Saudi Arabian Women Protest Driving Ban

Today, around 40 women in Saudi Arabia got behind the wheel and drove through the streets to protest the ban on female drivers, the only such ban in the world.  While not a massive movement, the Guardian reports that the protest was a breakthrough as the government did almost nothing to stop it.
 
According to NPR, there is no official law against women driving, but a fatwa, a religious edict made by Saudi clerics, prohibits it.  The same religious edicts have stopped women from opening bank accounts and performing other day-to-day tasks that we collegiettes™ take for granted, CNN reports.
 
The social media campaign Women2Drive has been the major force mobilizing women to get behind the wheel.  The campaign has a page on Facebook and twitter users put the hashtag #women2drive in tweets to track the day’s progress and offer support.
 
Last month, the Guardian reports that seven women were detained for driving.  On May 21, Saudi Arabian woman Manal al Sharif was stopped and detained for driving a car, but said she is determined to continue fighting.
 
“We have a saying,” she told CNN.  “The rain starts with a single drop.  This is a symbolic thing.”

al-Sharif also posted a video of herself driving, in which she said, “We are ignorant and illiterate when it comes to driving.  You’ll find a woman with a PhD, a professor at a college, and she doesn’t know how to drive.”
 
al-Sharif was held for 10 days and forced to sign a pledge saying she would not drive again, Amnesty International reports.  She has become a major figure for the Women2Drive campaign, which has posted pictures of her on its Facebook page.
 
Maha al-Qahtani, a 39-year-old woman, drove through Saudia Arabian capital for about 50 minutes earlier this morning.
 
“No one tried to stop us,” she told the Guardian. “No one even looked.  We drove past police cars but had no trouble.”
 
al-Qhatani’s worst problem ended up being her husband’s backseat driving.  “He kept telling me to slow down or speed up,” she said.  “He was very fussy.”
 
In the afternoon, however, al-Qhatani tried to drive again and was given a ticket for driving without a Saudi license, though she holds both American and international licenses, the Guardian reports.
 
Ali Alyami, the executive director and founder of the Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia, spoke to NPR yesterday about the protests.  His organization has planned protests against the Saudi driving ban in Washington, D.C.  He said that banning women from driving takes away their basic human right to mobility.
 
“If you need to move from place to place, you have to be able to do that, especially in this day and age,” he said, giving the example of a woman taking her sick child to the emergency room.  “It’s a very empowering and good feeling to be independent instead of relying on me as a man to take you from place to place.”