancing act for leaders today.

When the Saudi King granted women the right to vote, he faced intense unrest among the top Muslim clerics, one of the King’s key power bases. Granting women driving rights may be too politically explosive at this particular moment given the country’s instability. He knows, as do some other leaders, the value in measured action. Occupy Wall Street protesters would do well to follow his lead as well as that of Saudi women.

Women drive in Saudi Arabia?

2011-10-07T18:38:00.000-07:00

Excellent opinion piece from the Arab News by Somayya Jabarti. The text is pasted in below.

Women drive in Saudi Arabia?

By SOMAYYA JABARTI
Published: Oct 7, 2011 21:47 Updated: Oct 7, 2011 21:47

After all they are so much better off tucked away in the passenger’s seat

Outrageous! Incredible!

But why? Why in the world would we women want to drive in Saudi Arabia?

After all, we are so much better off tucked away in the passenger's seat in the safe hands of Ali, Rico and Abu Taleb. So what if Ali milked cows back home or if Rico has a criminal record or if this is the first time Abu Taleb has laid hands on a vehicle!

Why, oh why, in the world would we women want to drive in Saudi Arabia when all the men and all the would-be-men (i.e., the boys) are at our singular service, idly flicking away the flies with nothing better to do than await the opportunity to drive us anywhere, anytime at the bat of our eye lashes?

They may have jobs. (Wow, they work?). They may have school to go to. (Educated, are they?) They may have errands to run. (You don't say!) They may have lives to lead. (Oh like us you mean?) But they are prepared to drop them all once we whistle — sorry, call.

Because fathers, husbands, sons, brothers, uncles, nephews, grandfathers, grandsons, even grand-uncles and grand-nephews (how many more male relatives do I need mention?); or a friend's driver, or a driver’s friend or the friend's friend's friend's driver – in short, every man on every street in the Kingdom is at our beck and call. Right?

They breathe to drive and drive us only. Right?

These are supposedly the men-in-waiting who won’t ever keep us waiting, waiting and (more) waiting, come heatstroke, rain, showers or pain. You don’t even need to ask, ask and ask again; or persuade, cajole or even bribe. If you should ever so much as have to dash round the corner to the pharmacy, to the supermarket, to take your feverish child or your sister in labor to hospital — Shazam! Like Aladdin's genie, your chariot awaits you!

How thankful we women should be. Has a woman ever been deserted at traffic lights or in the middle of the street by her driver? (On second thoughts, forget that one!) At least no woman ever had to drive a sick father, husband or brother to hospital. They are supermen, never given to bad moods or sudden, unreasonable changes of mind about driving us. (Oops, forget that one too!)

Our streets are a constant amusement park and we lucky, oh-so-lucky women should realize what a pleasure it is to be in the passengers’ seat! Why ask for more?

After all, there is the “mini-roller coaster ride” when any Tom, Dick or Harry (or more likely Mohammad, Mustafa or Mahmoud) drives the car in “bicycle” mode — one foot on the accelerator, then the brakes, then again the accelerator, then again the brakes and so on. Breaks, accelerator, brakes, accelerator. What could be more enjoyable than the forward jerk, back jerk, forward jerk, back jerk? Extreme neck therapy and digestive quickie all in one go! (Car manufacturers: Paper bags are the next big thing in Saudi Arabia after air bags.)

Next comes the Bipolar Flip-Turn ride. Dick or Harry suddenly wants to turn left but is in the far right lane, then decides again it is right he wants to turn to; sorry no, it’s left, no it’s straight on. (Surely it's the medication he is or is not taking.)

Thirdly, the Wannabe “Fast'n'Furious” ride. Dick or Harry believes himself to be Van Diesel. At 120 km/hr, he swerves to the left, then to mid-lane, then to the right, then zigzags back to the left, to mid-lane, then back to the right lane, back to mid-lane (how many lanes are there?) Now right! Quick left! No right! Left! — I didn't lose you there, did I?

Then the crown-of-all rides: My-Street mode when all streets revolve around Dick’s or Harry’s wheels and his wheels alone. He alone owns the street. The roads, the parking spaces all are his. No one else has any right to the road. They have to be psychic, able to predict his every move and intention. He signals right but intends to go left. He signals left but goes right. Or even better does not signal at all! He double parks, he triple parks, he parks on corners, he blocks the road. (Parking tickets? They'll probably have to wait until 2015 when women get onto the Shoura and municipal councils).

My oh my, imagine what a dangerous place our so safe streets would become if women were to drive!

But for the now, our uniform-clad menfolk merely need to watch over them. And they do just that. Watch.

They do not have to concern themselves with the suicidal or homicidal red-light jumpers. Long live the “Saher” system! Saher lights flash you once, flash you twice and flash you thrice!

And, of course, they catch every violation by every car we women own but cannot drive — cars bought with money earned, money saved, installments paid for by us. And because of it, though we are prevented from committing the traffic violations, we still have to pay for them, because they are our cars. Hail the balanced hand of man-driven justice!

In any event, our pockets are so immune to global recession that if a window mirror is cracked, crushed or goes missing; if the car should suffer a dent, a streak, a broken tail-light or be involved in any accident (caused by Ali, Rico or Abu Taleb), we've ample riyals to spare! Fanning ourselves with peacock feathers in the back seats, we gleefully get to spill hundreds and thousands of riyals on car repairs, drivers' visas, salaries, housing expenses, travel tickets — the list goes on.

We understand. Women driving in the Kingdom really cannot be considered. It would require:

• Training policemen to act, not just watch;
• Training policemen, males and men (there is a difference between the latter two) to treat women drivers in the same way they do male drivers, as opposed to chasing after them, hyper-ventilating or any other immature response). The alternative would be to employ policewomen (now there’s a thought to make many sleepless nights for men in Saudi Arabia!);
• Actually implementing traffic regulations;
• Accepting women's total mobility (yes, your mother, wife, daughter, sister would go places independently — a scary thought!)

Too much change? Silly me thinking education enlightens you. Thing is, this here is no Wonderland. There are no Alices here. It is a land of promise.

We are all Manal, Najla, Shayma and Madeeha.*
This is a reality check, a wake-up call if you want.
Women in Saudi Arabia: to drive or not drive?

That is not the question. The question is: When?

* Manal, Najla, Shayma and Madeeha are Saudi women who have been prosecuted or cautioned for driving in the Kingdom.

American journalist recalls 1990 interview with one of the 47 Saudi women drivers

2011-10-03T09:27:00.000-07:00

American journalist Rosemarye Levine lived in Saudi Arabia during the time of the 1990 driving demonstration in which 47 Saudi women, with support of their families, drove across Riyadh. Some months after the incident, Levine interviewed one of the drivers, and a few months ago, wrote about her interview - the story behind the story. A link to her article in the "Space Coast Progressive Alliance" is here and the text is below. Thanks to Jean Grant, author of THE BURNING VEIL: A NOVEL OF ARABIA, who sent me the link to Levine's story.
Saudi Women Drive!

By Rosemarye Levine Tue, Jul 05 2011 09:09am

In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, women may not drive cars, motorcycles or bicycles nor may they roller skate, ride a horse, donkey, ass or camel. In 1990, about 47 Saudi women had the courage and audacity to drive cars in the capital city. Then-journalist -- and now a wintertime member of SCPA -- Rosemarye Levine remembers the secretive interview that lead to her breaking the story for world news.
--------------
In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, women may not drive cars, motorcycles or bicycles nor may they roller skate, ride a horse, donkey, ass or camel.

This is not a religious stricture but something imposed on them by their culture.

Even women in Afghanistan, clad in their chaderi, have the right to drive on the streets of Kabul or Herat or anywhere else in their country. Saudi Arabia has the distinction of being the only country in the world that prohibits half the population from getting behind the wheel.

Thus, in a place where men and women are rigidly segregated, these same women find themselves in cars being chauffeured by strange men, neither a husband, father, brother or son over 12 (legally, the only males that may accompany Saudi women) but probably a Pakistani, Sri Lankan, Yemeni or one of the many sub-continent expatriates who come to The Kingdom to fill these jobs.

On November 6, 1990, with the build up of the Gulf War in the country, some 47 Saudi women went into a parking lot in Riyadh and dismissed their disbelieving, frightened drivers and took the steering wheel into their own hands.

These gutsy women drove their cars on the main streets of the capital but were quickly spotted by the muttawaeen. These are the religious police who monitor the application of virtue and the suppression of vice. They called in the local police and had the women hauled off to jail.

Finally released to their male keepers, the husbands, fathers, brothers, etc. had to sign papers saying the women would never ever drive again and allow themselves to be publicly chastised for not controlling “their women.” These very brave females were all professionals with multiple academic degrees from oustanding international universities. Nonetheless, they were “bad women” and were fired from their jobs and had their passports lifted. Complete families were under house arrest.

In the Friday call to prayer, the imams broadcasted over loudspeakers the names and addresses and telephone numbers of these wicked women, depicted them as such, and told the public at large to “do with them as you will.”

The beleaguered women hunkered down in their houses, stayed off the streets and kept a low profile. The government, under King Fahd, did nothing to protect them. Their apartments and houses were entered, books destroyed, computers taken into custody as the muttawaeen searched for subversive material. The Gulf War proceeded into its next phase when troops from many countries came into KSA to liberate Kuwait from Saddam Hussein’s army. In the interim, these women had their passports returned with an exit-only visa, meaning they did not have an entry visa to return to their country if they left. The government wanted these trouble makers out of the country and gone. All stayed and did not leave.

About a month or so after the driving incident, I met with an informant who asked if I would like to interview the woman who was the unelected leader of the group. I jumped at the opportunity.
Then a meet-up that was out of a B movie was put in motion. First, I went to the shuttered and secluded women’s section of Baskin Robbins in AlKhobar where I met a Saudi woman who handed me a piece of paper and quickly left the shop before I could ask a question. On it was written that I should go to a store that sold abayas at the other end of town.

From the abaya shop, I was directed to a children’s kindergarten in a private compound where the director handed me a piece of paper with an apartment number at the housing complex at the University of Petroeum and Minerals in Dhahran. When I knocked on the door, an Arab women opened it, silenty gestured that I should come in and disappeared.

A middle aged woman was sitting at a table sipping tea. She shall remain nameless as shall everyone else in this episode. After apologizing for the run around from one stop to the next -- she was constantly followed -- the woman softly but determindely told me the story of the Friday morning drive in Riyadh and explained that the women who participated needed the complete acceptance by their fathers for the search for freedom to travel.

She then proceeded to explain that her Baba taught her English as a child and then sent her to a convent in Egypt for future schooling, thence to USA where she earned a PhD at Berkeley. For her time, this was most unusual. He imbued her with the ideas of equal rights for all peoples with the many books he brought back fom Europe and his constant preaching of human rights.

He had died the year before, her beloved mentor, but she remembers clearly that he constantly reminded her that it is not shameful to go to prison if one is apprehended for an act that is an expression of one’s quest to be free and equal.

Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right of freedom of movement. So, with this in mind and the echo of her father’s word, it was her decision to get behind the wheel. The interview was long, got published and gave me many insights to the workings within a liberal Saudi household.

These 47 women were the ones that the driver from the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia had as her example just last month. It took 21 years for women to get up the hubris to do it again.
Recently, a rather tepid demonstration took place all of a certain Friday. I knew what would happen -- and it did.

King Abdullah, walking a tight line with the Al Shaikh family -- a partner in ruling Saudi Arabia through its religious proclamations -- turned a blind eye, instructed the police to ignore the women driving. He believes that, by attrition, this will come to pass. I feel there will be many an open-minded Saudi husband who will happily turn over the keys to the distaff member of the family.

-----------
Rosemarye Levine lived in Saudi Arabia for 14 years and was a foreign correspondent throughout the Middle East and Central Asia. She has been in every countrry in that area for extended periods, and was the coordinator for the British Press Pool during the Gulf War. Rosemarye and her husband, Marty, are wintertime members of SCPA.

Injured female driver dies in Saudi Arabia

2011-10-03T08:50:00.000-07:00

The woman who was driving her mother to a hospital in the city of Aflaj, 200 miles south of the Saudi Capital Riyadh, has passed away from injuries sustained in the accident. Her mother was killed in the accident. A link to today's story on the driver's death comes from today's Emirates 24/7. The text is pasted in below, and a link to the story is here. A link to a previous story about the accident is here.

Injured female driver dies in Saudi Arabia
Car overturned as she was driving sick mother to hospital

By Staff

Published Monday, October 03, 2011

A Saudi girl defying a long-standing ban on driving cars by women in the Gulf kingdom died at hospital a few days after suffering from injuries in a road accident that killed her old mother, a newspaper said on Monday.

The girl’s condition had stabilised following her admission to hospital before starting to deteriorate after learning of her mother’s death, 'Sabq' said.

The girl, in her 20s, was driving her sick mother for treatment at a hospital in the central town of Aflaj when the car overturned on the road because of a tyre blast.

Your tiara or your license?

2011-10-02T14:17:00.000-07:00

No, the day hasn't yet dawned when Saudiwomen in Riyadh, Jeddah, al-Khobar, Dammam, Taif and Khamis get up in themorning, put on their abaya's and drive themselves to work, school andmarket. But it will. OK, now that we've all agreed on that, let's talk abouttiaras.

Some years ago, Boston's Museum of Fine Artsput on an exhibit of tiaras from around the world. It was a fascinating show,because many of the tiaras on display were worn by royalty and fascinatingwomen of the world of a glamorous bygone era. Some tiaras had unique storiesbehind them. In addition, they lit the exhibit so you could stand in a certainspot and place the shadow of each tiara as if it were on your own head!

One tiara got my friend Mary and megiggling. It was set with fabulous diamonds in platinum, in an art-deco style.It held its own in the room full of priceless jewels. It looked just like many of the other tiaras there, studded with diamonds, sapphires, emeralds and rubies, until we readthe story behind it. You see a British man gave it to his wife in the 1920's,but it came with a price. She had to promise to never drive again! Apparently,she took him up on it.

Sothink about it. Just like in England, the day women drive will soon come toSaudi Arabia. It will be amazing. And maybe some Saudi ladies will manage toexact a similar bargain, if that's what they really want.

Personally, I would never trade my driver's license for a tiara…. orwould I?

Another Saudi woman briefly detained for flouting driving ban

2011-10-01T09:06:00.000-07:00

This story from the Arab News of September 28, 2011 about a woman detained in Riyadh for driving. She said she took to the wheel out of happiness for the King's recent announcement about women getting the vote and joining the Shoura Consultative Council as full members. Story is pasted in below and the link to the story is here.

Another Saudi woman briefly detained for flouting driving ban

By WALAA HAWARI | ARAB NEWS

Published: Sep 28, 2011 23:44 Updated: Sep 28, 2011 23:44

RIYADH: Another woman was briefly detained on Wednesday for driving through the streets of Riyadh while being filmed by a foreign reporter.

The woman, identified as Madeeha, was unable to speak to Arab News as she had lost her voice due to an infection. In an e-mail, she wrote: “I really think it is ironic and funny for me to lose my voice when I need it the most.”

While she was being filmed by the woman reporter, Madeeha voiced her feelings of joy over Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah’s decision to give more political power to women.

“The more we publicly voice our needs the more I feel the king is responding to our demands,” Madeeha said.

She said she is not intimidated by the arrest, as she believes the more people voice their support for women driving, the sooner they will be recognized as full citizens.

“It is clear that women have been asking for the right to vote and run in the municipal elections and be part of the Shoura Council. This will be a real encouragement for women to continually ask for their basic right to drive,” she said.

The foreign reporter was protected by her embassy, and was let go by the police.
Madeeha told the woman that she would be all right.

“The reporter could not help herself but cry,” she said, adding that if Saudis want to be part of the global economy they cannot discriminate against women.

She was referring to a court’s decision to hand down a fine and a sentence of 10 lashes to Shayma Jastaniah for driving her vehicle in Jeddah.

“We as a nation have to start dealing with the needs of our growing and complicated society,” Madeeha said.

Madeeha said that she drove out of total happiness over the king’s speech, and was not aware of Shayma's case, nor did she think that the police would take her into custody.

Madeeha signed a pledge not to drive again and was released.She will not have to face a court.

Commenting on the case, lawyer Sultan bin Zahem said nothing in Islam bans women from driving. He said the sentence handed to Shayma was not for breaching Islamic law, but the country's regulations and bylaws.

“It is a deterrent punishment and is based on the judge's discretion to end any activity that could breach laws and cause chaos,” he said.

Zahem said the foreign reporter involved in Madeeha’s case should have faced some punishment.

Zahem said the signs were women would be allowed to drive soon. “The current rapid developments and Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah’s decisions are landmarks,” he said, pointing out that if the Saudi woman was to be trusted with a leading role in government, they would soon be able to get behind the steering wheel.

Arab News Editorial: The driving issue

2011-09-30T08:08:00.000-07:00

The Arab News, Saudi Arabia's largest English language daily, editorializes. Pasted below, the link to the story is here.

Editorial: The driving issue

Published: Sep 29, 2011 22:06 Updated: Sep 29, 2011 22:06

Status of women provokes a great deal of comment within Saudi Arabia itself

There is no point trying to pretend that Saudi Arabia does not come in for a considerable amount of criticism from other parts of the world over the status of women in Saudi society — the issue of women not being allowed to drive, of women not being allowed a passport or leave the country without the permission of a male member of their family, of businesswomen having to have a male manager, of the restrictions on women lawyers. There are many more issues.

Much of that criticism ignores the fact that Saudi Arabia is, of its own choice, a very conservative society. It ignores too the fact that it is only relatively recently in Western countries that women have won the rights they now have. Women in the US gained the right to vote only in 1920, in UK it was in 1928, in France in 1944; in Switzerland, which claims to be one of the oldest democracies on earth, as recently as 1971. Compared to them Saudi Arabia is a young country.

The criticism also ignores the reality that the status of women provokes a great deal of comment and debate within Saudi Arabia itself. It is the hot issue.

Sunday’s historic announcement from Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah — a consistent promoter of women’s rights — that women will in future be allowed to vote and stand for municipal councils and be appointed to the Shoura Council, therefore, drew the attention of the world. It has been welcomed as a sign of the Kingdom’s commitment to reform and progress. It was unfortunate then that almost immediately afterward the next Saudi story the international media focused on was that of Shayma Jastaniah, the Saudi woman sentenced to 10 lashes for driving in Jeddah. It inevitably made comparisons between the decision on women voting and the sentence, claiming that the latter undermined the importance of the former and that there were contradictions on the position of women in the Kingdom.

Saudis too have said as much. It is now rumored that the Shayma has been reprieved. If true, it would be welcome news and would go some considerable way to undo the perception that Saudi Arabia is sending out mixed messages on the status of woman. The issue of women driving is not going to go away. It is not a question of if it will happen. It is a question of when. We would hope as soon as possible. But there are those who have different views — and they are not all men. It is an issue that has to be debated but that debate has to be carried out in a calm and dignified atmosphere. Clearly, reports of women being sentenced to be lashed for driving do not contribute to a calm atmosphere.

However, while the driving issue is not going to go away, it would be wrong to imagine that now that women are to have the vote, it is the top women’s issue. It has great symbolic significance but there are many other goals to achieve, some of them mentioned above. As a conservative society, Saudi Arabia moves slowly — but it moves. And, as has been seen time and again, the king is a champion of modernization and reform. That is reason for great confidence.

BBC News - Viewpoint: Saudi women should not drive

2011-09-30T08:04:00.000-07:00

Op-ed piece from the BBC. Pasted below, link to story is here.

Viewpoint: Saudi women should not drive

Driving remains a banned activity for Saudi women, who will soon be allowed to vote

Saudi leader King Abdullah overturned a court decision this week that sentenced a woman to 10 lashes for driving a car in violation of the ban on female drivers in the kingdom. Over recent months scores of women have driven around major Saudi cities in a highly unusual show of civil disobedience.

The vast majority of women do not drive in the kingdom and there remains much opposition to female drivers. A 25-year-old Saudi man, Nawwaf, told BBC Radio 4's World at One programme why he does not want to see women driving in Saudi Arabia.

"I think women driving is the key to a lot of things. In Western countries, 100 years ago women's clothes were different but now you can see they are a little bit naked.

"If you start now to let women drive, let them go wherever they want, let them do whatever they want, we will be in the same position some day. Then Saudi Arabia will be like New York.

"It's not good for some girl to show her body, wear very short skirts. This is not about Saudi Arabia, it's about Islam. We've got a generation who were raised watching Gossip Girls and other [similar] series. They only want to be like that, dress like that, drive like that. It's not about need.

"Now it's driving [women want]. After five years it will be taking off the abaya [all-covering veil and gown], after 10 years they will ask to be allowed to wear short skirts. This is how it's going, that is how I feel.

"I did agree with the sentence [of 10 lashes]. There are hundreds and thousands of guys and they get the same or more if they do bad things, so I'm OK with it. If I am in the mall and I bother some girl, I will get more than [10 lashes] from the court.

"It is a good thing that women will be allowed to vote. Because they will vote for someone to improve healthcare, improve education, improve jobs.

"It's not only about driving. Healthcare is important, education is important, jobs are important. But driving is nothing.

"They [the female driving campaigners] want the people outside Saudi Arabia to think the fight is between the people and the religious people. It's not. I'm not a religious person but I am against it.

"I believe it will hurt my community. I understand the US traditions and I respect them so other people, outsiders, need to understand our traditions and respect them."

A Driving Issue that Just Won't Go Away, Until it Does

2011-09-30T07:53:00.000-07:00

Interesting blog posting by Patrick S. Ryan for the Saudi-US Relations Information Service, analyzing the women driving issue. A link to the entry is here and the beginning of the full text is pasted in below. It is too long an entry to include here in its entirety.

On Sunday King Abdullah opened the new Majlis As Shura, or Consultative Council, session in Riyadh with a speech heard around the world. Giving Saudi women the right to participate in Municipal Council elections as of 2015 and to be eligible for service in the Majlis stirred both applause and backhanded criticism. The reform minded King’s move was hailed as a positive development by some and derided as falling too short by others. “Thanks for shaking things up by bringing about women’s voting rights, but how do you expect them to get to the polls if they can’t drive,” so it goes. Damned if you do and damned if you do.

Emblematic of that reaction was a political cartoon in this morning’s American Bedu blog showing two women in abayas under a notation “Saudi Arabia: 2015.” The first one asks, “Did you vote..?” The answer, “No… my husband wouldn’t drive me.”

The question of women driving is never far from the top of the list of issues that stand in the way of progress for women in the Kingdom on many people’s minds, especially among those outside the Kingdom looking in. It was important enough to be among the questions asked in 2005 of King Abdullah in his first television interview after assuming the throne — his questioner was ABC News correspondent Barbara Walters — as reported on SUSRIS.com in October 2005.

You can access the entire blog entry here

***

King Abdallah Pardons Lashing Sentence for Shaima

2011-09-29T12:26:00.000-07:00

King Abdallah pardoned the woman driver who was recently sentenced to ten lashes for driving illegally. Her name is Shaima Ghassaniyah, but also appears with the last name Jastaina as well as Jastania. So far, I haven't seen an official confirmation of this ruling, and it hasn't shown up in the Arab News yet, which is interesting. I'm posting it as news ----- since it's all over the wires. (Note: in our post of March 15, 2011 (Prince Khaled is For Women Driving), a woman named Shaima Jastania attended the 2011 Jeddah Economic Forum and asked the Governor of the Western (Mecca) Province, Prince Khalid bin Faisal bin Abdul Aziz, whether he agreed with the driving ban. I assume she is the same woman.

The text of the story from the Guardian is below, and a link to the story is here.

Saudi woman driver saved from lashing by King Abdullah

A Saudi woman sentenced to be lashed 10 times for defying the country's ban on female drivers has had her punishment overturned by the king.

The woman, named as Shaima Jastaina and believed to be in her 30s, was found guilty of driving without permission in Jeddah in July. Her case was the first in which a legal punishment was handed down for a violation of the ban in the ultraconservative Muslim nation.

Although there has been no official confirmation of the ruling, Princess Amira al-Taweel, wife of the Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, tweeted: "Thank God, the lashing of [Shaima] is cancelled. Thanks to our beloved king. I am sure all Saudi women will be so happy, I know I am."

She later added that she and her husband had spoken to Shaima, who told them: "The king's orders washed the fears I lived with after this unjust sentence."

Jastaina was sentenced on Monday — a day after King Abdullah promised to protect women's rights and said women would be allowed to participate in municipal elections in 2015. He also promised to appoint women to the all-male Shura council advisory body.

The moves underline the challenge facing Abdullah, known as a reformer, as he pushes gently for change while trying not to antagonise the powerful clergy and a conservative segment of the population.

Although there are no written laws that restrict women from driving, the prohibition is rooted in conservative traditions and religious views that hold that giving freedom of movement to women would make them vulnerable to sins.

Police usually stop female drivers, question them and let them go after they sign a pledge not to drive again. But dozens of women have continued to take to the roads since June in a campaign to break the taboo.

Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that bans women — both Saudi and foreign — from driving. The prohibition forces families to hire live-in drivers, and those who cannot afford the $300-$400 (£190-£255) a month for a driver must rely on male relatives to drive them.

Mother killed in a car accident - with her daughter at the wheel

2011-09-28T17:27:00.000-07:00

Emirates 24/7 reports today that an elderly Saudi woman was killed in a car accident, noting that her daughter was at the wheel illegally. The woman driving was taking her mother to the hospital for medical treatment in Aflaj (a rural area 200 miles south of the capital city Riyadh) when one of the tires blew. Though women driving in Saudi cities is uncommon, women are known to drive in rural areas.

The text of the story is below, and the link to it on-line is here.

Mum killed in car driven by daughter in Saudi - September 28, 2011

An old Saudi woman was killed in a road accident involving a car driven by her daughter in defiance of a long-standing ban on driving by women in the conservative Muslim Gulf Kingdom, press reports said on Wednesday.

The girl was driving her sick mother for treatment at a hospital in the central town of Aflaj when the car overturned on the road because of a tyre blast.

“The mother was killed in the accident, her daughter, in her 20s, was injured and taken to hospital,” Sharq daily said.

Saudi women driving on Twitter

2011-09-27T11:15:00.000-07:00

If you are active on Twitter, you can check out the lively discussion on the case of Shaima Ghassaniyah being sentenced to ten lashes for driving in Saudi Arabia. The 'Twitterverse' is just hopping with comments today.

Check out: the discussion on:

#Women2Drive
#SaudiWomenSpring
#KingdomofSaudiMen
#Right2Dignity
#SaudiWomen

This sentence seems particularly embarrassing given the fact that the King wants to stop the marginalization of women in Saudi society. He's just given them the right to vote in municipal elections and will be appointing women to his Consultative Council, known as the Shoura.

The King has been known to step in and commute capricious sentences, and I believe he will do so in this case. This is a good example of the independence of the Saudi judiciary, which can be a good thing in theory, but often it's not.

Shoura council reconsidering women driving issue

2011-09-27T09:05:00.000-07:00

The Saudi Gazette reports that the Saudi consultative council, known as the Shoura, appointed by the King, is reconsidering the women driving issue. A link to the story is here and the text is below. This subject has come to the fore, in response to the growing movement of Saudi men and women who are asking for women's right to drive, as well as the questions that have followed the King's recent announcement about women's right to vote and women's imminent appointment as full members of the Shoura.

Shoura reconsidering women driving issue

Al-Khobar — In view of the popular campaign for allowing women to drive in the Kingdom, the Shoura Council is thoroughly reconsidering the issue, said Dr. Misha’l Mamdooh Al-Ali, Chairman of the Council’s Human Rights Committee.

Allowing women to drive does not conflict with Islamic law, he said, adding that the majority of people oppose women driving based on tradition and customs. “It has nothing to do with religion,” Al-Ali was quoted by Al-Hayat Arabic daily as saying.

Many Saudi women say their driving does not contradict the Shariah and there is no religious reason that prevents them from driving, he added. He said these women have appointed a lawyer to follow up the issue at the Shoura Council.

“The human rights committee is waiting for the Chairman of the Shoura Council to study the case and refer it back to the committee,” he said.

“The Shoura Council will study any issue put on the table as long as it is in the interest of citizens and residents,” he said. The Shoura Council will allow the lawyer and his female clients to attend the session when the issue is discussed, he said.

Dr. Al-Ali hoped that Sheikh Abdul Aziz Aal Al-Sheikh, the Grand Mufti of the Kingdom, and other senior Ulema (scholars) would give their opinion on the issue. “We will comply with what they say because they know better and know what is best for us.”

The Shoura Council members are studying the issue thoroughly from different social, economic and security aspects, he said.

One important goal that his committee seeks to achieve is to ensure that there are female police so that female drivers are treated with respect, he explained.

Woman to get ten lashes for driving

2011-09-27T08:48:00.000-07:00

The AP reports via USA Today here, that Saudi woman Shaima Ghassaniyyah, caught driving illegally in Saudi Arabia, is to receive ten lashes for driving. The link to the story is here and the text appears below.

Saudi woman sentenced to 10 lashes for defying ban on female drivers

by Douglas Stanglin (September 27, 2011)

A Saudi court has sentenced a Saudi woman with 10 lashes for defying the kingdom's ban on women driving, Saudi actvists tell the Associated Press.

Activist Samar Badawi says Shaima Ghassaniya was found guilty of driving without the government's permission in Jeddah in July. No laws prohibit women from driving, but conservative religious edicts have banned it.

Today's verdict is the first of its kind in Saudi Arabia. Other women were detained for several days, but had not been sentenced by a court, the AP reports.

The BBC reports that Women2drive, which campaigns for women to be allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, says she has already appealed the conviction.

The BBC says two other women are due to appear in court later this year on similar charges.
Najalaa Harriri, who is also facing court for driving, tells the AP that she needed to drive to take better care of her children.

This weekend, Saudi King Abdullah announced, for the first time, that women have the right to vote and run in the country's 2015 local elections.

Saudi Authorities to try Najla Hariri for Driving

2011-09-26T13:16:00.000-07:00

The Associated Press is reporting today (9/26/2011) that authorities in Jeddah are going to bring housewife and mother Najla Hariri to trial for driving illegally. This is one day after King Abdallah announced that women would have the right to vote in the next municipal elections four years from now, and that he would begin appointing women to sit on his Consultative Council next year.

The text of the story is below, and a link to the piece on ABC News' website is here
They managed to mangle Ms. Hariri's name, both first and last.

Stay tuned for more updates.

From AP: Saudi Authorities to Try Woman for Driving

A Saudi lawyer and rights advocates say authorities will bring a Saudi activist to trial for defying the kingdom's female driving ban.

The attorney, Waleed Aboul Khair, says Najalaa Harrir was summoned for questioning by the prosecutor general in the port city of Jeddah on Sunday, the same day that Saudi King Abdullah introduced reforms giving women the right to vote and run in local elections four years from now.
Harrir is one of dozens of Saudi female activists behind a campaign called "My Right, My Dignity" that is aimed at ending discrimination against women, including the driving ban, in the ultraconservative Islamic country.

Harrir recently appeared in a TV show while driving her car in Jeddah.

Women will join King's Shura Council and gain right to vote

2011-09-25T14:59:00.000-07:00

King Abdallah of Saudi Arabia made history yet again by announcing that women will be allowed to vote and run for office in the Kingdom's municipal elections...and that they will be appointed as full members to the Kingdom's Consultative Shura Council. Though the issue of women driving isn't dealt with now, I believe we must look at this historic step with the 'glass is half full' attitude. Now that women will be on the Shura Council they will be able to discuss the women driving issue and bring forth other major women's rights issues such as the 'guardianship' law question.

The media is reporting this all over - I'm including the LA Times story - it seems the most nuanced and quotes Lubna Hussain. The story is pasted in below and a link to it is here

Reforms will allow women to vote but not drive - Jeffrey Fleishman

REPORTING FROM CAIRO -- King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia surprised his ultraconservative nation Sunday by announcing bold reforms that for the first time give women the right to vote, run for local office and serve on the Shura Council, the king’s advisory board.

The measures by an aging monarch who has battled Islamic hard-liners for years will marginally improve the standing of women in a country that still forbids them from driving or leaving the house without their faces covered. The moves appear likely to enrage religious conservatives while serving to advance at least a veneer of change in one of the world’s most repressive states.

“Because we refuse to marginalize women in society in all roles that comply with sharia [Islamic law], we have decided ... to involve women in the Shura Council as members, starting from the next term,” the king said in a five-minute speech to his advisors.

He added: “Women will be able to run as candidates” in the 2015 municipal election “and will even have a right to vote.”

The announcement suggests that the ailing 87-year-old king seeks a legacy as a reformer, despite making only modest inroads on human rights. Abdullah built the country’s first coeducational university and has granted 120,000 scholarships to Saudi students, many of them women, to study outside the country. Each was opposed by clerics and religious ultraconservatives in the royal family. Allowing women to vote is “hugely significant,” said Lubna Hussain, a Saudi writer. “The king is implementing the reform promises he made when he became leader. It shows he is not willing to pander to religious fundamentalists ... who are quite weakened and don’t seem to have the voice they used to.”

The new rights for women come as Saudi Arabia has bristled at demands for political freedoms that have spirited rebellions across the Arab world and toppled such longtime allies of the king as Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. When rumblings of revolt echoed in Saudi Arabia, the government, whose security forces are omnipresent, promised $130 billion in salary raises and spending for social and religious programs.

Such largesse and attempts at modernization have kept Abdullah popular even while challenges to the royal family have been quickly crushed. Saudi dissidents and human rights groups have condemned the government for crackdowns that have occasionally damaged the king’s image and led to criticism that his family’s reliance on religious conservatives to stay in power makes him too cautious a reformer.

The king is the counterbalance to influential anti-reformist forces, including Prince Nayef ibn Abdulaziz, the Saudi interior minister, who many believe may succeed Abdullah. Nayef is sympathetic to fundamentalist Wahhabi clerics who uphold the segregation of sexes and have resisted the monarch’s attempts at modest reforms to ease religion's grip on schools, courts and other institutions.

Yet discriminatory laws, such as preventing women from driving, have become an international embarrassment for the kingdom, a key U.S. ally that relies on oil wealth to expand its diplomatic stature. A number of women were arrested over the summer for defying the driving ban. Analysts predicted that by allowing women to vote the king has opened the possibility for wider rights debates.

But others said the latest reforms were diversions that did little to change the plight of women in a country where they can be beheaded for adultery and cannot travel abroad without the permission of a male guardian.

“It’s a mixed feeling. On one hand he opens the door for her and on the other hand she is still banned from driving,” said Mohammad Fahd Qahtani, a college professor and human rights advocate. “It doesn’t save her from horrible treatment by government agencies and the courts. It’s a symbolic gesture but it is in no way enough to improve the lives of women.”

He added: “These rights to vote are still, if you see how it’s worded, are contingent on Islamic jurisprudence. So we'll have to see in coming years what happens. The devil could be in the details. But maybe it’ll get some international praise for the regime.”

Sunday’s announcements “represent an important step forward in expanding the rights of women in Saudi Arabia, and we support King Abdullah and the people of Saudi Arabia as they undertake these and other reforms,” said Tommy Vietor, spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council.

The change will not alter the Saudi power structure. Municipal councils have little authority and only half their members are elected. The Shura Council, a body akin to a parliament but with no legislative power, advises the king on economic, social and international affairs.

But liberals and activists believe that even a little nudge forward in the kingdom is significant.

“It’s almost like a watershed,” said Hussain, who has written eloquently over the years on women’s rights. “You’ll now have women in [the Shura Council] taking up women’s causes. Before it was men talking for us. It’s quite revolutionary and it will open up a Pandora’s box.”

Hiding behind wheel, another Riyadh woman hits the road

2011-09-14T18:14:00.000-07:00

Excellent article in the 9/13/2011 Arab News by Walaa Hawari about a woman and her mother who admit to driving in Riyadh as an economic necessity. A link to the story is here and the text is below.

Hiding behind wheel, another Riyadh woman hits the road

By WALAA HAWARI | ARAB NEWS

Published: Sep 13, 2011 23:35 Updated: Sep 13, 2011 23:35

RIYADH: Hiding under a hooded shirt, another Saudi woman drove on King Fahd Road in Riyadh.

The woman, identified as Nora, was accompanied by her mother, who had expressed her despair of using taxis to move around in the city. Taking taxis exhausted her, the mother complained, adding that it exposed her to a number of problems, as she had no man in the house.
“My only daughter learned to drive when we traveled and is in possession of a driving license, so I thought it more convenient to have her drive me around to finish my chores,” said the mother.
She added that recruiting a private driver was very expensive, and two of her previous drivers had run away, leaving her helpless.
The daughter, on the other hand, said she preferred to wear a hooded sweatshirt to hide her identity, as she was not sure about the law and how she would be treated if caught. “I also tried to keep a low profile, so men would not hassle me, given that I am not protected by the law. Things might turn against me if there was a clash,” said Nora.
Nora and her mother admitted that they had been driving since morning carrying out some chores all the way from Takhassosi Street, west of Riyadh, to Al-Woroud area, north of Riyadh, with no trouble at all. They were held in the traffic on King Fahd Road, where some of the drivers had spotted Nora, but left her alone.
Nora's mother said that once the government finally approved women driving, and bylaws were set to protect her daughter and other female drivers, her and other women’s problems would be reduced.
“I am retired and my salary is hardly enough for my expenses. I cannot afford a driver, and even if I could, I have no place for a strange man in my house,” said Nora's mother, confirming that she knew many other women in the same situation.
Yet Nora's mother expressed more despair about the present situation, as it remains unclear if driving is approved or not and whether she can come out openly with her daughter into the streets or has to keep dodging bullets.
Late last month Jeddah police briefly detained Najla Hariri, a social activist who was part of an Internet campaign titled “Women2Drive,” for driving her daughter to her workplace.

Driven to despair

2011-09-13T12:55:00.000-07:00

Excellent essay by Saudi writer Sameera Aziz in the 9/13/2011 Saudi Gazette about the lack of progress in the women's driving issue. The link to the story is here and the text of it is below. Bravo, Sameera.

Driven to despair - Sameera Aziz

In his reply to a pointed question from Barbara Walters of ABC News asking him whether he would support allowing women to drive, King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, was forthright. “I believe strongly in the rights of women ... my mother is a woman, my sister is a woman, my daughter is a woman, my wife is a woman,” he said. “I believe the day will come when women drive. In fact, if you look at the areas in Saudi Arabia, the deserts and in the rural areas, you will find that women do drive. The issue will require patience. In time, I believe it will be possible.”
Prodded further about the exact time when women could get behind the wheel, King Abdullah added: “Our people are just now beginning to open up to the world, and I believe that, with the passing of days in the future, everything is possible.”
That interview took place more than five years ago but the question still remains about when women could be allowed to drive.
And, to be honest, this is a question I have never tired of raising at any forum that upholds women’s rights. In fact, at about the same time that Walters was raising this issue with King Abdullah, I was putting this question before the Jeddah Economic Forum.
It is a question that is very close to my heart and that, I believe, of every woman in the Kingdom. However, I was in for a rude shock. I had barely finished my question at the elite gathering, when one of the key speakers cut me short: “This is the dilemma of our society; young Saudi women of today, like you, just think of seeking permission to drive in the Kingdom, rather than focusing on and nurturing their marital life,” he had scoffed and continued deploringly. “Think of seeking a good groom for yourself rather than wasting your time on such non-issues.”
According to him, we should be concentrating on more fruitful issues instead: like finding ways to reduce the increasing number of divorces in our society! I will refrain from naming the speaker, who is elderly and respectable, but his unexpectedly harsh and offensive reply took me completely by surprise. I had promptly gathered myself and presented my case. “Sir, I was speaking on the issue of women driving in general,” I explained. “However, if you are interested in talking about me personally, for your kind information, I am already married and my husband believes I am a very caring homemaker. I know how to nurture a good marital life. Personally, I would probably prefer to pamper myself by being chauffeur driven but, equally, those women who want to drive should be allowed to drive. And I was speaking on behalf of all those Saudi and expat women, who don’t want to depend on drivers.”
Saying this I walked out of the hall. I can only guess what his response would have been because I left behind a silence that raised more questions than he could answer.
While I was sitting in the lobby for the next session, however, I found several supporters. Many young girls came out and voiced their disgust.
“We are fed up. They don’t consider it (driving) an issue at all. I can’t afford a driver but I am forced to pay him,” said one. “On one hand, we talk about non-Mahrams (strangers) but, on the other, our menfolk think nothing of allowing us to go around town accompanied by these drivers who are also non-Mahrams,” added another. “How long are we going to depend on our drivers to take us where we want?” questioned yet another.
I could go on but you probably get the drift. Clearly, women were frustrated at being put down at every forum and a key issue like this was simply put on the backburner.
However, after five years of harsh and haunting debate, I believe things are changing. People are now open to the idea of at least discussing the issue of women driving.
There was much confusion over what the law says about women driving when Manal was arrested.
The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice washed its hands off Manal’s case saying it did not fall under its jurisdiction because she had apparently committed a violation of the law.
The police, on the other hand, claimed it had nothing to do with this as Manal had not committed any security violation. It was a traffic violation, it said, which was under the traffic department.
Though it was indeed the traffic department that finally leveled the charges, it was evident that they were confused about the issue. And the reason for that was simple: they had never handled a woman violator before! There was some certainty provided this past week when Prince Ahmad Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, Deputy Interior Minister, said that the ban in the country was still in place, according to the Ministry of Interior website. “… a statement has been issued in 1411H, which banned women driving cars in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Ministry of Interior still implements this regulation but we could not say that this is correct or incorrect because it is not our work; we are responsible for implementing the regulations.”

Whatever the points of view, confusion should be cleared and the issue needs to be addressed quickly. After all, women comprise more than half of the Kingdom’s student body. While the transition from education to employment is already hard for Saudi women, it becomes even harder for them to find the resources to pursue a successful career. And creating feasible transportation is a key factor here.
Being dependent on others for something as basic as getting from one place to another can be frustrating. And more so when one has to depend on a complete stranger to fulfill this need. There is little doubt that most women would feel safer behind the wheel of their own car rather than meet the roving eye of her limousine driver or the lecherous taxi driver who makes unnecessary conversation and drops broad hints.
Men need to understand that women in the Kingdom are simply asking for their right. They are not demanding unnecessary freedom by seeking permission to drive.
And those who are depriving them of this need to be cautioned. As uprisings are sweeping the Arab world, the climate is ripe for protests. Take Najla Hariri, a Saudi housewife in her mid-thirties, for instance. Najla apparently took to the road in a direct challenge to the ban on female drivers. Najla claimed to have drawn inspiration from the Mideast protests.
Now, hundreds of activists have already set up Facebook groups and campaigns calling for Manal’s release and an end to the driving ban. A Facebook page titled “We are all Manal Al-Sharief: a call for solidarity with Saudi women’s rights,” has been growing in popularity.
Contrary to that, the deplorable ‘Iqal campaign’ has been also launched on Facebook calling for men to beat Saudi women who drive their cars in protest. The renowned novelist Abdo Khal, writing in Okaz, condemned the ban on women driving, and said he did not know “whether to laugh or cry” over the proposed Iqal campaign.
Whatever be the case, the fact remains that Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world in which women are not allowed to drive. Thus, every time the issue is raised in the global arena, it will give the Western media another chance to take potshots at women’s lack of independence in the Kingdom.
If Saudi men continue to oppose women driving, there seems little doubt that the authorities have to brace themselves for more Najlas and Manals on the streets.
— Sameera Aziz is International Editor at
The Saudi Gazette __

Facebook poll on Saudi women driving (in Arabic)

2011-09-13T12:49:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to a facebook poll in Arabic about whether you support Saudi women driving. If you agree, fill in the top button, which means, 'yes.'

Link is here As of this moment, believe it or not, the 'no's' are ahead - it's about 10,000 against women driving, just shy of 8,000 for women driving. So vote yes and get your friends to do the same.

Thanks for Sherifa Zuhur for posting the poll on her facebook page.

Three women defy Saudi driving ban during holidays

2011-09-08T19:00:00.000-07:00

Emirates 24/7 reports that during the Eid al-Fitr holidays three women in Saudi Arabia reported they went out driving, with no problems from the authorities.

Three women defy Saudi ban on driving

By Staff

Published Monday, September 05, 2011

Three Saudi women took advantage of Eid Al-Fitr that ended the fasting month of Ramadan and drove their cars in defiance of a long-standing ban on female driving in the conservative Gulf Kingdom, newspapers said on Monday.

Two women separately sat behind the wheel and drove cars through the streets of the western Red Sea port of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia’s second largest city. Another woman in the eastern province of Ihsa drove her car for several hours to visit relatives on Eid occasion, the papers reported.

“I drove my car for hours but I was not stopped by the police or harassed by men although I stopped for petrol,” said Tahani Al Jahni from Jeddah.

Tarfa Abdullah from Ihsa said she drove her car to visit relatives and friends and returned home without any incident.

“Police did not stop me although I drove for several hours…I have a driving licence from another Arab country,” she said. “I was very happy to drive and return home without any incident because I don’t want to wait for taxi for hours…private drivers have also become too expensive.”

A link to the story is here

Shoura council discusses urgent solutions to women's transport, not women driving

2011-08-29T06:19:00.000-07:00

Saudi Arabia's Shoura Council is discussing urgent measures to take to relieve the women's transportation issue. Below is the Saudi Gazette's coverage of the story. But no one mentions, not one word, the huge 'elephant in the room'....why not just let women drive? Public transportation has been tried - the Saudi bus system has separate seating for women - but it's not highly used by Saudi women. A link to the story is here

Shoura members want urgent, safe transport solution for women

JEDDAH – Amid the high costs to Saudi families that employ drivers, the suffering of female employees due to the lack of means of transportation to their jobs and regulations barring women from driving, suggestions have been put forward to develop safe means of transport that are similar to those in foreign countries.
Experts said there is a serious need to address the matter because some families are forced to pay thousands of riyals to drivers, which can cause a financial burden on the families. Some drivers demand higher salaries, which can make it unbearable for families in need of their services. Taking taxis every day adds up to a considerable expense and male family members are often unavailable.
Dr. Mish’al Al-Ali, a member of the Shoura Council and chairman of the Petitions Committee, called on the government and the private sector to create a temporary system, which would replace payment of transportation allowances, to safely transport female employees to and from their jobs, Al-Hayat Arabic daily reported Friday.
A system of this nature would safeguard the female employees’ dignity and ensure they are not subjected to the taxi drivers’ monopolies, he added.
The permanent solution should be to provide a means of public transportation with precise schedules, similar to those in advanced countries, which suit the conservative nature of Saudi women and their social status.
He pointed out that many people in other countries use public transportation and they do not find anything wrong in doing so because it is up to the required standard.
The need for effective public transportation has increased as employment of women has grown, Dr. Al-Ali said.
“In implementation of the royal orders, large numbers of women have been employed in many government departments,” he said. “Women are enjoying their rights in getting employment and there are equal opportunities for women and men in all the government departments.”
Dr. Al-Ali said creating a means of public transportation needs “a vision and a feasibility study. After that we will find that the private sector will rush for these projects.”
Setting up an effective public transportation system would also address other problems such as traffic jams, he added.
Providing the transportation system does not need a detailed study, he said, but taking a decision and dealing with the issue pragmatically.
He also proposed that some government departments arrange with some companies owning taxis, minibuses and similar vehicles to transport female employees to and from their jobs and charge low fares.
“We need courageous, strong ideas that can be implemented on the ground,” Dr. Al-Ali stressed. “All the capabilities are easily available, but the problem is in not taking decisions at the right time and not dealing with the problem immediately.”
Dr. Hamad Al-Qadhi, another member of the Shoura Council, agreed that providing transportation for female employees has become a necessity.
“Women are now working in many government and private authorities, and institutions,” he said. “There are some women whose places of work are far away from their residences.” He pointed out that it can be difficult for women to find a male family member to drive her to and from work because the men have their own work commitments.
Not all women have drivers, he pointed out, taking taxi cabs every day is expensive and it is appropriate to address the matter.
“If we realize that women are barred from driving cars in our country, it is a duty to provide them with public transportation,” he said.
Dr. Al-Qadhi said he understands that some government departments and universities provide secure transport for female students and employees. “I believe that there are companies for transporting female students and teachers,” he said. “This means of transport can be provided to female employees in the other sectors.”
Dr. Al-Qadhi, who reiterated that the work of the Shoura Council is legislative and supervisory, said providing transportation is an executive matter and the responsibility of the government and private authorities.
Dr. Asia Aal Al-Sheikh, a Shoura Council adviser, stressed that a “respectable” means of public transportation should be provided to female employees so a lack of transportation does not prevent them from going to work. Dr. Aal Al-Sheikh admitted that providing transportation is a big problem that needs to be resolved.
She cited problems female teachers face, including accidents that have claimed many lives, when they travel to and from their schools.
Dr. Aal Al-Sheikh expressed concern about “our dependence on inexperienced drivers.”
She said this subject has not been put forward for discussion in the right way and at the right place.
There are no women in decision-making positions so nobody speaks on behalf of women, she added.
Dr. Aal-Al-Sheikh referred to a study by Khadija Bint Khuwailid Center, which said resolving the problem should be a priority.
“However, I don’t know that anything has been done about it,” she said. “There are people working and expressing their demands, but one does not know where the fault lies.”
The majority of taxi drivers interviewed by Al-Hayat said most of their clients, up to 75 percent of them, are female citizens and expatriates.
The drivers said the women take taxis because there is no alternative. — SG __

Saudi woman campaigner briefly arrested for driving

2011-08-25T05:46:00.000-07:00

Below is the latest updated AFP story about Najla Hariri's arrest and release, with some quotes from her. A link to the story is here

Saudi woman campaigner briefly arrested for driving

(AFP) – 19 hours ago

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — A Saudi mother was freed after she was briefly arrested in the western city of Jeddah on Wednesday for defying a ban on women drivers, she and her daughter told AFP.
Najla Hariri was arrested while driving to the office of her daughter, Dalia.
"My mother was taken to the police station," the daughter said.
Hariri was later released after her husband came to the police station where she said she was "treated politely."
"I have not signed any commitment that forbids me from driving", Hariri told AFP after her release, adding that she repeatedly told the police that there was no law in Saudi Arabia which forbids women from driving.
Since mid-May, Hariri who campaigns for women's rights, has driven around Jeddah several times without being arrested.
She is among a group of activists who launched an Internet campaign on June 17 urging women to defy the ban on driving in the ultra-conservative kingdom.
Since then, women regularly get behind the wheels of their cars, according to the activists.
The icon of the campaign, Manal al-Sherif, a 32-year-old computer security consultant, was arrested on May 22 and detained for 10 days after posting on YouTube a video of herself driving her car around the eastern city of Khobar.
Five Saudi women were arrested at the wheels of their cars in late June in Jeddah.
Women in the kingdom who have the means hire drivers while others must depend on the goodwill of male relatives.
They are also obliged to be veiled in public, and cannot travel without their husbands or a close male relative.
Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world where women are not allowed to drive.

Saudi woman campaigner arrested for driving

2011-08-24T09:44:00.000-07:00

The Khaleej Times reports an AFP story that Jeddah mother Najla Hariri was arrested for driving. She has been out behind the wheel for months, and until now, has not been arrested. The text of the story is below, and a link to the story in the Khaleej Times is here

Update: I just tweeted my post and learned from #women2drive, that Ms. Hariri has been released and refused to sign a pledge not to drive again. If you want to keep up to the minute on this issue, check out: #women2drive on Twitter. Thank you all on Twitter!

Saudi woman campaigner arrested for driving

(AFP)

24 August 2011

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — A Saudi mother was arrested in the western city of Jeddah on Wednesday for defying a ban on women drivers, her daughter told AFP.

Najla Hariri was arrested while driving to the office of her daughter, Dalia.

“My mother was taken to the police station,” the daughter said.

Since mid-May, Hariri who campaigns for women’s rights, has driven around Jeddah several times without being arrested.

She is among a group of activists who launched an Internet campaign on June 17 urging women to defy the ban on driving in the ultra-conservative kingdom.

Since then, women regularly get behind the wheels of their cars, according to the activists.

The icon of the campaign, Manal al-Sherif, a 32-year-old computer security consultant, was arrested on May 22 and detained for 10 days after posting on YouTube a video of herself driving her car around the eastern city of Khobar.

Five Saudi women were arrested at the wheels of their cars in late June in Jeddah.

Drive For Equality - Automobile Magazine

2011-08-23T13:20:00.000-07:00

The October, 2011 issue of Automobile Magazine has a nice feature with interviews about the Saudi women driving issues, by David Zenlea. At the end of the article are some important milestones in the history of women driving in the U.S. and Europe. A link to the story is here.

Drive for Equality - by David Zenlea

Amid the tumult of the Middle East's so-called Arab Spring, Saudi women have been quietly agitating for something most Westerners older than sixteen take for granted: the right to drive. Several women, organizing via Facebook and Twitter, got behind the wheel last June in a public protest. A few were arrested and otherwise harassed, but the campaign continues on the Internet and has recently included calls for automakers -- namely Subaru -- to stop selling cars in a country where not all are allowed to drive them.

We spoke on the phone with Aziza al-Yousef, a fifty-two-year-old college professor who has both an international license and an (expired) American license but drove her Toyota Avalon in Saudi Arabia for the first time this summer, and to her thirty-year-old daughter Sara al-Haidar, who rode in the passenger's seat with a camera.

How do Saudi women normally get around without a license?
al-Haidar: You either have to beg a male relative -- your father, your brother, your husband -- to take you somewhere. If you don't want to go through that and you want to have a foreign driver [hiring a Saudi man to drive is cost prohibitive], you need to apply for a visa. And then a visa itself is very expensive...You don't know this person. There isn't a background check. Every other day you open the newspaper, you hear of a driver who has either raped, killed, or kidnapped someone. I have an eighteen-month-old son. I don't want my son to be in a situation where I have to worry about him.

What was the reaction when you were in the car?
al-Yousef: Most people were noticing us and were flashing us the victory sign and thumbs-up -- they were very excited about it.
al-Haidar: People say that Saudis are not ready for Saudi females to drive...We passed by so many drivers who didn't even realize it was a woman who was driving. The idea of Saudis not being ready is absurd.

Did you get pulled over?
al-Yousef: One incident. And the policeman told us to just go home. He was very nice.

How does it feel not being allowed to drive?
al-Yousef: Frustrating. Very frustrating. And demeaning at the same time.

What makes you think that this movement will succeed where the last protest, in 1990, failed?
al-Haidar: You have to keep in mind, in the '90s we didn't have the Internet. But now with Facebook and Twitter, the truth has to come out. Women who are in full Islamic garb videotaped themselves driving their cars. There's nothing in the Islamic religion that prevents women from driving. If you think about it, from the days of the prophet Muhammad -- peace be upon him -- women were on horseback. A car is a lot more modest than horseback. I think because of the Internet and the fact that it allows a lot of people to show what's going on, that's why there's been a lot of momentum with this movement.

[To al-Yousef] How do you like the Avalon?
al-Yousef: Excuse me?

How does it drive? This interview is for a car magazine...
al-Yousef: I love it. This is my second Avalon. I love Avalons.

[To al-Haidar] What would you like to drive when you can?
al-Haidar: Actually, I would really like to drive a pearl-colored Volkswagen Beetle. I don't know why, it's just something. It has to be pearl colored. It looks like a nice bubble.

1888: Two years after Karl Benz was granted a patent for his three-wheeled Benz Patent Motorwagen, his wife, Bertha, drives it sixty-two miles from Mannheim to Pforzheim, Germany.

1905: Mary D. Allen opens a car dealership, selling Stevens-Duryeas in Brooklyn.

1909: Twenty-two-year-old Alice Ramsey drives across the United States, covering 3800 miles (152 of them paved).

1911: "The unfavorable influence of the automobile upon pregnancy has been somewhat exaggerated," concludes a report to the New York Obstetrical Society.

1914: World War I presses European women into service driving ambulances, trucks, and tractors.

1915: Movie star Anita King drives across the U.S. by herself. She also sets a record by driving from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 17 hours and 55 minutes.

1928: Elisabetta Junek, from Czechoslovakia, takes the lead in the second lap of the Targa Florio. She later says a rock thrown by a spectator caused her to lose the race.

1929: British aristocrat Dorothy Paget funds Tim Birkin's effort to race supercharged Bentleys. W. O. Bentley hates it.

1931: Former exotic dancer and Frenchwoman Helle Nice races in five grands prix driving a Bugatti Type 35C.

1936: Chrysler hires a female engineer, Mary Virginia Sink.

1949: Louise Smith participates in a NASCAR race.

1955: The Dodge La Femme targets women drivers with pink and white paint. It's a flop.

1956: New York Herald Tribune reporter Denise McCluggage files a race report from Montgomery, New York. She barely mentions that she took first place in the women's event.

1957: General Motors hires nine women to the design staff, albeit at lower pay than their male counterparts.

1971: Women are given access to the pits at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

1976: Shirley Muldowney wins an NHRA Top Fuel race. She would go on to become a three-time Top Fuel champion.

1977: Janet Guthrie qualifies for the Indy 500 and finishes twenty-ninth.

1990: Nearly four dozen Saudi women drive in the capital city of Riyadh. They are banned from leaving the country for a year, and those with government jobs are fired.

2005: The number of licensed female drivers in the United States surpasses that of males (the gap is widening).

2008: Danica Patrick's victory at the Japan 300 makes her the first woman to win an IndyCar race.

2011: Thirty-two-year-old Manal al-Sharif posts a YouTube video of herself driving in late May. Saudi authorities detain her for ten days. On June 17, more than a dozen women again defy the ban.

Breaking down the social barriers - columnist from Al-Medina

2011-08-21T09:20:00.000-07:00

Columnist Abdullah al-Moallami wrote the following column in the Saudi daily, Al-Medina, and it was reprinted in the English daily Arab News. It quotes a young Saudi woman's poetry. The link to the story is here.

Local press: Breaking down the social barriers

By ABDULLAH AL-MOALLAMI
AL-MADINAH

Published: Aug 20, 2011 23:24 Updated: Aug 20, 2011 23:24

I am the woman … listen to me.

Listen to the purr of my engine … it is starting.

I am a woman fighting for the right, and I let the flag of the truth flutter high.

I’m the woman … I know that you all love me, and at the same time worry about me.

But today I break all the barriers that stifle my voice. That voice will never be muffled from now on, for my silence is the mark of my prison.

I am the woman … Watch how fast I am on my course with scant regard for the power of the engine that I drive. Power is not the yardstick of this race.

I am the woman … the Saudi woman … the Muslim woman … how often our mothers rode on the back of camels, horses or mules. But now I follow their tracks driving a four-wheeler with flashing tires.

I am the woman … your sister … whom you have left weak and paralyzed to suffer harassments at the hands of a strange driver who knows more about me than you brothers do.

I am the woman … Don’t make me cheap, subordinate and submissive, and don’t think I am ignorant or naïve and do not know what is good for me … Treat me well to prove your claim that I am your sister.

I am the woman … I don’t compete with you … I don’t challenge you in anything. Each one of us has our separate roles, status and objectives.

I am the woman … Don’t be afraid of me, don’t be anxious about me, I am an intelligent human being like you with two hands, two legs and two eyes and then why should you worry if I drive?

I am the woman … capable of taking care of myself … no need for alarm. Where are my keys, please?

These are lines from a poem written by a young Saudi woman. It is high time to take a clear stand on the issue of women driving. If it is religiously unlawful then forget about it. But, if it is an issue to be evaluated on its merits and demerits, as is the case with many other issues that we come across in our daily life, let us put the matter before our rulers.

The members of the Shoura Council should rush to discuss the issue, draft regulations that protect the interests of society and pass it to the king.

It is also time that writers and columnists, both men and women, end their heated debates, stop exaggerating and using a tone of intimidation so that those who are striving for a solution have a peaceful and balanced environment to work in.

One word to the men, whom I call “the campaigners of Iqal (men’s headband).”

Manhood does not mean threatening your women with promises to strike them with your Iqals or mocking them when they demand their rights, including the right to drive.

On the other hand, manhood involves dealing firmly with the men who harm or harass women whether they are behind the wheel or in the backseat of a car.

14 U.S. Female Senators Urge Saudi King to Overturn Driving Ban on Women

2011-07-26T19:01:00.000-07:00

Text of the story below. A link to the story is here It's being reported on all the major networks. Some might call this 'meddling in the internal affairs of another country." Personally, it's about time that our elected officials speak out on this on behalf of American women who overwhelmingly support this position. Saudi Arabia is a close ally of the United States, and speaking frankly about this issue that flies in the face of our core beliefs demonstrates that we are not afraid to stand up for basic human rights. Bravo Senators!

U.S. Female Senators Urge Saudi King to Overturn Driving Ban on Women

Published July 26, 2011 | FoxNews.com

A bipartisan group of 14 female senators are urging the king of Saudi Arabia to lift the country’s ban on women driving amid an international outcry after a woman was detained for posting a video of herself driving.

The group, led by Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Mary Landrieu, D-La., sent a letter Tuesday that included two Republican women – Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both of Maine – though no men.

In the letter, the senators wrote, "We strongly believe it is time to abolish the prohibition on women driving once and for all, especially in light of Saudi Arabia’s role as a newly elected member of the board of U.N. Women – an entity dedicated to achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women worldwide.

“We strongly urge you to reconsider this ban and take an important step toward affording Saudi women the rights they deserve.”

In May, authorities detained a 32-year-old Saudi woman, Manal al-Sherif, after she launched a campaign against the driving ban for women in the ultraconservative kingdom. She posted video of herself behind the wheel on Facebook and YouTube to encourage others to copy her.

She was released 10 days later after reportedly signing a pledge that she would not drive again or speak publicly.

Her case, however, sparked an outcry from international rights groups and brought direct appeals to the Saudi rulers to lift the driving ban.

Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world to ban women — both Saudi and foreign — from driving. The prohibition forces families to hire live-in drivers, and women who cannot afford the $300 to $400 a month for a driver must rely on male relatives to drive them to work, school, shopping or the doctor.

Women are also barred from voting, except for chamber of commerce elections in two cities in recent years, and no woman can sit on the kingdom’s Cabinet. Women also cannot travel without permission from a male guardian and shouldn’t mingle with males who are not their husbands or brothers.

Saudi King Abdullah has promised some social reforms, but he depends on the clerics to support his ruling family and is unlikely to take steps that would bring backlash from the religious establishment.

Manal al-Sharif vows to continue driving campaign

2011-07-22T09:06:00.000-07:00

BBC's Michael Buchanan interviewed Manal al-Sharif on the Saudi women driving campaign. The text of the story is below and the link to it is here

Manal al-Sharif vows to continue driving campaign - Michael Buchanan

A Saudi woman whose imprisonment for driving drew global attention to the issue says she is more determined than ever to continue her campaign.

Manal al-Sharif, 32, was held for nine days in May after driving in the eastern city of Khobar.

"We won't stop until the first Saudi license is issued to a woman," she told the BBC in her first interview since.

Earlier this week, prosecutors in the city of Jeddah announced they were going to prosecute a woman for driving.

The campaign to allow women to drive in Saudi Arabia has gained momentum in recent weeks.
On 17 June, dozens of women took to their cars across the country in open defiance of the ban on driving.

The campaign gained the support of prominent women around the world, including US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton.

'Positive change'

Manal al-Sharif's imprisonment led to Amnesty International calling for her release. "Women tell me they are different since 21 May - the day I was arrested - it's a positive change, they believe now” Manal al-Sharif Women's rights activist

She said she was surprised by the level of coverage and support she received. "I didn't know the whole world was moved."

More importantly, she said, had been the reaction from women in Saudi Arabia itself.

"Women tell me they are different since 21 May - the day I was arrested. It's a positive change, they believe now. [Driving] is one of our smallest rights. If we fight, we can build women who trust themselves, have belief to get the bigger rights we are fighting for."

Some Saudi women say the authorities have slightly relaxed their attitudes to female drivers, merely cautioning women rather than making them sign a pledge not to do it again.
Jeddah case
Earlier this week, however, prosecutors in Jeddah - on the Red Sea coast - announced they intended to pursue a case against a 35-year-old woman driver.

The woman, who has not been named, claims she had no alternative to driving as she needed to get to hospital and there was no man to take her there.

Zaki Safar from the Women2Drive campaign has spoken to her and said she had told the judge who set her trial date for September that he did not understand the background to her case.
Such setbacks appear not to be deterring many Saudi women from pursuing their campaign.
Manal al-Sharif, one of the organisers of Women2Drive, says they have been contacted by 1,023 women who want to drive - and by 192 women from across the country who are willing to teach them.

They are now looking to recruit volunteers.

"Women want to drive and they are taking actual steps towards that," said Ms Sharif.

Saudi woman to be tried for driving

2011-07-21T09:45:00.000-07:00

The Australian paper, the Press Herald, picked up an AFP story (based on an Okaz story) about an un-named woman who is going to be tried for driving illegally. The link to the story is here
and the full text is below.

A SAUDI woman will be tried for taking the wheel, in what she said was an emergency, despite the ultra-conservative kingdom's ban on females driving.

The unnamed 35-year-old was arrested in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, then released with her father as her guarantor, Saudi newspaper Okaz reported yesterday.\

The woman said she had to drive because she was suffering from a haemorrhage and, "in the absence of public transportation" and no driver of her own, she had no other way to get to the hospital, Okaz reported.

Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that bans women from driving.

There is no law banning women from driving, but the interior ministry imposes regulations based on a fatwa, or religious edict, stipulating that women should not be permitted to drive.

A group of defiant Saudi women got behind the wheels of their cars on June 17 in response to calls for nationwide action to break the ban.

The call spread through Facebook and Twitter was the largest mass action since November 1990, when 47 Saudi women were arrested and severely punished after demonstrating in cars.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton publicly threw her support behind the campaign, saying that "what these women are doing is brave, and what they are seeking is right".

The icon of the campaign was Manal al-Sharif, a 32-year-old computer security consultant, who was arrested on May 22 and detained for 10 days after posting on YouTube a video of herself driving her car around the eastern city of Khobar.

Last week, Saudi Arabia detained two Omani women for driving, releasing them after they signed a pledge not to do so again.

Women in the kingdom must hire drivers, or depend on the good will of male relatives if they do not have the means.

The ban, paradoxically, encourages hired male drivers to be in close proximity with their female passengers, in a country where mixing of unrelated men and women is prohibited.

People reporting Saudi women drivers to authorities

2011-07-18T18:07:00.000-07:00

So now that women around Saudi Arabia have started to drive, and their goal is to just do it until people are used to seeing them and it becomes legal, the 'authorities', i.e. the CPVPV - the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice - have issued 'tip phone numbers' where people can report a woman driving.

It seems that some people have started doing that, though I hope the actual occurances are few and far between. It is disappointing to me that people are 'tattling' on the women who want to drive. Being willing to snitch on your neighbor is not the way the change will happen. I was very happy that on June 17th it appeared that no one harrased the women who wanted to drive. This new turn of events is disheartening. Also remember that the traffic peoplice aren't asking for tips, it's the 'Vice Squad'.

Below is a story from the Saudi Gazette about two women from Oman who were picked up by the rural road patrols after someone reported seeing them driving in the Hijaz. The link to the story is here

And the full text of the story is below:

2 women drivers from Oman stopped on Taif highway

By Abdullah Al-Maqati

Okaz/Saudi Gazette

DHULUM – Two female drivers were stopped Saturday morning on the Taif-Riyadh road as they and their families headed for the Western Region, officials said.
Road patrols stopped the two cars with Omani plate numbers after they received a tip and spotted the women driving; a man reported that he saw someone throw a water bottle from one of the cars, pursued the vehicle and saw the women driving, according to officials.
Patrols at the Jisr Ashira checkpoint at Taif’s eastern entrance stopped the two cars, the two women and their fathers were asked to sign an undertaking after they said they were unaware of regulations and they were allowed to leave with their male companions driving, officials said.
A security official said that in such cases, a violation is recorded and an undertaking is signed that the woman does not drive in the Kingdom again.
In recent weeks, some Saudi women, including Wajnat Al-Rahbini, an actress, and Manal Al-Shareef, were arrested in the Eastern Province and Jeddah for driving.
Authorities in the Kingdom say the issue of women driving is a decision of the society. __

Princess Ameera al-Taweel advocating women driving

2011-07-15T00:00:00.000-07:00

Princess Ameerah Al-Taweel, wife of Prince Waleed bin Talal, speaks out in support of Saudi women driving in an interview on National Public Radio (NPR). A link to the story with the audio is here

MARY LOUISE KELLY, host:

The uprisings in the Arab world this year have erupted along Saudi Arabia's borders. The kingdom has been largely untouched by the protests, but they may have helped inspire a quieter revolt. This summer we've been following a campaign by Saudi women for the right to drive. Activists have posted videos of themselves driving. And last month a few dozen women defied their country's ban and drove on the same day in daylight.

One of the most outspoken voices on women's rights in Saudi Arabia is�Princess Ameerah Al-Taweel. She's married to Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, one of the richest men in the country. And we've reached her in Cannes, in France.

Good morning.

Princess AMEERAH AL-TAWEEL: Good morning, Mary Louise. How are you?

KELLY: I'm well. Thank you.

So tell me. Why are you speaking out against the driving ban?

Princess AL-TAWEEL: Not only myself, but I think every Saudi woman is trying her best to be treated equally and to acquire her own rights in the country. And for myself I think that there's nothing in the religion against women driving. So, I think that this supposedly taboo or ban should be lifted and women should drive in Saudi Arabia.

KELLY: What is your sense in terms of how ready the country is for this? This has been something that women in Saudi Arabia have campaigned for for years. Do you sense that there actually might be an opening now for things to change?

Princess AL-TAWEEL: Oh, definitely. I think the whole world is changing and we are a mobilized world and we are a connected world, and we should adopt to that. And for me, I think that driving is more and more possible. Women in Saudi Arabia are very educated, very smart, very opinionated, and they want to change for the generations to come. So I don't see us going back.

KELLY: And I gather that the driving ban is just one of the issues you would like to see addressed. What else would you like to see Saudi women doing?

Princess AL-TAWEEL: Oh, we have many goals to reach. We would like more fields in the workforce for women. We want women to be more involved in the legal system. And, of course, we would like more fields in education for women. And for us, those are definitely most important priorities, even more important than driving.

KELLY: Help us understand where King Abdullah may be on these issues. You know him personally. He is your husband's uncle. How flexible do you think he's willing to be?

Princess AL-TAWEEL: I mean I can't speak on behalf of King Abdullah. I do know that he is for women empowerment because he did make it easier for women to start their own businesses. And he has supported women to have more fields, like the financial sector, the health care sector, and the educational sector. So he has made many steps to empower women, including allowing women to work in lingerie shops - the recent decision made by the king. And I know...

KELLY: In lingerie shops.

Princess AL-TAWEEOH: Yes. I know that the king is for empowering women. Nevertheless, when it comes to driving, it is a societal issue. But most of the society is for women driving. And those who are not for women driving should -nobody, you know, is saying you should go out and start driving.

KELLY: You're obviously speaking from a position where you might not suffer the same consequences as an ordinary Saudi woman might, who is trying to exercise the right to drive or the right to work, or a better education. I mean realistically, what do you think Saudi women should be doing to try to push for these reforms?

Princess AL-TAWEEL: Well, first of all, I come from a common family. I've been a common girl most of my life. And my mother, my aunties go through what every ordinary Saudi woman goes through. I know what it feels like. Nevertheless, I am very optimistic about the future. If you look back at Saudi Arabia 10 years ago, it was a taboo for a woman to work. And now it's a taboo for women to stay home.

KELLY: How do you respond to some people in Saudi Arabia, critics of your work and of some of these reforms that you're suggesting?

Princess AL-TAWEEL: Well, they can criticize as long as they want and we are not trying to take the rights of others. We are trying to acquire our own rights, peacefully. We want evolution not a revolution.

KELLY: Well, thank you for taking the time to speak with us.

Princess AL-TAWEEL: Well, thank you so much for having me on your show.

KELLY: That's Saudi Princess Ameerah Al-Taweel. She's vice chair of the board of her husband's foundation the Alwaleed Bin Talal Foundation, which supports, among other things, women's rights.

STEVE INSKEEP, host:

You heard Princess Ameerah mention a recent decision by Saudi King Abdullah to allow women to work in lingerie shops, a move that was seen as a victory for equal rights. But this week, the country's Labor minister announced that women will be blocked from about 20 jobs, including construction work, mining, and metal refinery.

KELLY: The ban does not apply to foreign women living in Saudi Arabia. The Labor minister said Saudi women have every right to work and that the new regulations are meant to protect women.

Grand Mufti advises women against riding with ministry drivers

2011-07-10T06:03:00.000-07:00

The Saudi Gazette carries this story about a meeting within the Ministry of Education in which Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti, Sheikh Abdul Aziz Aal Al-Sheikh, warns female school inspectors about riding in cars driven by education ministry drivers, in remote areas where they have to inspect schools. This would seem to support the concept of women driving themselves. Link to the story here

Text follows:

TAIF – Saudi female education inspectors of the General Administration of Education here have been warned about the impropriety of being driven by the administration’s drivers to remote areas when they inspect schools.

Sheikh Abdul Aziz Aal Al-Sheikh, the Kingdom’s Grand Mufti, in a closed TV circuit meeting with the female staff, said that such trips with drivers who are not related to women inspectors are dangerous and require an urgent solution, Arabic daily Al-Watan reported.

Aal Al-Sheikh raised with the education inspectors several issues which they face in carrying out their duties such as using the Internet and the administration’s stationery for their personal purposes. He said nothing in religion restricts the utilization of such things, but they should be used reasonably.

Regarding how best to benefit from the summer holiday, he said it serves as a good opportunity for taking a break from the long year of hard work, but advised that part of it should be invested in reading useful books especially those which deal with home affairs.

As for trading in the stock exchange, the Grand Mufti said it is permissible if the one who sells is the owner of the commodity whether it is stocks or other goods, pointing out that Islam permits this since the one who owns a commodity is allowed to sell it to others.

He also urged the educators to bear in mind their responsibility to immunize and protect the younger generation from programs which are transmitted by some satellite TV channels which fight the faith and attempt to drag viewers into an abyss of vice, terrorism and corruption. –
Saudi Gazette __

Women's driving a nonevent

2011-07-07T20:50:00.000-07:00

My friend Maha Akeel, a Jeddah writer who has a wonderful opinion piece on Saudi women driving in the July 7, 2011 Arab News. She also has a new book out in Arabic about Saudi women in the media. Congratulations on both, Maha!

The text of her opinion piece is below, and a link to the story is here

Women’s driving a nonevent

By MAHA AKEEL | ARAB NEWS

Published: Jul 7, 2011 23:21 Updated: Jul 7, 2011 23:21

The call for Saudi women to drive on June 17 as a form of protest for not being permitted to drive was a nonevent. It did not generate a huge response on the streets despite the wide support it had on virtual space.

However, this should not be interpreted to mean that women’s driving is a nonissue or that it does not have enough public support.

On the contrary, the support and enthusiasm for the campaign proves that the issue has matured into a real public debate and a problem that needs to be addressed realistically.

The fact that only a small number of women, ranging from 40 to 70 across the Kingdom according to various reports, who took the risk to drive that day, is irrelevant. They have managed to break the barrier of fear and many others will follow; they already have and some began to drive even before the declared date of protest.

It should not matter whether it is a minority or a majority of women and men who support women’s driving. This is a right, whoever wishes to drive or needs to drive should have that option, and those who do not are also free to make that choice.

Driving is not a luxury as some claim, even though it might be for a section of society. But anyone who drives in Saudi Arabia knows that there is no joy in riding our streets.

It might not be a necessity for some, but it will certainly relieve others from an economic burden and the inconvenience of being dictated by the availability and whim of a driver whether he is a family member or employed.

Driving should not be the privilege of some members of society and not others based on gender.

I cannot understand how can an underage boy be allowed to and tolerated to drive recklessly while a grown up responsible woman is not?

This woman could be a doctor who is needed to save someone’s life, a manger who has to catch a meeting, a teacher who wants to be on time for her class, or more importantly a mother who feels much more secure about driving her own child to school rather than a stranger.

Regardless of who the woman is or for what purpose she needs to drive, it should be her choice. Even if it is only to go shopping or meet her girlfriends for coffee, what is the harm? It is certainly much better than being alone with a male driver who might be a criminal or a pervert.

Women’s driving should not be treated as a one-day event… that failed. This is a campaign and a movement that should continue to build momentum until it becomes a daily fact of life to see women drive in the streets.

The government made a wise decision by not arresting the women who drove and instead issued them traffic violations for driving without a license. It is a tacit acknowledgment of women’s right to drive as long as they have a valid Saudi driver’s license. The government has always said that it does not object to women’s driving, and there are no written traffic laws that state women should not be allowed to drive. The next step is to implement a process whereupon women can have the license.

It is time to end this social phobia of women’s driving, which has no basis in religion. It is based on unfounded fears and paranoia, which can be tackled by rules and regulations. We certainly all look forward to better enforcement of traffic laws and better on the road car service, and I do not think that women would object to an initiation period of putting age, zone and time limits for women drivers.

From this day forward, until driving do us part

2011-07-07T05:51:00.000-07:00

The Arab News reports the following on July 5, 2011.

JEDDAH: The hot issue of women driving in the Kingdom, which sparked a huge debate recently, drove a Saudi groom to impose a condition on his wife-to-be that regardless if women are allowed to drive or not, she would never get behind the steering wheel, a local daily reported.

A marriage official told the newspaper the groom’s condition was strange and he had never heard of such a rule being imposed throughout his career. According to the official, the wife accepted the condition.

The link to the story is here

So what would you drive?

2011-07-02T18:37:00.000-07:00

My beloved 1993 Saturn, my car for more than 15 years, broke down for the last time this week. It had 182,000 miles on it. I loved this car - it got more than 35 mpg on the highway and took me from the woods to New York City many times.

So now I have to buy a new (or used) car, something I haven't done in more than 15 years. It got me thinking. If you are a Saudi woman reading this, what kind of car will you drive when it's legal? What would be your ideal car? Certainly car dealers in the Kingdom must be really hopeful that women will be driving soon, it opens up a massive new market for them.

If I were a woman about to drive in Saudi Arabia....hmmm....yes I guess I'd go for something like a Range Rover. High off the ground for visibility, lots of extras for comfort, and the ability to deal with unusual road conditions. Color-wise, I'd go with white and a tan fabric interior, to minimize the effect of the summer.

How about you?

Blogger Maqbool Hassan on Saudi women driving

2011-07-02T14:10:00.000-07:00

Maqbool Hassan lives in the UK and works in telecommunications. His blog, Fairsport, has a well thought out post on the issue of Saudi women driving. The link is here Thank you for stopping by and commenting, Maqbool.

If anyone wants to add links to other blog posts on the topic, please post them in a comment so we can share ideas.

ABC News: Women drivers arrested; then released

2011-06-30T12:44:00.000-07:00

ABC News reporter Lama Hasan files this story about the five women reportedly taken into custody for driving. She says that those doing the arresting were the mutawa'in, members of the CPVPV, the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, Saudi Arabia's 'Vice Squad'. Note that it wasn't the traffic or civil police. The link to the story is here and the text is below.

Saudi Women Arrested for Defying Driving Ban - Lama Hasan, ABC News
June 29, 2011

Five Saudi women who dared to break the driving ban by getting behind the wheel were arrested for a few hours and then released by the Kingdom's muttawas, or religious police, in the Red Sea coast city of Jeddah.

To gain their release, the women, along with their legal male guardians, had to sign a pledge declaring they would not drive again.

In what is being described as "dramatic" night time raids, police detained one of the women as she was driving in the city. She was reportedly surrounded by four police cars and taken into custody.

According to a conservative Saudi news website, her car was also confiscated. The other four were first accused of defying the ban and then arrested.

Galvanized by the recent revolutions in the Arab world, the organization Saudi Women for Driving, a coalition of leading Saudi women's rights activists, released a statement that read,

"The Saudi police decided to wait a few weeks before cracking down in the hope that international attention on the ban on women driving would subside."

The law in the Kingdom does not actually prohibit women from driving but there are fatwas, or religious edicts, which follow Wahabism, a strict form of Islam that follows the Koran literally and has been in place for centuries. It is the muttawas who police the streets and enforce those edicts in the country.

It is the first time the muttawas cracked down on women drivers since women's rights campaigner and single mother Manal Al Sharif was arrested for driving in May this year and remained behind bars for nice days. Al Sharif is one of five organizers who set up the facebook group "Women2Drive" page, launched a nationwide campaign calling on all women across the country to drive on June 17. Dozens of women across the country hit the streets, some documenting their audacious act and posting their videos on YouTube.

The Saudi women have been tirelessly trying to reverse these laws to enable women to drive so that they can have more freedom and no longer have to rely on their male guardians to commute.
Eman Al Nafjan, a Saudi women's rights blogger and college teacher, is one of them. She spoke of her frustration, telling ABC News, "Do you know how difficult it is for me? I am 32 years old, a mother of three, teaching college students, and I am trusted to teach but not trusted behind the wheel just because I don't have the right genitals?''

Al Nafjan is working on getting the voices of other women heard and finding a platform for their organization (http://www.change.org). She told ABC News that the ''local media deny we exist.''

Will these recent arrests deter women from driving and force them to drop their quest?

Not according to the Saudi Women for Driving campaign, who have defiantly said the women will continue their efforts to pave the way for female drivers and lifting the ban in the Kingdom: "If Saudi police think arresting women drivers is going to stop what has already become the largest women's rights movement in Saudi history, they are sorely mistaken. On the contrary, these arrests will encourage more women to get behind the wheel in direct defiance of this ridiculous abuse of our most basic human rights."

Five Saudi women drivers arrested, says activist

2011-06-29T14:37:00.000-07:00

The Guardian Newspaper in the UK reports today that Saudi women have been arrested in Jeddah for driving. The story is below, and the link is here

One of the women taking part in the campaign to overturn Saudi Arabia's ban on women drivers. There have been five arrests in Jeddah, according to an activist - the identities of those detained were not stated. Photograph: Fahad Shadeed/Reuters

Five Saudi women drivers arrested, says activist

Campaigner says detentions in Jeddah are first significant action by authorities against women who are challenging ban

At least five Saudi women have been arrested after defying the kingdom's ban on women drivers, an activist has said.

For the past two weeks Saudi women have been driving through the capital, Riyadh, and other cities in a challenge to the ban.

Eman al-Nafjan, a Saudi-based rights activist, told the Associated Press that police detained five women on Tuesday as they drove in Jeddah on the Red Sea coast. There was no new information on the status of the detainees.

"This is the first big pushback from authorities it seems," Nafjan said. "We aren't sure what it means at this point and whether this is the start of a harder line by the government against the campaign."

Saudi women involved in the campaign have said they want the restrictions lifted in a country where women can only appear in public escorted by a male relative.

Saudi Arabia has no written law barring women from driving – only fatwas, or religious edicts, issued by senior clerics following a strict brand of Islam known as Wahhabism.

The group Saudi Women for Driving has said its campaign is inspired by the Arab uprisings against autocratic rulers and appealed for high-level western backing.

The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, has praised the protesters, while stressing they are acting on behalf of their own rights and not at the behest of outsiders like herself.

The Saudi protests have put the Obama administration, and Clinton in particular, in a difficult position, with Saudi Arabia being a close US ally. The administration supports greater freedom for Saudi women but is increasingly reliant on Saudi authorities to provide stability and continuity in the Middle East and Gulf amid uprisings taking place across the Arab world.

Jeddah woman driver accelerates campaign

2011-06-25T05:32:00.000-07:00

Alsharifa Lana Engawi drives around the Al-Shatea roundabout in Jeddah on Friday. (AN Photo)

Rima al-Mukhtar of the Arab News reports on June 24, 2011, that women in the Kingdom continue to drive, making videos of themselves, then tweeting about it on-line. In Jeddah, the police have not been arresting women, but a woman in al-Khobar was arrested. There is no harassment from people on the street, confirming that society is accepting their efforts. However an Islamic ‘Dawa’ (“Call”) group issued a statement that it is against Islamic law. The tactic the women are advising now is that the women get international driver’s licenses, which legally are accepted in the Kingdom. A link to the story here, full text below.

Jeddah woman driver accelerates campaign

By RIMA AL-MUKHTAR | ARAB NEWS

Published: Jun 24, 2011 20:18 Updated: Jun 24, 2011 20:18

JEDDAH: The Women2Drive campaign continued down a rocky road with some sustaining the campaign a week after it was launched with sporadic efforts on Friday. Meanwhile a dawa (Islamic propagation) group, in Riyadh made clear its belief that women driving cars is against Islamic principles.

On Friday, stay-at-home mom Alsharifa Lana Engawi took to the Jeddah streets in a Range Rover to visit her father without any issues. But Layla Aldabbagh in Alkhobar posted on Twitter that police stopped her when she was driving with her male guardian: her father.

For the past week Saudi women have been posting videos and pictures themselves driving on social media sites.

Twitter and Facebook was alight with discussion -- mostly in Arabic -- among Saudi women over the past couple of days regarding how to obtain international drivers' licenses. Women2Drive organizers have recommended that only women with licenses that are recognized in Saudi Arabia engage in driving. Saudi Arabia does not issue driving licenses to women leaving only the international license, which can be obtained through travel agencies, as the legal option. However there have been reports that travel agencies have stopped taking international driving license applications.

Women2Drive organizers has also been careful to say this is a call for individual women to decide to drive rather than an act of mass protest. The group also advises women to be dressed accordingly so as to not give any other precedent for punitive action.

Arab News rode with Engawi, the stay at home mom, as she drove around her neighborhood and passed by her father’s house in Shatea district on Friday at around 5:30 p.m.

“I’m just doing this to support women in this issue," she told Arab News as she drive down the Conriche within eyesight of families strolling by the Red Sea on a calm Friday afternoon. "They need our help and this campaign is all about standing together to earn our right to drive. When I drive I feel that I’m free and in control of my life. Sometimes I feel like I have to get things done all by myself and this is what I’m aiming for.”

Engawi lived abroad for 12 years: “I have driven there, and I was free to start my engine when I needed to. When I came here I felt that I was tied up with a driver who is not always free when I need him.”

On the street, drivers didn’t bother to look at the women behind the wheel. The ride went smoothly with no harassment.

“People don’t care who is driving," she said. "And Saudi society is supportive of this cause. I think only a few people are against this, not the whole society. I believe the Saudi street and traffic environment is ready for women to drive."

Aldabbagh wrote on her Twitter feed: “Police want me to go down to the station and pledge not to drive again. They're taking me to police station to make me take this pledge while also giving me a ticket for driving without a license.”

Twitter was also abuzz on Friday with Saudi women discussing the kind of cars they would be buying soon when the permission for women to drive is given.

“Who cares what car? It's the right to drive is what matters, any car would do,” wrote Layla Ahmed from Riyadh. “All I care about is that the car has a good air conditioning.”

Meanwhile, the Altawouni office for Islamic propagation in Riyadh's Rawdah district has been distributing flyers and posters at mosques all over the capital city claiming that it is taboo in Islam for women to drive. The statement cited seven reasons why women should be forbidden from driving.

“Those regulations are sourced from senior religious scholars in Saudi Arabia," said the spokesperson of Altawouni. "We have more than one person working in our research office. The researchers read Sunnah books and books by senior religious scholars to give clear rulings on the issue and then we distribute the rulings in mosques for everyone’s benefit.”

Saudi Women Press Subaru to Exit Over Ban

2011-06-22T12:07:00.000-07:00

Bloomberg reports that the Saudi women's group, Saudi Women for Driving, is trying to get Subaru to pull out of the Kngdom. The story is below and the link to the story is here

Saudi Women Press Subaru to Exit Over Ban

By Donna Abu-Nasr - Jun 22, 2011

A group campaigning for an end to Saudi Arabia’s ban on driving by women called on Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. (7270)’s Subaru cars unit to pull out of the kingdom until the prohibition is lifted.
Today’s announcement follows U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s support yesterday for an appeal by the group, Saudi Women for Driving, which organized a show of defiance by women who drove in Saudi Arabia on June 17. Clinton called them “brave,” saying, “I am moved by it and I support them.” The activists had questioned Clinton’s silence over their June 3 letter asking for her backing.
“It is our hope that this will put huge pressure on the Saudi royal family and shine a bright light on the ‘gender apartheid’ in our country,” the group said of its call for Subaru to exit the kingdom. “It’s a chance for the company to live up to its brand and make a huge difference for nearly 13 million of us Saudi women.”
Subaru was the first carmaker targeted by the campaign because it is “progressive” and has marketed its products to women, the group said in a petition on U.S.-based Change.org, a website for social activism. The campaign may be extended to Detroit-based General Motors Co. (GM)’s Cadillac and Seoul-based Hyundai Motor Co. (005380), two brands of car used by Manal al-Sharif, a Saudi woman who was arrested last month for driving, said Change.org’s human-rights editor, Benjamin Joffe-Walt.

Company Comments

Fuji Heavy and its Subaru dealers in Saudi Arabia haven’t “received any information of any campaigns,” Tokyo-based Kenta Matsumoto, spokesman for the company, said by phone. “We only have dealers in Saudi Arabia, and no factories. Our annual sales in the country are limited to only 300 to 400 units,” he said.
Hani al-Faqih, a Subaru manager in Saudi Arabia, said from Riyadh that he had no immediate comment when asked about the campaign.
Hanspeter Ryser, spokesman in Zurich for Cadillac Europe, said he’s not aware of any plans to change Cadillac’s business in Saudi Arabia because of the ban against women driving.
“I cannot imagine there are any steps planned to pull out of Saudi Arabia,” Ryser said. “It’s a very strong market for us. Cadillac vehicles are very popular in this part of the world. In general, we as a company are not getting engaged in political debates, political issues.”
There was no immediate response from Hyundai to an e-mailed request for comment.

Regional Protests

The campaign caps a series of developments that began in May, when Saudi women used the Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. social-networking websites to call for females with international driver’s licenses to use their cars June 17. They said their plan wasn’t a protest. Saudi Arabia, holder of the world’s biggest oil reserves, has avoided the anti-government demonstrations that have rocked the Arab world this year.
“This is already the largest women’s rights movement in Saudi history and no one here knows what will happen next, but a big company like Subaru pulling out could help change our country forever,” the women’s group said.
Al-Sharif, a 32-year-old computer-security consultant who has helped organize the women’s efforts to lift the ban, was arrested in the city of al-Khobar, in Eastern Province, after she drove on more than one occasion and urged other women to drive in a video she posted on YouTube, according to Amnesty International. She was forced to sign a pledge that she wouldn’t drive again and was released 10 days later, Amnesty said.
In addition to Clinton’s support for a lifting of the driving ban, several members of the U.S. Congress, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Representative Tammy Baldwin, have backed the campaign.

Defiance in 1990

The last time a group of women in Saudi Arabia publicly defied the driving ban was Nov. 6, 1990, when U.S. troops massed in the kingdom to prepare for a war that would expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait.
They were spurred by images of female U.S. soldiers driving in the desert and stories of Kuwaiti women driving their children to safety, and had counted on the presence of the international media to ensure their story would reach the world and ease any repercussions. The women, both the drivers and their passengers, were briefly detained and lost their jobs for at least two years.
Some Saudis including Sheikh Mohammed al-Nujaimi, a cleric, say the driving ban prevents the spread of vice. They say if women were allowed to drive, they would be free to leave home alone whenever they like. The women would also break the strict rules that limit the mixing of genders by interacting with male mechanics if their cars break down or with attendants at gas stations.
Saudi Arabia enforces restrictions interpreted from the Wahhabi version of Sunni Islam. Women aren’t allowed to apply for a driver’s license, though some drive when they’re in desert areas away from cities. They can’t travel or get an education without male approval or mix with unrelated men in public places. They aren’t permitted to vote or run as candidates in municipal elections, the only balloting the kingdom allows.
To contact the reporter on this story: Donna Abu Nasr in Manama, Bahrain, through the Dubai newsroom at dabunasr@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net.

Hillary Clinton backs Saudi Arabia women's right-to-drive campaign

2011-06-22T11:17:00.000-07:00

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has expressed support for the Saudi women who are fighting to gain permission to drive cars. She also carefully stated that this movement is the women’s alone, and that the U.S. has nothing to do with it. In the past the US government has tried hard to stay out of this issue. It was very striking when former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice made a visit to Saudi Arabia and said she would be staying out of the issue, that it was an ‘internal affairs’ matter, or something to that effect. Thankfully, times have changed, and with the Arab Spring now extending to this issue in Saudi Arabia, Clinton has spoken up with her government’s support. It’s about time.

The text of the story from the UK’s Guardian is below and the link to it is: here

Hillary Clinton backs Saudi Arabia women's right-to-drive campaign
A Saudi Arabian woman drives a car as part of a campaign to defy Saudi Arabia's ban on female drivers. Photograph: Ho/AP

Hillary Clinton has lent her support to women in Saudi Arabia protesting against the ban on female drivers, her first public comments on an issue complicating relations between Washington and Riyadh.

A day after the US state department said it was handling the issue through "quiet diplomacy" and not public pronouncements, Clinton praised the protesters, but stressed they were acting on their own behalf, not at the behest of outsiders such as herself.

"What these women are doing is brave and what they are seeking is right, but the effort belongs to them," said Clinton. "I am moved by it and I support them, but I want to underscore the fact that this is not coming from outside of their country. This is the women themselves, seeking to be recognised."

The protests have put the Obama administration, and Clinton in particular, in a difficult position. While she and many other top US officials personally oppose the Saudi ban on female drivers, the administration is increasingly reliant on Saudi authorities to provide stability and continuity in the Middle East and Gulf amid uprisings taking place across the Arab world.

Thus, some officials have been reluctant to antagonise the Saudis.

On Monday, a coalition of Saudi activists urged Clinton to support publicly the campaign to end male-only driving in the ultra-conservative Muslim country.

Clinton said on Tuesday that she and other US officials had raised the matter "at the highest level of the Saudi government".

"We have made clear our views that women everywhere, including women in the kingdom, have the right to make decisions about their lives and their futures," she said. "They have the right to contribute to society and provide for their children and their families, and mobility, such as provided by the freedom to drive, provides access to economic opportunity, including jobs, which does fuel growth and stability.

"And it's also important for just day-to-day life, to say nothing of the necessity from time to time to transport children for various needs and sometimes even emergencies," Clinton said. "We will continue in private and in public to urge all governments to address issues of discrimination and to ensure that women have the equal opportunity to fulfill their own God-given potential."

In Honor of Those Who Drove in 1990

2011-06-20T17:47:00.000-07:00

Just came across this on the facebook page We Are Supporting Manal al-Sharif. Wonderful video by Sarah Jaber. It's a tribute to the brave women who dared to drive in 1990. It is very moving and actually lists the names of the women who drove. There are many PhD's among them. The first part is a recollection of the event, the second part is the tribute.

Woman has to pay traffic ticket for driving in Riyadh

2011-06-20T08:55:00.000-07:00

Example of the very minor fallout from last Friday's driving events in Saudi Arabia. A woman who drove in Riyadh and got a traffic citation, has to pay a traffic fine of SR100 (around $30).

Story link is here

Woman driver in Riyadh to pay SR100 - Saudi Gazette June 20, 2011

RIYADH: Police have asked Maha Al-Qahtani, the Riyadh woman stopped for driving last Friday, to pay a SR100 traffic ticket and requested her husband to sign a form stating that she will not repeat her actions.

Al-Qahtani’s husband Muhammad told Al-Hayat Arabic daily that he was called to the capital’s Al-Solaimaniya Police Station and asked if his wife had the intention of driving again in the future.

“The head of the Department of Investigation Muhammad Al-Sadran called me to go down to the station to complete the paperwork for the traffic offense committed by my wife for driving without a Saudi license,” he told Al-Hayat.

He said that no criminal offense had been registered according to the documents and that Maha was only in breach of traffic regulations for driving without a Saudi license.

“Al-Sadran asked if Maha had any intention of driving again and I told him that she drives outside the city, but that she would stop driving within the city,” he said.

Muhammad Al-Qahtani added that Al-Sadran told him his wife is obliged to pay SR100 for driving without a Saudi license.

Police stopped Maha Friday while driving along King Fahd Road in central Riyadh.

– Saudi Gazette

Driving Recap and What's Next?

2011-06-19T14:11:00.000-07:00

By all accounts, the June 17th drive-in was a success. Few if any arrests occurred. Many women documented their driving experience. The Saudi people themselves did not harass the women who were out driving. While there was international support that Saudi women could read, hear and see on-line, everyone seemed more interested in cheering Saudi women on from a distance than from demonstrating in their own countries. Yes, as has been repeated over and over again, the social media helped make it happen. And most interestingly, it allowed it to happen in a scattered, self-motivated and very organic way. Which, I believe, is the way the highest Saudi officials would want it. Rural women and women in certain gated communities (like large Aramco oil cities and the King Abdallah University of Science and Technology) do drive, and have been doing it for years. So this foray into public driving in the cities is a natural extension of something already taking place. The international news coverage was pitch-perfect, as far as I can tell, though I don't have a tv where I am now and am relying on the internet for news.

So now we've had a day or two to digest it all. The big question is, will women continue to drive, as was planned? Will they just go about their daily business behind the wheel, until the sight of a woman driver is no longer a big deal, is accepted, and the law follows?

In my opinion, the most important thing was that there were no reports of young Saudi males harassing female drivers, and that is part of a bigger thing, that there was, overall, respect on the road. And each family made its decision about the driving, themselves. To me, that's the true Saudi Arabia, and just maybe, it reflects the core of a moderate civil society. I think it's been there for a long time, just hidden.

So the eyes of the world are on you, Saudi women, and your families. We cheer you on, and wait for your next move. It must feel quite heady, with your hands on the wheel at last.

In the meantime, below are four media accounts from the west about last Friday.

NPR - National Public Radio's story by Ahmad Al-Omran. Excellent interviews with women and men involved. Link is here

PBS Newshour - interview with Saudi women's rights activits Hala al-Dosari and Michele Dunne, editor of the Arab Reform Bulletin.

ABC News - Diane Sawyer reports on the issue:

Last but not least, a link to Aljazeera too:
Saudi women drivers take the wheel on June 17 - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

In a Scattered Protest, Saudi Women Take the Wheel

2011-06-18T05:35:00.000-07:00

The 6/17/2011 New York Times reports that it was a 'scattered protest', implying something less than success. I beg to differ. The fact that many women drove with no harrassment from other members of society in the Kingdom's big cities says it all: Saudi society is ready to accept women drivers. This is what the officials have said they have been waiting for. So, the question is, what's next. There are many stories in the news today covering yesterday's events, and I'm posting the NYT article since it's a great recap. I'll keep posting what I can. Meantime, to keep up on the absolute latest, follow #women2drive on twitter. Link to the New York Times story here
Full text here:

In a Scattered Protest, Saudi Women Take the Wheel

By NEIL MacFARQUHAR and DINA SALAH AMER

CAIRO — Several dozen women drove in defiance of the law in major cities of Saudi Arabia on Friday, according to reports on social media and by an informal network of activists in the country. There appeared to be few confrontations reported with either the traffic or morals police, and at least half a dozen women who were stopped were escorted home and admonished not to drive again, said activists reached by telephone.

From its inception in April, the protest against the longstanding ban was far smaller than initially anticipated, but it was not meant to be a mass driving effort. Rather, women with legal driver’s licenses from other countries were urged to run mundane errands — going to the grocery store, perhaps — in order to underscore the fact that it should be normal for women to drive.

Maha al-Qahtani, an information technology specialist for the government, drove around the capital, Riyadh, for 45 minutes with her husband, Mohamed, a human rights activist, in the car. She braced for a siren after passing each of about five police cars, she said, but they ignored her.

“I woke up today believing with every part of me that this is my right, I woke up believing this is my duty, and I was no longer afraid,” said Mrs. Qahtani, adding that she had brought a change of clothes and a prayer rug with her in case she was detained.

Manal al-Sharif, a 32-year-old single mother, started the call for the June 17 protest in April with a Facebook page. But after posting videos of herself driving around Al Khobar in the Eastern Province, she was arrested in late May and jailed for nine days — a punishment that was stricter than expected. Many supporters were disappointed, feeling that she had jumped the gun and jeopardized them all by taking a confrontational approach.

Women driving remains a sensitive issue in Saudi Arabia. For religious conservatives, it is a kind of Alamo, with the ban a sign that the kingdom still holds to its traditions and has not caved to Western pressure.

The ruling family has been especially dependent on this base of supporters in recent months as protests erupted across the region and has been mute as the mufti, the highest religious figure in the kingdom, rolled out a fatwa banning protests.

Many Saudi activists considered the treatment meted out to Ms. Sharif a warning from the monarchy against trying to organize any kind of movement via social media. The initiative for women to drive was the strongest effort so far in the kingdom inspired by the regional climate.

“Women in Saudi Arabia see other women in the Middle East making revolutions, women in Yemen and Egypt at the forefront of revolutions, being so bold, toppling entire governments,” said Waleed Abu Alkhair, whose wife drove around Jidda. “The women of Saudi Arabia looked at themselves and they realized, ‘Wow! We can’t even drive!’ ”

Mr. Abu Alkhair said he knew about many women who drove, and aside from one being questioned by the police for two hours, none were bothered. Once the campaign had been announced there were frequent threats by opponents to punish female drivers either by beating them or by smashing their cars.

“We want women to keep fighting this fight and to be free,” he said. “It will help to liberate the entire society.”

In the weeks after Ms. Sharif’s arrest, a debate erupted between conservative clerics and their followers and the kingdom’s increasingly outspoken women. Opponents largely argued that Saudi society was not ready, that a woman should not be thrown into the wilds of Saudi driving
habits or be held responsible for any accidents.

Worse, opponents argued, it would lead to the public mingling of the sexes. Supporters mocked the clerics for putting everything in a sexual context and asked why it was O.K. for Saudi women to be driven around by an army of some 800,000 male drivers imported from Southeast Asia.

Although the arrest of Ms. Sharif discouraged women from driving, the fact that it enlivened the debate was in contrast to the first (and last) such protest in November 1990. Clerics branded the 47 women amoral and the royal family confiscated their passports, firing those working for the government. Many went into isolation for their own safety.

In addition to religious opposition there is widespread suspicion in the country that those who control the visa process — and in Saudi Arabia that means the princes of the ruling family — have made a business out of controlling the black market in visas for drivers, which can cost more than $3,000 apiece.

Many young married women decry the fact that they cannot afford that, not to mention the driver’s salary, about $600 a month.

The more liberal princes support allowing women to drive.
Prince Talal bin Abdul-Aziz al-Saud, 79 years old and long among the most outspoken members of the royal family, argues that such reforms lag because the leading members of the family have failed to yield any power or influence to younger generations.

“Bravo to the women!” the prince said in an interview. “Why should women drive in the countryside and not in the cities?” (Women have long driven in rural areas.)

King Abdullah and other royals have said in interviews with foreign reporters that they expected Saudi women to drive one day soon but have done little lately.

“Saudi Arabian women are going to have to fight for our rights, men are not going to just hand them over to us,” said Amira Kashgary, a professor who drove through Jidda on Friday for 45 minutes with her 21-year-old daughter. Women are tired of being stranded or missing appointments because their drivers disappear for the day, Professor Kashgary said. “We want to drive today, tomorrow, and every day — it’s not a one-day show. We want to make it a norm.”

Saudi Women Driving Cars with Relative Impunity

2011-06-17T09:12:00.000-07:00

What a pleasure to type that headline. It's only around 8PM in Saudi Arabia now, so the 'night is still young'. Perhaps more drivers will be out at night when many families take to the road for shopping.

John Hudson of The Atlantic Wire reports the following from the streets of the Kingdom. You can follow the day's events on twitter: #women2drive. Here is the link to the story.

And the text below. In the story there is a link to NPR reporting as well.

Saudi Women Driving Cars With Relative Impunity

By John Hudson 11:13 AM ET

Today, a number of Saudi women cruised through the streets of Saudi Arabia in automobiles, protesting the country's male-only driving rules. Fortunately, it appears the rogue drivers got away with the protest with relative impunity, according to reports on Twitter and wire services. "Reports of Saudi women driving in different parts of the country keep coming in, " tweets NPR's Ahmed Al Omran. "No arrests so far." The Associate Press concurs. "No arrests or violence were immediately reported." One message on Twitter cited a woman in a blue SUV "forced to stop aggressively by 2 police cars" but that appears to be an outlier. It's not clear how many women participated in the protest. Some peg the number at 13 while others say at least 20.
Regardless, if the lax treatment holds, it would be a real sign of progress in the country. The last time a large protest of this sort was carried out in 1990, "a group of 47 Saudi women were arrested and severely punished after demonstrating in cars," reports ABC News in Australia. The movement seems to have growing support among Saudi royalty, as NBC's Andrea Mitchell tweets, "Saudi Prince Talil among supporters of right of Saudi #women2drive protest today."
This morning, NPR's Andy Carvin tweeted pictures of Saudi women participating in the Women2Drive protest. According to the Associated Press, there is no explicit law banning women from driving, "only fatwas, or religious edicts, by senior clerics following a strict brand of Islam known as Wahhabism.
"They claim the driving ban protects against the spread of vice and temptation because women drivers would be free to leave home alone and interact with male strangers," reports the news wire. "The prohibition forces families to hire live-in drivers or rely on male relatives to drive." Al Jazeera adds, however, that a locally-issued license is required to drive in the country and they are not issued to women.
Here's more of the footage spilling out on the internet from today's protest:

Saudi women, start your engines: Campaign against driving ban hits the road

2011-06-17T05:39:00.000-07:00

Well, this is the day, and so far as I can tell, it's a success. Lots of international press coverage of today, and here is the Washington Post. Link here, Story below.

‘Saudi women, start your engines:’ Campaign against driving ban hits the road

By Associated Press, Updated: Friday, June 17, 8:27 AM

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Several Saudi women boldly got behind the wheel Friday, including one who managed a 45-minute trip through the nation’s capital, seeking to ignite a road rebellion against the male-only driving rules in the ultraconservative kingdom.

Activists — inspired in part by the uprisings around the Arab world — have not appealed for mass protests in any specific sites. But they urged Saudi women to begin a growing mutiny against the driving restrictions that are supported by clerics backing austere interpretations of Islam and enforced by powerful morality squads.

Encouragement poured in via the Internet. “Take the wheel. Foot on the gas,” said one Twitter message on the main site women2Drive. Another urged: “Saudi women, start your engines!”
The defiance could bring difficult choices for the Western-backed Saudi authorities who have far have escaped major unrest from the Middle East turmoil. Officials could either launch a crackdown on the women and facing international pressure or giving way to the demands and angering traditional-minded clerics and other groups opposing reforms.

It also could encourage wider reform bids by Saudi women, who have not been allowed to vote and must obtain permission from a male guardian to travel or take a job.

In the early hours of the protest, security forces mostly held back from challenging the women drivers, activists said. Some reported that women drove directly in front of police patrols.

“We want women from today to begin exercising their rights,” said Wajeha al-Huwaidar, a Saudi women’s rights activist who posted Internet clips of herself driving in 2008. “Today on the roads is just the opening in a long campaign. We will not go back.”

The plan, she said, is for women who have obtained driving licenses abroad to begin doing their daily errands and commuting on their own.

“We’ll keep it up until we get a royal decree removing the ban,” she told The Associated Press.
The campaign’s official start follows the 10-day detention last month of a 32-year-old woman, Manal al-Sherif, after she posted video of herself driving. She was released after reportedly signing a pledge that she would not drive again or speak publicly.

Her case, however, sparked an outcry from international rights groups and brought direct appeals to Saudi’s rulers to lift the driving ban on women — the only such countrywide rule in the world.

A protest supporter, Benjamin Joffe-Walt, said there were confirmed reports of at least several woman in the driver’s seat in the capital, Riyadh.

One of them was Maha al-Qahtani, a computer specialist at Saudi’s Ministry of Education, who said she drove for 45 minutes around the city with her husband in the passenger seat. “I wanted to make a point,” she said in a telephone interview. “I took it directly to the streets of the capital.”
Web message boards set up on Twitter and other social media carried unconfirmed reports that some women also got behind the wheel in the eastern city of Dammam and elsewhere. Joffe-Walt said some Saudi men claimed they drove around dressed in the traditional black coverings for women in an attempt to confuse security forces.

A YouTube page urged supporters around the world to honk their car horns for the Saudi women.
But conservative forces also counterattacked on the web. One video — denouncing the “revolution of corruption” — featured patriotic songs and a sinister-looking black hand with red fingernails reaching for the Saudi flag. One Facebook, a hard-line group had the message for Saudi women seeking the right to drive: “Dream on.”

No arrests or violence were immediately reported.

Saudi Arabia has no written law barring women from driving — only fatwas, or religious edicts, by senior clerics following a strict brand of Islam known as Wahhabism.

They claim the driving ban protects against the spread of vice and temptation because women drivers would be free to leave home alone and interact with male strangers. The prohibition forces families to hire live-in drivers or rely on male relatives to drive.

Saudi King Abdullah has promised some social reforms, but he depends on the clerics to support his ruling family and is unlikely to take steps that would bring backlash from the religious establishment.

In London, the rights groups Amnesty International called Thursday on Saudi officials to “stop treating women as second-class citizens and open the kingdom’s roads to women drivers.”
“Not allowing women behind the wheel in Saudi Arabia is an immense barrier to their freedom of movement, and severely limits their ability to carry out everyday activities as they see fit, such as going to work or the supermarket, or picking up their children from school,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa.

Earlier this week, a group of women drove around the Saudi Embassy in Washington to protest the kingdom’s ban on female drivers. Similar convoys converged on Saudi diplomatic missions in other cities around the world.

In November 1990, when U.S. troops were deployed to Saudi Arabia before the invasion to oust Iraqi troops from Kuwait, about 50 women got behind the wheel and drove family cars in one of the first acts of defiance against the ban. They were jailed for one day, their were passports confiscated and they lost their jobs.
___
Associated Press writer Sarah El-Deeb in Cairo contributed to this report.

Guidelines for drivers on June 17th from Saudi Blogger Sabria Jawhar

2011-06-16T17:17:00.000-07:00

Saudi blogger and journalist Sabria Jawhar has posted the following guidelines for June 17th.

Here is the link to her blog: Sabria's Out of the Box - Saudi June Driving Guidelines

You can also follow women2drive on facebook and twitter.

Here is the text, from Sabria's blog:

Saudi Women June 17 Driving Guidelines- Sabria Jawhar

Saudi women planning to drive on June 17 should observe the following guidelines for their safety:

1) Islamic dress code

2) There won’t be any gatherings. Go out only to run important errands, visit the hospital, drop kids off at school, etc.

3) It is encouraged that you videotape the event and upload it on Youtube.

4) Drive within city limits only.

5) To reaffirm our patriotism, fly the Saudi flag and lift up a photo of Abu Mit’ib (the King).

6) No need to be scared. If the police arrest you, you’ll only be required to sign on a pledge.

7) It is preferred that whoever plans on driving to have an international driver’s license.

8) It is better if a male accompanies you to protect you and to guarantee your safety (since the ball would just be starting to roll).

9) Avoid driving into any empty plots or deserted or faraway areas because that might pose some danger to you.

10) Driving is not scheduled for one day only. Saudi women are starting Friday but will continue to take to their cars beyond that date until a royal decree is issued.

11) Any woman who fails to comply is responsible for any possible consequences.

12) Ensure notifying family and friends of your intentions to drive (in case you go missing they’ll have an idea how to act).

13) If you have a phone with internet connection, follow WOMEN2DRIVE on Facebook and Twitter.

Radio report on dc driving demo

2011-06-16T13:52:00.000-07:00

Below is a link to a short radio report from WAMU, the radio station of the American University in Washington DC. Great photo of a demonstrator, Moshtaiyeen Ahmad, by Patrick Madden. Radio story here

In other news, a radical feminist group called FEMEN demonstrated their support in a (ahem) different way at the Saudi embassy in Ukraine. They were all 'fully open to the sunshine', shall we say. I'll not link to that one.

Camel's Nose Under the Wheel? - Maureen Dowd in the NYT

2011-06-15T09:08:00.000-07:00

Great column by Maureen Dowd in the 6/14/2011 NYT. I have found her more than irritating over the years due to her snarky coverage of Saudi Arabia. However, on her trip to the Kingdom last year, she quickly came up the awareness and learning curve. Her increased awareness is paying off, and this column is a case in point. Well done, Ms. Dowd. The text is below, or link to the story: here.

Camel’s Nose Under the Wheel?

By MAUREEN DOWD

WASHINGTON
I guess you don’t get to be the richest man in Saudi Arabia without being able to sum up a situation quickly.

When I called him in Riyadh on Tuesday night, the Arabian Warren Buffett, as the billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz al-Saud is known, was quite definite in his views on allowing Saudi women to drive.

“We’re not calling for diplomatic relations with Israel,” he said. “We’re just asking for ladies to drive the car. Please, give me a break. Even in North Korea, women can drive. It’s a joke. The issue of women driving can happen tomorrow morning because it’s not really an issue at all. Frankly speaking, we need strong political leadership to do it and get it behind us. What are we waiting for?”

Of course, Prince Alwaleed is a pillar of modernity in the medieval kingdom. In his skyscraper office in Riyadh, women in tight jeans and suits rule the roost, working side by side with men, something that is forbidden elsewhere. Government offices in Saudi Arabia are segregated by gender.

The prince made a point of hiring a woman, born in the holy city of Mecca, and training her to be the pilot of his private jet.

“Ladies can fly above but not drive on the street,” he said dryly, noting: “My wife drives in the desert and in every city we go to immediately from the airport. She’s an excellent driver — better than me, for sure.”

In the ’50s, at the height of the American mania for jokes and TV skits about ditzy women behind the wheel, there was a saying: “Women drivers, no survivors.”

That takes on an ominous new meaning as Saudi women agonize over whether to join in a drive-in Friday — a national protest where women will take the wheel to see if they get thrown in the clink en masse. In 1990, 47 women from the Saudi intelligentsia were so inspired by American troops — and female soldiers — gathering in the kingdom for the first President Bush’s war against Saddam that they went for a joy ride to protest Saudi Arabia being the only country where women can’t drive.

The fundamentalist clerics went into overdrive, branding the women “whores” and “harlots.” They lost their jobs and were harassed. Their passports were revoked and they had to sign papers agreeing not to talk about the drive. When I interviewed some of them 12 years later, they were only beginning to shake off the vengeful backlash.

For all the highfalutin talk of George and Laura Bush about how W.’s wars would help expand the rights of women in the Middle East, there’s only so much pressure America can put on Saudi Arabia about letting women drive without jeopardizing the flow of oil that lets people drive here. President Obama did not even mention Saudi Arabia in his big speech about the Middle East last month.

Driving may not be as important an issue as the end of male guardianship, but it is the high-octane nexus where our hypocrisies interlock.

The latest drive to drive started last month, a Twitter and Facebook feminist blossoming in the Arab Spring, following a Saudi “Day of Rage” in March where nobody showed up except the police.

King Abdullah passes for progressive in Saudi Arabia. (He just issued a decree allowing women, instead of men, to sell women lingerie.) Frightened by the uprisings all around him, he snuffed out wisps of democratic protests the Saudi way: with his checkbook. After the “Day of Rage” fizzled, he rewarded his complacent citizens with $130 billion in salary increases, new housing and financing for religious organizations.

But then a 32-year-old single mother named Manal al-Sharif, an Internet consultant for the state-run oil company Aramco, posted a video of herself on YouTube, driving in a black abaya in the Eastern Province city of Al-Khobar.

She told CNN that the last straw was one night when she was trying to get home to her 5-year-old son and she couldn’t catch a cab or find her brother to pick her up or get away from male drivers harassing her as she walked alone.

“I’m a grown-up woman,” she said, adding: “And I was crying like a kid in the street because I couldn’t find someone to pick me up to take me back home.”

She was put in jail for a week and forced to sign a document agreeing not to talk to the press or continue her calls for reform. This had a chilling effect on women.

But, this week, Reem al-Faisal, a princess, activist and Jidda photographer who is the granddaughter of the late King Faisal and the niece of the Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal, spoke out, writing in The Arab News that “it is truly tragic that we have to fight for such an essential yet mediocre right” and be treated as “eternal minors.”

She suggested that women simply drive pollution-free camels. Except then men would “deny women camel-driving rights, too. Then we will have to content ourselves with taking the backseat of the camels or start looking for other options — mules maybe?”

Female drivers to circle Saudi Embassy in DC to protest kingdom's ban on women behind wheel

2011-06-15T06:52:00.000-07:00

By Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, June 15, 5:42 AM

WASHINGTON — An unusual protest is scheduled for Washington as women plan to drive around the Saudi Embassy to protest the kingdom’s ban on female drivers.

The Institute for Gulf Affairs, which is sponsoring Wednesday’s rally, accuses Saudi Arabia of a system of gender apartheid that oppresses women — most noticeably by refusing to allow women behind the wheel.

The protest will run from noon to 4 p.m. outside the embassy in Foggy Bottom. It is designed to coincide with a protest planned for Friday inside the kingdom itself.

Link to story in the Washington Post here

CBC seeking women planning to drive who are willing to talk about it

2011-06-14T12:17:00.000-07:00

Dear Readers,

Passing on a message from Liz Hoath, a producer from CBC. If you are planning to drive on the 17th and are willing to discuss it, please contact Liz - her information is below her message, which is as follows:

I'm with a national radio program at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. We're hoping to do a segment on Friday about the protest over women driving in Saudi Arabia. We would love to speak with a woman who is planning on taking part and I was wondering if you had any ideas for me on who I could contact or how to reach them. Thanks in advance, it's been tough to get through to people who are involved.

Liz Hoath

Producer - The Current

CBC Radio One

cbc.ca/thecurrent

+001 604-662-6416 - w
elizabeth.hoath@cbc.ca

Unlike cars, camels don't pollute

2011-06-14T06:20:00.000-07:00

Saudi photographer Reem al-Faisal contributed a whimsical opinion piece to the June 13, 2011 Arab News. Here is the link to it, and the text pasted in below. This piece is spiced with the Saudi sense of humor, which, I think, is similar to the American sense of humor.

Unlike cars, camels don't pollute

By REEM AL FAISAL | ARAB NEWS

Published: Jun 13, 2011 00:27 Updated: Jun 13, 2011 00:27

You can't wish it out of existence. It will keep on intruding into other, more important, matters as long as there are motor vehicles and women. In any country, the percentage of women driving a car may be very low but when you deny this right to women, it dominates the whole debate about women's rights in that country, sometimes overshadowing the many rights they enjoy.
That is exactly the situation in Saudi Arabia where women are being denied the simplest of utilities - a mode of transportation - and where women are ready to give all they own to acquire the most basic of human rights - the right to drive a car. Women were traveling the deserts for thousands of years but we can't be trusted with a piece of metal.
OK, we give up and allow the men to drive cars and allow us what was never denied our grandmothers - camels. Let every household own as many camels as they wish or can afford. Open up schools to teach women how to ride and house and maintain a camel.
In fact, it could be a great idea for the protection and care of the environment. Unlike cars, camels don't pollute. Their waste is biodegradable and can even be used to improve the environment as fertilizers for plants and even for heating fuel in the cold winter nights. Unlike cars, camels produce an important nutrition - milk. Where in the world can you find a car that can transport you as well as feed you when needed?
If camels become a mode of transportation on a mass scale their market price will surely decrease since at least half of the Saudi population will be riding them. This might make them cheaper than cars and affordable to the average Saudi household. Also I am sure that the maintenance and upkeep of a camel is far cheaper than a car and it doesn't need to be imported from outside like cars so we also encourage local markets.
In fact, it might be a good idea to have men too riding camels. This way we will reduce the level of pollution to near zero and leave more oil to be exported to all those badly polluted countries where men and women drive cars.
But then we will have a problem. When men discover the benefits of "driving" camels, they will deny women camel-driving rights too. Then we will have to content ourselves with taking the backseat of the camels or start looking for other options - mules maybe?
Leaving sarcasm aside, it is truly tragic that we have to fight for such an essential yet mediocre right ignoring all the many injustices we suffer like our being denied the right to choose and practice any profession we desire. Or the right to be represented sufficiently in government (like ministers) and other activities of society. The right to practice law and be part of the judiciary system. The right to invest and trade freely without depending on a man. The freedom to travel whenever we want and wherever we want. Basically, we want to be treated as adults in the eyes of the law and not to live as eternal minors waiting for the kind attention of our male guardians.
In the end we want the rights that Allah and his Prophet (peace be upon him) gave us a millennia and a half ago and which men have tried to deny us whichever way they can.
- Reem Al Faisal is a Saudi photographer. She is based in Jeddah.

Saudi Arabia's Freedom Riders - New York Times

2011-06-13T18:22:00.000-07:00

This impassioned op-ed piece about Saudi women driving appeared in the June 13, 2011 New York Times. The author, Farzani Milani is a professor at the University of Virginia.

Link to the story here and in case the links aren't working, below is the text of the story. The illustration is by Juliette Borda.

Saudi Arabia’s Freedom Riders

By FARZANEH MILANI

Charlottesville, Va.
THE Arab Spring is inching its way into Saudi Arabia — in the cars of fully veiled drivers.
On the surface, when a group of Saudi women used Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to organize a mass mobile protest defying the kingdom’s ban on women driving, it may have seemed less dramatic than demonstrators facing bullets and batons while demanding regime change in nearby countries. But underneath, the same core principles — self-determination and freedom of movement — have motivated both groups. The Saudi regime understands the gravity of the situation, and it is moving decisively to contain it by stopping the protest scheduled for June 17.
The driving ban stems from universal anxiety over women’s unrestrained mobility. In Saudi Arabia that anxiety is acute: the streets — and the right to enter and leave them at will — belong to men. A woman who trespasses is either regarded as a sinful “street-walker” or expected to cover herself in her abaya, a portable house. Should she need to get around town, she can do so in a taxi, with a chauffeur (there are 750,000 of them) or with a man related to her by marriage or blood behind the wheel.
Although the Islamic Republic of Iran could not implement similarly draconian driving laws after the 1979 revolution, given that women had driven cars there for decades, the theocratic regime did denounce women riding bikes or motorcycles as un-Islamic and sexually provocative. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, proclaimed in 1999 that “women must avoid anything that attracts strangers, so riding bicycles or motorcycles by women in public places involves corruption and is forbidden.”
The Saudi regime, like the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Taliban in Afghanistan, the military junta in Sudan and the Islamic Salvation Front in Algeria, ordains the exclusion of women from the public sphere. It expects women to remain in their “proper place.”
Indeed, the rulers in Saudi Arabia are the most gender-segregated in the world today. In official ceremonies, and in countless photographs, posters and billboards, the royal family seems to be composed solely of men.
This desire to deny women entrance into the public arena is inaccurately presented as a religious mandate. Yet there is no basis for such exclusion in the Koran. On the contrary, in the early years of Islam, women were a vital presence in Muslim communities. They attended mosques, engaged in public debates and got involved in decision-making processes. Aisha, one of the wives of the Prophet Muhammad, commanded an army of men while riding on a camel. If Muslim women could ride camels 14 centuries ago, why shouldn’t they drive cars today? Which Koranic injunction prohibits them from driving?
Gender apartheid is not about piety. It is about dominating, excluding and subordinating women. It is about barring them from political activities, preventing their active participation in the public sector, and making it difficult for them to fully exercise the rights Islam grants them to own and manage their own property. It is about denying women the basic human right to move about freely.
That is why the women defying the ban on motorized mobility are in fact demanding an eventual overhaul of the entire Saudi political system. They want not just to drive but to remap the political geography of their country.
These women know the value of a car key. Like the man who faced down tanks in Tiananmen Square, like the unprecedented number of women participating in protests across the Middle East and North Africa, the Saudi women’s campaign for the right to drive is a harbinger of a new era in the region.
It may require decades to see an end to the Middle East’s gender apartheid and the political reconfigurations that would necessarily follow. One thing is certain though: the presence of women and men demonstrating side by side in the streets of Iran, Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen and Syria is a sign of more seismic upheavals ahead. Old categories have broken down and the traditional distribution of power and space is no longer viable.
The women demonstrating for the right to drive in Riyadh are seasoned negotiators of confined spaces and veteran trespassers of closed doors and iron gates. They are a moderating, modernizing force to be reckoned with — and an antidote to extremism.
Their refusal to remain silent and invisible or to relinquish their rights as citizens is an act of civil disobedience and moral courage. Their protest, and those of their sisters across the Middle East, represent a revolution within revolutions — and a turning point in the contemporary history of Islam.

Farzaneh Milani, chairwoman of the Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Virginia, is the author of “Words, Not Swords: Iranian Women Writers and the Freedom of Movement.”

Transparency must be the order of the day

2011-06-12T14:56:00.000-07:00

Great op-ed by Tariq al-Maeena in the Arab News, about how the Shura Council should be more forthcoming about its debate of the women driving issue. Link to the article here.

Here is the text:

By TARIQ AL-MAEENA | ARAB NEWS

Transparency must be the order of the day

GOVERNMENT or civic officials today must realize that with the advent of the Internet and social media outlets, information, past or present, is readily accessible and transparency in public affairs becomes essential to preserve the credibility of their organizations.

So when Chairman of the Saudi Shoura Council Abdullah Al-Asheikh stated recently that the council was ready to discuss the issue of women driving if it was asked to, he surprised a lot of people. His claim that “the issue has not so far been tabled with the council for discussion,” was met with incredulity in some quarters.
The right of a woman to drive has become the subject of wide public debate following the arrest and detention, for ten days, of Saudi woman Manal Al-Sharif for driving a car openly in the Eastern Province of the country.
Al-Asheikh, elaborating on the process of tabling issues before the council, stated that a proposal must either come from the government, or at least one member of the council or when the council itself expressed a desire to deliberate a certain issue.
Noted Saudi thinker and activist Abdullah Al-Alami, who is widely acknowledged for his contributions to social causes countered Al-Asheikh’s statements by saying that the council was formally asked to discuss the issue in a letter sent by express mail to the council back in February of this year. The request was endorsed by a former ambassador, a former undersecretary to the UN secretary-general, and included a sizable number of academics, literary figures, media professionals, businessmen and women, housewives, students and government employees.
According to Al-Alami, the Shoura Council had set up a committee meeting with a delegation from the petitioners for March 15 of this year, but the meeting was canceled hours prior to the event without any explanation.
“While we appreciate the council’s efforts to consider the issues of concern to society, we urge it to review the project that we have submitted to it which contains the advantages of allowing women to drive cars and the negative effects resulting from the presence of a large number of foreign drivers socially and economically as well as from a security point of view,” he said.
Understandably, Al-Alami can be forgiven if he is astonished by the Shoura Council chairman’s statements. But then let’s try to understand why the Shoura Council would need outside involvement in this issue, when one of their own for many years was trying to table the issue of women driving and was continuously overruled.
Back in 2006, Shoura Council member Mohammed Al-Zulfa had repeatedly led calls in the council for the issue to be tabled and to take action. Al-Zulfa and Dr. Abdullah Bukhari, both noted members of the Shoura Council, were pushing for a debate on this matter. Al-Zulfa later said that he was surrounded and intimidated by angry members at one of the debates because of his opinions. In a statement to the press at the time, Al-Zulfa stated, “I told them the Qur’an and the Sunnah do not prevent it, and not allowing women to drive creates more social problems than preventing them. The paroxysms of anger these people go into don’t help the matter. They are a minority who are very loud, and they are tense now because of the open atmosphere for debate.”
Were these debates not recorded in Shoura archives? If indeed the Shoura Council chairman claims that this issue has not reached the council before, then are Al-Alami and Al-Zulfa and others like them blowing smoke? Men whose credibility is beyond question?
In the same year, the then Saudi Minister of Information Iyad Madani, encouraged women to lobby traffic departments, saying there was no formal legal ban. Speaking before an economic forum, he told the women audience to go ahead and apply for their driving licenses. Such a call from a reformer and one with a seat on the Council of Ministers was seen as an encouraging signal for the Shoura Council to table the motion and work on it. His statements made front-page headlines in all the Kingdom’s newspapers. Did the Shoura Council not get the signal then?
At that time, some scholars claimed that driving was a “physical activity that conflicted with women’s divinely ordained role as homemakers.” It has gradually dawned on many minds in the following years that religion had nothing to do with the ban. Muhammad Abdullatif Al-Sheikh, a Saudi scholar, said that the ball was now in the court of the political leadership since the issue was political rather than religious. “Islamic teachings, which did not prevent women from mounting camels and horses, would not forbid them from driving cars,” he wrote.
It is unfortunate for half the Saudi population that years pass on, and yet we remain mired in something as basic as allowing women to drive. What is more distressing is when transparency by officials takes a back seat to statements meant to please or pacify some segment of the population. No more flip-flops please.
(talmaeena@yahoo.com)

Six women detained in Riyadh for driving

2011-06-10T17:29:00.000-07:00

The Arab News carried a Reuters story that six women aged 21-30 were picked up by Riyadh police for driving on Thursday, June 9, 2011.

Here is the text of the story - the link to it is: here

Six women detained in Riyadh for driving

By JASON BENHAM | REUTERS

Published: Jun 9, 2011 22:35 Updated: Jun 9, 2011 23:06

RIYADH: Authorities detained six women on Thursday for driving cars in the capital in defiance of laws allowing only male motorists on the kingdom’s roads.

Rasha Al-Duwaisi, one of those detained on Thursday, put the ages of the group at between 21 and 30 and said they had met in a district of Riyadh late in the afternoon to teach each other how to drive using three cars.

They were quickly taken to a police station and instructed to summon their male guardians (mahram) to collect them from custody.

“It’s not the first time we have done this,” Duwaisi told Reuters by telephone from the station.
“It’s my right to drive and my right to know how to drive. I suffer because I can’t drive because I have to rely on a driver that I share with four others.”

Many families in Saudi Arabia have at least one driver with an average salary of around 2,000 Saudi riyals ($533) per month. Those who cannot afford this assign a male member of family to drive its women, which often amounts to a time-consuming burden.

Traffic police could not immediately be reached for comment on Thursday’s arrests.
Two of the other detainees were Duwaisi’s sisters, she said, adding that she met the other three on Facebook and Twitter.

Authorities last month arrested Manal Al-Sharif, who posted a YouTube video of herself driving in the Eastern Province and calling on other women to do the same.

Al-Sharif has been released but faces charges of “besmirching the kingdom’s reputation abroad and stirring up public opinion.”

Another woman, Shaima Osama, was also arrested for driving last month in Jeddah. She too was later released.

Thousands of Saudi men and women joined Facebook groups calling for Saudi driving rights to be extended to women.

Women in the country are also required to have written approval from a designated guardian — a father, husband, brother or son — to emigrate, work or travel abroad.

The campaign that Al-Sharif launched is aimed at teaching women to drive and encouraging them to take to the roads from June 17, using foreign-issued licenses.

Women driving: Differentiate between luxury and necessity

2011-06-10T17:19:00.000-07:00

Opinion column in the 6/10/2011 Arab News - Ali al-Khishaiban writes that society must differentiate between those women who need to drive and those who just want to do it for luxury. Some interesting arguments here, worrying that if a family has six daughters then each one will have to have a car. And then, women will start competing with each other in the kinds of cars they have.

Though it is easy to chuckle at these arguments sometimes, I think it's a healthy thing that this writer is actually envisioning what it will be like when women start to drive in the Kingdom. And I agree with the author, the car dealers will be ecstatic to have a whole new customer base.

Here is the column and you can link to it: here

Women driving: Differentiate between luxury and need

By ALI AL-KHISHAIBAN | AL-RIYADH

Published: Jun 10, 2011 23:47 Updated: Jun 10, 2011 23:47

The acceptance or rejection of new ideas in Saudi society is subject to different criteria.

These ideas have to go through cultural and social filters before they are accepted or rejected. An example would be riding bicycles, an idea rejected more than 50 years ago by people before they finally accepted it.

A recent case is the issue of allowing women to drive. If we are looking for a solution to this issue, then we cannot ignore these social factors. In Saudi society no one rejects or supports the issue just for the sake of it. Everyone has his or her own reasons.

The real problem in allowing a woman to drive lies in understanding the balance between woman's need to drive and society’s willingness to accommodate this need.

Societies are not compelled to meet the needs of all individuals if they negatively affect others. This does not apply only to the issue of women driving, but all other ideological and cultural issues.

The issue of women driving is based on individual needs. In allowing women to drive, society is dealing with a complex issue.

For instance, a family man with five or six daughters would need several cars. It would create a problem between siblings when it comes to equality.

The family would be burdened with huge financial obligations. This is, however, music to the ears of car dealers because they will be making good money out of it.

Therefore, women driving may not be a problem as large as actually providing the cars. We will start seeing daughters wanting to buy better cars than their cousins, sisters or friends.
In my opinion there are no obstacles to Saudi society accepting women driving. But they would have to deal seriously with the financial consequences.

An officer in the traffic department or municipal official would not wish to see the number of cars tripling in our streets, especially in big cities.

Yes, there are some women who need to drive a car. We should support them. However, I think we should differentiate between luxury and need.

Youtube - Honk for Saudi Women

2011-06-08T06:28:00.000-07:00

There's an initiative on YouTube to post videos in support of Saudi women driving, called "Honk for Saudi Women".

So far, the following is my favorite one.

Saudi Women Driving

International Women's Day: Celebrating Saudi Women

International Women's Day: Celebrating Saudi Arabian Women

Amnesty International: Support Saudi Women in Their Driving Struggle

Saudi Women Driving: A Counter View

Princess Ameera al-Taweel on driving with Charlie Rose

Saudi set to reject woman’s plea to drive car

Judge says accepting case does not mean agreeing to woman’s plea

Wall Street Journal - Saudi Women Sue for Right to Drive

MIA Video - Bad Girls driving in the desert

Saudi activists sue government over driving ban

Women and the Arab uprisings: 8 'agents of change' to follow

Saudi woman driver reported killed in car crash is alive

Saudi female driver defies ban, has fatal accident

Saudi Women Shatter the Lingerie Ceiling

VOA seeking interviews with Saudi women involved in driving campaign

Saudi girl steps into the world of automobile mechanics

The Saudi women brain drain

McManus: Change in Saudi Arabia

Saudis could still flog woman who dared to drive

Women driving: Topic is getting tedious

Manal Alsharif Honks for Driving Rights

The Wheel of Progress - Shaima Jastaniah and Anne French Bush

Saudi Woman to Be Lashed for Driving, Despite Royal Pardon

Allowing women drivers in Saudi Arabia will be 'end of virginity'

Foreign Policy: What Do Saudi Women Want?

Female Driver Storms Crowded Saudi Beach

Saudi Women Drive Change Despite Mixed Signals

Prominent Islamic cleric urges Saudi king to let women drive

Marwa - Saudi woman race car driver

How The Occupy Wall Street Protesters Can Learn From Saudi Women

Women drive in Saudi Arabia?

American journalist recalls 1990 interview with one of the 47 Saudi women drivers

Injured female driver dies in Saudi Arabia

Injured female driver dies in Saudi ArabiaCar overturned as she was driving sick mother to hospital

Your tiara or your license?

Another Saudi woman briefly detained for flouting driving ban

Arab News Editorial: The driving issue

The Arab News, Saudi Arabia's largest English language daily, editorializes. Pasted below, the link to the story is here.

Editorial: The driving issue

BBC News - Viewpoint: Saudi women should not drive

Op-ed piece from the BBC. Pasted below, link to story is here.

Viewpoint: Saudi women should not drive

A Driving Issue that Just Won't Go Away, Until it Does

King Abdallah Pardons Lashing Sentence for Shaima

Saudi woman driver saved from lashing by King Abdullah

Mother killed in a car accident - with her daughter at the wheel

Saudi women driving on Twitter

Shoura council reconsidering women driving issue

Woman to get ten lashes for driving

Saudi woman sentenced to 10 lashes for defying ban on female drivers

by Douglas Stanglin (September 27, 2011)

Saudi Authorities to try Najla Hariri for Driving

Women will join King's Shura Council and gain right to vote

Hiding behind wheel, another Riyadh woman hits the road

Driven to despair

Facebook poll on Saudi women driving (in Arabic)

Three women defy Saudi driving ban during holidays

Emirates 24/7 reports that during the Eid al-Fitr holidays three women in Saudi Arabia reported they went out driving, with no problems from the authorities.

Three women defy Saudi ban on driving

Shoura council discusses urgent solutions to women's transport, not women driving

Saudi woman campaigner briefly arrested for driving

Saudi woman campaigner arrested for driving

Drive For Equality - Automobile Magazine

Breaking down the social barriers - columnist from Al-Medina

14 U.S. Female Senators Urge Saudi King to Overturn Driving Ban on Women

Manal al-Sharif vows to continue driving campaign

Saudi woman to be tried for driving

People reporting Saudi women drivers to authorities

Princess Ameera al-Taweel advocating women driving

Grand Mufti advises women against riding with ministry drivers

Women's driving a nonevent

Women’s driving a nonevent

From this day forward, until driving do us part

So what would you drive?

Blogger Maqbool Hassan on Saudi women driving

ABC News: Women drivers arrested; then released

Five Saudi women drivers arrested, says activist

Jeddah woman driver accelerates campaign

Saudi Women Press Subaru to Exit Over Ban

Injured female driver dies in Saudi Arabia
Car overturned as she was driving sick mother to hospital