Women defy driving ban in Saudi Arabia

Jun 18, 2011 |

Riyadh

A number of Saudi women drove cars on Friday in response to calls for nationwide action to break a traditional ban unique to the ultra-conservative kingdom, according to reports on social networks.

“We’ve just returned from the supermarket. My wife decided to start the day by driving to the store and back,” said columnist Tawfiq Alsaif on his Twitter page. “My wife, Maha, and I have just come from a 45-minute drive. She was the driver through Riyadh’s streets,” said Mohammad al-Qahtani, president of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association, in another tweet.
Many Saudi women had pledged on Facebook and Twitter to answer the call to defy the deeply entrenched ban in the largest such mass action since November 1990, when women demonstrators were arrested and severely penalised. Instead of staging demonstrations, which are strictly banned in the absolute monarchy, women with driving licences obtained abroad were encouraged to take individual action. —AFP

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