Saudi Arabian women continue their fight to be allowed to sit behind the wheel
Women in Saudi Arabia have stepped up their opposition to the country’s ban on female drivers. Last Saturday an estimated 60 women with international licenses got behind the wheel, and took to the streets of the Islamic kingdom.
The demonstration is the most dynamic campaign of its kind to date, and even has its very own soundtrack: Saudi-born singer Shams released a song entitled It’s Our Right to Drive as part of the protest. 17,000 people have signed a petition titled “I support women drivers on 26th October 2013”, calling for the ban to be lifted, and over 50 videos of women driving have been posted online, despite warnings from authorities that those who took part risked arrest. One video on YouTube shows a woman driving on a highway, getting the “thumbs up” from several Saudi men in another car as they pass by her.
“It wouldn’t warrant a second glance anywhere else in the world,” one Riyadh-based female expat told Planet Ivy. “Getting behind the wheel is something so mundane, but take that away and, especially for someone that has driven their whole life, like me, you feel like you’ve lost your independence.” The 56-year-old woman, who was lived in KSA for four years, admitted that when in off-road rural areas, some women do drive, even just for short bursts. She continued: “In the UK we take driving for granted. We complain about the cost of petrol, tax, about the state of the traffic. Here, for these women, not being able to drive is a sign of repression.”
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There is not a specific law banning women from driving in Saudi Arabia, but driving licenses are not issued to women. Saudi Arabia is the only country where women are prohibited from driving. Similar attempts to protest the ban took place in 1990, when many of those who took part lost their jobs or were detained. During a second protest in June 2011, at the height of the Arab spring, a woman was sentenced to 10 lashes for driving. One of the women who took part in the protests in 1990 and 2011, Dr Madiha al Ajroush, reveals in the video below that “it is now time for Saudi women to drive. I am ready. My daughter is ready. And society is ready.”
This year activists believe the public mood is on their side, with many male Saudis and members of the international community, including Hillary Clinton, showing their support. Three female members of the Shoura Council, a body appointed by King Abdullah to advise the government and to which 30 women were appointed for the first time in February, proposed on Tuesday lifting the ban on women drivers.
Yet, there are still signs that the women’s action may hit a red light.
One cleric told a Saudi news site that driving “automatically affects ovaries and rolls up the pelvis”
Over 100 conservative clerics went to the Saudi Royal Court to denounce the campaign as a conspiracy by women and a threat to the country. One such cleric, Sheik Saleh bin Saad al Lohaidan, an advisor to the association of Gulf psychologists, told Saudi news site Sabq that driving “automatically affects ovaries and rolls up the pelvis” and will cause “clinical disorders” in children which female drivers may bear.
Since the protest, male writer and teacher Tariq Al-Mubarak has reportedly been jailed for his support of the campaign. Other women, who requested anonymity due to their concerns for their safety, described to CNN Monday how they’d been, “followed by cars filled with men since Saturday”. It has also been reported that six women have been fined and 12 have been arrested for their roles in the protest.
Despite the growing pressure, the government has not indicated whether or not it will review its position. King Abdullah told American journalist Barbara Walters in 2005 that it will be possible to lift the ban on women driving but said that the “issue will require patience.” So, it looks like this journey will go on a while longer.
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Image courtesy of Robert Reed Daly
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