Saudi Woman Flouts Driving Ban

By Rosie Gray Sun., May 15 2011 at 1:13 PM

A Saudi Arabian woman told AFP she defied the country's ban on women driving, taking the wheel for four straight days before she was stopped. 30-something wife and mother Najla al-Hariri drove "to defend her belief that Saudi women should be allowed to drive.''

"I don't fear being arrested because I am setting an example that my daughter and her friends are proud of,'' she said. She will also be offering driving lessons, thank you very much. Nayla al-Hariri is ruling pretty hard right now.

Saudi women are barely allowed to do anything.. They can't drive, they can't travel without permission from their "male guardians," and they can't vote in municipal elections. They always have to cover up. It's one of the most repressive anti-woman environments in the world. In the U.N.'s most recent Human Development Report, Saudi Arabia was 128th out of 138 countries for gender equality.

Hariri ridiculed the social belief that Saudi women are treated "like queens'' as they are driven around by their male relatives or drivers, saying "this is a big lie.''
"We are always under their mercy to give us a lift,'' she said.

Saudi women are launching a campaign for women across the country to collectively drive on June 17 in protest of the ban. They're on Twitter, too. Fingers crossed for them.

Here's a video from 2008 of Saudi feminist activist Wajeha Al-Huwaider driving a car in a rural part of Saudi Arabia and explaining some of the issues therein.

[rgray@villagevoice.com] [@_rosiegray]

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Gest

OK Saudi woman.....your are all going about this the wrong way.....1) all saudi woman that own their car.....take your driver stop the car in the middle of the road and get a taxi home2) call the cops say your car has been stolen....by some nut case3) The next day call your work and say you can't make it in because you don't have a car and you think it’s in the inpound...but you can't go to the police station because woman are not able to enter the building4) send someone (the driver to the inpound to get the car back)The total cost is about $100....much better then spending a night in jail.... plus think if it were 5000 woman all at the same time...leaving there cars all over town at the same time...........That I would pay to see :-)The best day would be when a vip comes to visit

skidderwalk

Nice to see the V V writing about this. If you want to follow news on Saudi women driving, visit my blog: www.saudiwomendriving.blogspot... I try to keep up with the latest there. I hope this is the year that the women will successful take to the road in Saudi Arabia.