As most of us were busy refreshing our Twitter feeds on Sept. 26 in the United States, an important announcement was overlooked in the midst of memes, things that are #relatable, and advice from our favorite celebs. Across the Pacific and into the Persian Gulf, a single tweet was posted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Saudi Arabia. It read: “Saudi Arabia allows women to drive.”
BBC reported that Saudi Arabia is the last country to have regulated driving based on gender. Prior to this announcement, female drivers were subject to arrest or hefty fines. With this declaration, Saudi women will be able to drive without legally requiring a male’s permission by June 24, 2018.
This is a huge leap forward in the international movement toward gender equality. And as women around the world rejoice, so should we. This movement matters to us, too — here’s why.
For decades, Saudi women have peacefully protested for their rights. It began, as noted in The Atlantic, with a “drive-in” protest in 1990 in which 47 women united in an effort to protest the driving ban. In 2011, the momentum gained when Manal al-Sharif uploaded a video of herself driving, gaining international support but resulting in her nine-day arrest by the Saudi religious police. And in October 2016, an estimated 60 Saudi women held a protest in response to a statement made by Sheikh Saleh al-Luhaydan, a Saudi cleric, who claimed that driving had a negative impact on woman’s ovaries that led to birth defects. Spanning 20 years, this movement has been gradual. But Saudi women persisted.
Their steadfastness combined with the goal of conducting peaceful protests has made the Women2Drive movement in Saudi Arabia iconic. Collegiettes across the U.S. must not let this movement become lost and intermixed with other protests that are occurring in the fight for gender equality. The actions of these Saudi women should be regarded as a shining example.
As CNN reported, Saudi women have the liberty to drive, attend college, vote in local elections, compete in the Olympics, and be appointed to the Consultative Council just like American students. But unlike us, Saudi women still cannot marry, divorce, travel, get a job or apply for a passport without consent from a male guardian, and must wear long black robes, formally known as the abaya, in public. Indeed, the end of the driving ban represents great progress, but Saudi Arabia still has many battlefronts to face on the road to equality.
Let us be inspired by the Saudi women who stand at the forefront of this movement. We must fight our own systemic oppression within the U.S. while joining hands with women across the world in the fight for international gender equality.