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Update: Saudi Women Stage Government Protest by Defying Driving Ban

Update: Saudi Women Stage Government Protest by Defying Driving BanDUBAI, United Arab Emirates (The Blaze/AP) – You may remember The Blaze’s coverage last month of Manal al-Sharif’s arrest and detainment. The Saudi woman was penalized after she recorded herself operating a vehicle and launched a Facebook page in opposition to the Kingdom’s ultraconservative law forbidding women from driving.

Following that piece, we covered a counter campaign that encouraged men to beat women who did not comply with the law. Despite this scare tactic, some women decided to join in peaceful driving protests earlier today.

A Saudi woman defiantly drove through the nation’s capital while others brazenly cruised by police patrols in the first forays of a campaign that hopes to ignite a road rebellion against the male-only driving rules in the ultraconservative kingdom.

It was a rare grass-roots challenge to the Western-backed Saudi monarchy as it tries to ride out the Arab world’s wave of change, and a lesson in how the uprisings are taking root in different ways. In this case, the driver‘s seat was turned into a powerful platform for women’s rights in a country where wives and daughters have almost no political voice.

“We’ve seen that change is possible,” said Maha al-Qahtani, a computer specialist at Saudi’s Ministry of Education. She said she drove for 45 minutes around the capital, Riyadh with her husband in the passenger seat. “This is Saudi women saying, `This is our time to make a change.’” Her husband later Tweeting about the experience:

Update: Saudi Women Stage Government Protest by Defying Driving Ban

The number of Saudi women who drove apparently was small and there were no mass convoys of women at the wheel. No arrests or violence were immediately reported.

But the show of defiance could bring difficult choices for the Saudi regime, which has so far has escaped major unrest. Officials could either order a crackdown on the women or give way to the demands at the risk of angering traditional-minded clerics and other conservative groups.

It also could encourage wider reform bids by Saudi women, who are not allowed to vote and must obtain permission from a male guardian to travel or take a job.

Watch an unidentified Saudi woman drive below:

Saudi Arabia is the only country that bans women from driving. The prohibition forces families to hire live-in drivers, and those 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.

A similar effort more than two decades ago faltered. 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. They were jailed for one day, had their passports confiscated and lost their jobs.

The official start of the latest campaign 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 Friday, activists said security forces mostly stood by in an apparent effort to avoid clashes or international backlash. Eman al-Nafjan, a prominent Saudi-based blogger, said some women drove directly in front of police units, which made no attempts to intervene.

“To be honest, we didn’t expect that,” she said in a telephone interview. “The more women who drive without problem, the more that will join them.”

Activists have not appealed for protests in any specific sites. Instead, they urged Saudi women to begin a mutiny on their own 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!”

A YouTube page urged supporters around the world to honk their car horns in solidarity with the Saudi women.

“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.

Al-Nafjan said she accompanied a friend who drove around the capital for 15 minutes with her children in the car. She estimated more 31 women took a drive nationwide, according to reports logged on social media websites keeping track of the event.

A protest supporter, Benjamin 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.

Witnesses in the eastern city of Dammam reported that four women took a spin with their families on the city’s corniche at dawn without incident. The witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity because the sensitivity of the matter.

Conservative forces staged an Internet counterattack. One video – denouncing the “revolution of corruption” – featured patriotic songs and a sinister-looking black hand with red fingernails reaching for the Saudi flag. On Facebook, a hard-line group had the message for Saudi women seeking the right to drive: “Dream on.”

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.

Comments (30)

  • anotherGlen
    Posted on June 18, 2011 at 10:28am

    This reminds me of a joke-

    Why can’t Saudi women drive?

    Because their Women.

    Ba-Da-Bum!

    But really, this is the Arab Spring. Maybe they can sit in the front seat soon. And ride the bus too.

    Report Post » anotherGlen  
  • Chooch
    Posted on June 17, 2011 at 9:09pm

    To enemy of the statist:

    Yes sir! I was hoping I would find a fellow NJ brother!

    Report Post » Chooch  
  • SilentReader
    Posted on June 17, 2011 at 9:07pm

    It’s a beginning. Hopefully they’ll continue to assert their rights to be treated like adults and not forever like children.

    Report Post » SilentReader  
  • Akbarjonnie Shaheed
    Posted on June 17, 2011 at 6:57pm

    New Toyota ad?

    Report Post »  
  • NHABE64
    Posted on June 17, 2011 at 6:46pm

    Ha! Ha! Good for her! Stick that in your turban boys. Ha! Ha!

    Report Post »  
  • bellkj
    Posted on June 17, 2011 at 3:47pm

    These women are not fighting for equal rights, just going through the motions. As long as they support oppression by wearing a peice of cloth that shouts “I am woman hear me MOO!”, they will be treated like the livestock they prefer to be treated as.

    You can‘t sit back and expect equal treatment and you can’t support part of the oppression and expect other parts not to be imposed.

    I see a head scarf, I expect that woman to MOO according to her values. Otherwise stop dressing immodestly by making yourself stand out in a crowd of women that have fought for equal treatment and refuse to be consider baby makers only.

    Report Post »  
    • mossbrain
      Posted on June 17, 2011 at 6:23pm

      You’re damn right on this issue. Until those Arab women start running around in the nude they will not get any support from me. Likewise, listen up Sarah and Michelle, you’d better start showing some cleavage if you want some man votes.

      Report Post » mossbrain  
  • simplygilly
    Posted on June 17, 2011 at 3:22pm

    Instead of guns for Mexican drug lords, how about guns, real or stun, for Saudi women self defense against Sharia barbarians?

    Report Post » simplygilly  
  • Miz T
    Posted on June 17, 2011 at 3:13pm

    At least they’re trying to make changes in their OWN country instead of ours.

    Report Post » Miz T  
  • Crawfish Festival
    Posted on June 17, 2011 at 2:55pm

    Beautiful……..Saudi women……….against “conservative” ideologies in the Middle East.

    The best is…….they had to learn to drive in secret……before taking the car on the road w confidence.

    Report Post »  
  • I.Gaspar
    Posted on June 17, 2011 at 2:43pm

    Good for them!
    But you know that when more women protest they will have to crush the uprising in order to keep that sick way of life from becoming more humane…

    Report Post »  
  • Mandors
    Posted on June 17, 2011 at 2:43pm

    Talk about your bad drivers. Sheesh!

    Report Post » Mandors  
  • Robert-CA
    Posted on June 17, 2011 at 2:42pm

    Be careful what you wish for , they have Al Hay’a religious police .

    Report Post » Robert-CA  
  • Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
    Posted on June 17, 2011 at 2:42pm

    These ladies are taking their own lives in their hands to gain liberty and rights long denied to them; and here in America we have all but sold our own away. Who are the true people with guts in this story?

    And yes, I feel in America we are turning a corner to get the nation back on track; it just is going to take so long, yet we will make it.

    Report Post » Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}  
  • Curtis
    Posted on June 17, 2011 at 2:41pm

    “ultraconservative”? “ Western backed”? WTF, dude?

    Report Post » Curtis  
  • Christian Kalgaard
    Posted on June 17, 2011 at 2:40pm

    how come liberal western pro-palestinian feminists don’t support this courage and bravery?
    how come they want to replace the only democracy in the middle east (Israel) with yet another jihadist caliphate ???

    Report Post » Christian Kalgaard  
    • vennoye
      Posted on June 17, 2011 at 3:12pm

      What a GREAT question! Sorta makes them look like hypocrites doesn’t it? Go Saudi Ladies, GO!!

      Report Post » vennoye  
  • Chooch
    Posted on June 17, 2011 at 2:39pm

    Pass Left, Stay Right! Let’s start those Saudi Ladies off right by not driving slow in the fast lane. This also applies to New York and Pennsylvania drivers!

    Report Post » Chooch  
    • Obama Bin Lying
      Posted on June 17, 2011 at 2:43pm

      This is going to go over like a fart in Mosque with Muslims…

      Report Post » Obama Bin Lying  
    • fastfacts
      Posted on June 17, 2011 at 3:08pm

      And yet with all these human rights violations we still back them, human rights violation such as assisting 911 bombers.

      It’s like Egypt, we support the protesters, take out an ally, and support the Muslim Brotherhood, then the left say… they have changed: http://tiny.cc/ln0qx

      Report Post »  
    • Edct
      Posted on June 17, 2011 at 3:38pm

      Next news article will be about how they were beaten or killed for this immoral rebellion because they were not good obedient mindless infidel sex slaves

      Report Post »  
    • Dustyluv
      Posted on June 17, 2011 at 3:40pm

      I don’t think this is gonna work out well for them…Unless they take all the stones out of Saudi Arabia that is…

      Report Post »  
    • Anonymous T. Irrelevant
      Posted on June 17, 2011 at 3:47pm

      Maybe this will start the Arab Women Summer. Muslims are SO afraid of women that they ban them from getting educated and even looking at other men. I hope this starts catching on in other muslim countries, too, and freak them out.

      Report Post » Anonymous T. Irrelevant  
    • Nobamazone
      Posted on June 17, 2011 at 3:54pm

      I agree anonymous
      The ONLY chance we have of ever seeing a peaceful islam is IF the women stand up and take the lead. Unfortunately I do not believe that will ever happen, but IF….

      Report Post » Nobamazone  
    • Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
      Posted on June 17, 2011 at 5:48pm

      I wish them the best in their endevours…they will need it.

      Report Post » Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}  
    • HumbleCitizen
      Posted on June 17, 2011 at 6:20pm

      The only “rights” muslim women have is the right to be beaten, the right to be mutiliated and the right to die. This is the religion of peace.

      Report Post » HumbleCitizen  
    • enemy of the statist
      Posted on June 17, 2011 at 8:32pm

      Chooch, you obviously live in NJ like I.

      Report Post » enemy of the statist  
    • one years food ration like glenn says
      Posted on June 18, 2011 at 9:16am

      I just heard , there is going to be a mass stoning of driving women in Saudi Arabia… They have to keep the country clean of women that don’t obey ….

      Report Post » one years food ration like glenn says  

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