Global InformationWomen to drive movement information
Until June 2018, Saudi Arabia was the only country in the world in which women were forbidden from driving motor vehicles.[1] The Women to Drive Movement (Arabic: قيادة المرأة في السعودية qiyādat al-marʾa fī as-Suʿūdiyya) was a campaign by Saudi women, whom the government denies many rights to which men are entitled,[2] for the right to drive motor vehicles on public roads. Dozens of women drove in Riyadh in 1990 and were arrested and had their passports confiscated.[3] In 2007, Wajeha al-Huwaider and other women petitioned King Abdullah for the right to drive,[4] and a film of al-Huwaider driving on International Women's Day 2008 attracted international media attention.[3][5][6]
In 2011, the Arab Spring motivated some women[7][8] including al-Huwaider and Manal al-Sharif, to organise a more intensive campaign, and about seventy cases of women driving were documented in the latter half of June.[9][10][11] In late September, Shaima Jastania was sentenced to ten lashes for driving in Jeddah, although the sentence was later overturned.[12][13] Two years later, another campaign to defy the ban targeted 26 October 2013 as the date for women to start driving. Three days before, in a "rare and explicit restating of the ban", an Interior Ministry spokesman warned that "women in Saudi [Arabia] are banned from driving and laws will be applied against violators and those who demonstrate support."[14] Interior Ministry employees warned leaders of the campaign individually not to drive on 26 October, and police road blocks were assembled in Riyadh to check for women driving.[15]
On 26 September 2017, King Salman issued an order to allow women to drive, with new guidelines to be created and implemented by June 2018.[16] Women to drive campaigners were ordered not to contact media and in May 2018, several, including Loujain al-Hathloul, Eman al-Nafjan, Aisha Al-Mana, Aziza al-Yousef and Madeha al-Ajroush, were detained.[17][18] The ban was officially lifted on 24 June 2018, but many of the women's rights activists remained under arrest.[19] As of 23 August 2018[update], twelve remained in detention.[20]
- ^ Bashraheel, Laura (27 June 2009). "Women's transport: Solutions needed". Arab News. Retrieved 6 October 2012.
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Forbes_lashes_revokedwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Casey, Mary. "Saudi Arabia issues warning against women's driving campaign". October 25, 2013. Foreign Policy magazine. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
- ^ "Saudi Arabian women vow to keep up campaign against driving ban". Guardian. Reuters. 27 October 2013. Archived from the original on 8 November 2013. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
- ^ "Saudi women 'to be allowed driving licences'". BBC News. 26 September 2017. Retrieved 26 September 2017.
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