Al-Sharif Seeks Pardon: Reports
ARAB NEWS: DAMMAM/JEDDAH: Detained motorist Manal Al-Sharif has reportedly written a letter of appeal to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah seeking her release.

The story was being widely discussed on websites and online editions of some Arabic newspapers on Sunday, but there was no official confirmation that she has written to the king. Repeated attempts by Arab News to get in touch with her lawyer, Adnan Al-Saleh, were unsuccessful.

A Jeddah-datelined AFP story quoted the lawyer as saying: “Al-Sharif hopes that the king will order her release and close her file.” Al-Sharif was arrested on May 21 while driving in Alkhobar, a day after she posted footage on the video-sharing website YouTube showing her behind the wheel.

Her father, Masoud Al-Sharif, initially spoke to the media after her arrest but has since declined to speak to any member of the media. “He is very upset at being misquoted and misrepresented in news reports,” a source told Arab News. “The father was particularly upset at the media for publishing baseless reports such as that of her breaking down in the women’s prison in Dammam.”

The other reason for the father not to speak to the media, according to the source, is to avoid unnecessary controversies.

“Some sections of the media have indeed tried to sensationalize the whole story without realizing the adverse impact it has on her case,” the source said.

Al-Sharif's father called on Eastern Province Gov. Prince Muhammad bin Fahd last week and explained his daughter's situation and change of heart.

“She has committed a mistake and has now realized her mistake and has since withdrawn from the so-called June 17 campaign through a social media website that incited women to take the wheel,” he was quoted as saying in the local Arabic media.

Ghazi Al-Shammari, a local official who met Manal Al-Sharif last week, also said that she feels remorseful.

“I made a mistake, and I’m a daughter of this nation. I have nobody but my family and the sons and daughters of my nation. I advise girls of my generation to rally behind our leadership and the Ulema. They know better than us about our condition. I’m confident about what I’m saying after sitting alone and contemplating,” Al-Shammari quoted Al-Sharif as saying in one Arabic newspaper. » | Siraj Wahab & Muhammad Humaidan | ARAB NEWS | Published: Sunday, May 29, 2011; Updated: Monday, May 30, 2011

YouTube Saudi Woman Driver Faces Further 10-day Jail Term
THE GUARDIAN: Manal al-Sharif, the Saudi mother arrested for uploading a video of her driving on YouTube, faces another 10 days in jail

منال الشريف تقود سيارتها في شوارع الخبر - أنباؤكم
A Saudi Arabian woman who posted a video online of her driving her car is facing another 10 days in prison, according to reports from the kingdom.

Manal al-Sharif, a 32-year old mother who drove around the eastern city of Khobar last Saturday, had been expecting to be released on Friday after five days in jail on charges her lawyer described as driving without a licence, provoking other women to do the same and provoking public opinion in Saudi Arabia. It is disputed by lawyers whether it is illegal for women to drive under national law but it is socially and religiously unacceptable in many quarters.

"The investigator needs another 10 days to complete his investigation," said Al-Sharif's lawyer, Adnan Al Salah. "He will decide whether Manal is innocent and has to be released or he will refer her to the prosecution unit, a government organisation and they might refer her to a special prosecutor to deal with the case. I feel the fair and right thing would have been to release her on bail."

The extension of the investigation was interpreted as a show of defiance by the Saudi authorities in the face of growing domestic and international pressure to release Al-Sharif. » | Robert Booth and Mona Mahmoud | Thursday, May 26, 2011

Saudi Woman Driver Freed after Agreeing to Quit Campaign
THE GUARDIAN: Manal al-Sharif, jailed after posting a YouTube video of herself driving, leaves Women2Drive movement

A Saudi Arabian woman who was jailed for driving a car has been released after nine days, having pledged to take no further part in a campaign to persuade the Saudi authorities to allow women to drive.

Manal al-Sharif, 32, was freed from the women's prison in Dammam on Monday. She was arrested after posting a video of herself driving around the eastern city of Khobar as part of the Women2Drive campaign of which she was a key organiser.

Her case attracted international attention after her lawyer said she had been charged with driving without a licence, prompting other women to do the same and provoking public debate in Saudi Arabia. Two other women associated with the campaign were also questioned by police and warned off further campaigning. One Muslim cleric even called for Sharif to be lashed.

"She wrote a pledge that she will not drive a car and after what has happened she has decided to give up the campaign and not be part of the protests," said Sharif's lawyer, Adnan al-Salah.

He said the authorities had not imposed the conditions, but Sharif had decided to make the pledge herself.

The climax of the Women2Drive campaign, a mass drive on 17 June partly inspired by demonstrations against restrictions on civil liberties across the Middle East, now appears to be in doubt.

On Tuesday, Sharif expressed "profound gratitude" to King Abdullah for ordering her release and appeared to abandon her call for women to be allowed to drive, according to a written statement published by the al-Hayat newspaper. » | Robert Booth | Tuesday, May 31, 2011


Saudi Arabia’s ‘Women2Drive’ Movement Reacts to Arrest »

FACEBOOK: Women2Drive »

TWITTER: @Women2Drive »

Related »

A Drive for Freedom in Saudi Arabia

THE GUARDIAN – WOMEN’S BLOG – JANE MARTINSON: Manal al-Sharif's drive for women's rights faces a daunting barrier in Saudi Arabia

Manal al-Sharif is expected to spend the rest of this week in prison. Her crime? Driving a car in Saudi Arabia.

The arrest on Sunday puts a new and gloomy perspective on all that euphoria surrounding revolutions in the Middle East, doesn't it? Women may have taken to the streets from Egypt to Libya, Tunisia to Yemen, but in the richest and most powerful Arab state, their rights are frankly non-existent.

So great are their demands that some campaigners have criticised Sharif for diverting attention away from what really matters. Does it matter that women aren't allowed to drive if they can neither vote nor live independently in a country where men have automatic legal guardianship? The 32-year-old Sharif and other campaigners argue that without being able to drive women are entirely physically dependent on their male relatives. The issue is also a financial one – campaigners argue that women and their families need about $350 a month to hire one of the estimated 800,000 foreign drivers in the kingdom.

Sharif's stunt – she posted a YouTube clip of her driving a car which can still be seen here on al-Jazeera – was designed to garner support for a national protest on 16 June, when she hopes thousands of women will take on the authorities. Read on and comment » | Jane Martinson |Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Saudische Frauen wollen Auto fahren
Debatte im Internet, in sozialen Netzwerken und in etablierten Medien
NZZ am SONNTAG: Ein neues Selbstbewusstsein hat die saudischen Frauen erfasst. Sie wollen sich das Recht auf Autofahren erkämpfen. Das erzürnt die Konservativen.

Das neue Selbstbewusstsein arabischer Bürger hat auch die saudischen Frauen erreicht. Sie fordern die konservativen Kleriker in einem neuen Ausmass heraus und finden auch zunehmend Unterstützung ihrer männlichen Landsleute. Die jüngste Debatte im Internet, in den sozialen Netzwerken und in etablierten saudischen Medien löste die Aktivistin Manal al-Sharif aus. Sie fuhr verbotenerweise Auto in der Stadt al-Chubar und liess sich dabei auch von einer Freundin filmen. Dann veröffentlichte sie ihre Aktion auf dem Internetportal Wikipedia, mit der Aufforderung an alle saudischen Frauen, ihrem Beispiel zu folgen. In mehreren Fällen hatte die saudische Justiz in den vergangenen Jahren es einfach ignoriert, wenn sich Frauen ans Steuer gesetzt hatten. Al-Sharifs öffentlichen Aufruf empfanden die Behörden aber offenbar als nicht mehr hinnehmbar. Am vergangenen Wochenende wurde sie verhaftet. Al-Sharif besitzt laut ihrem Anwalt einen ausländischen Führerschein. Die Justiz begründet ihre Festnahme dennoch damit, dass sie ohne Führerschein gefahren sei, andere Frauen angestiftet habe, dasselbe zu tun, und die öffentliche Ordnung gestört habe. » | Max Borowski, Jerusalem | Sonntag, 29. Mai 2011

Women Driven to Confusion in Saudi Arabia

THE GUARDIAN: The current situation of gender discrimination against who can and cannot drive is unsustainable

On 11 March, when Saudi protesters' "day of rage" did not materialise, Fouad al-Farhan, a human rights activist, tweeted:

"My fear is that the ceiling of our reformist demands will be lowered to women driving for some and combating westernisation for others."

Two months later, his fears became a reality. A campaign to allow women to drive in Saudi Arabia was started on Facebook. Currently this issue has overtaken all others online, in the press and on the ground.

The movement particularly caught fire when a face for it emerged. A Saudi woman, Manal al-Sharif, came forward and posted a Youtube video advising how to go about the campaign. The plan was that starting from 17 June, Saudi women with international driving licences would begin driving their own cars rather than letting a male driver do it for them.

So far approximately 45 women have driven cars all across the kingdom in connection with the campaign and many of them have posted videos of their excursions online.

That there are women in Saudi who are distressed at the ban on their driving is well known. On the other hand the religious establishment has also been staunch in its demand to maintain the ban. Some of them have even gone so far as to call the campaign western-backed "female terrorism" and "soft terrorism". Others claimed that the campaign to allow women to drive is an Iranian/Shia conspiracy to destabilise the country. » | Eman Al Nafjan | Saturday, June 18, 2011

Arabie Saoudite : tollé mondial autour de Lama, petite fille martyre

lePARISIEN.fr: Décédée après 10 mois de soins intensifs, le 22 octobre à l'âge de 5 ans, Lama a été violée, torturée et brûlée par son père, un célèbre prédicateur musulman de la télévision saoudienne. Libéré après seulement quatre mois de prison, Fayhan al Ghamdi a été absout d'une simple amende de 200 000 rials (environ 40 000 euros). Mais il aurait payé le double si son enfant avait été un garçon. La libération du «monstre» a provoqué la colère des activistes du Women to Drive, un groupe de militantes saoudiennes qui dénoncent la condition misérable des femmes, dans ce pays où règne la charria. Par ailleurs, une vague de protestation mondiale s'est emparée des réseaux sociaux. Une pétition demandant de rompre toutes relations avec l’Arabie saoudite est même apparue sur le site de la Maison Blanche.

En amont le scandale a explosé sur Twitter, par l'intermédiaire d'une militante Manal al-Sharif, déjà porte-drapeau du combat pour le droit des Saoudiennes à conduire en 2011. Elle a lancé la mobilisation #AnaLama (Je suis Lama) sur les réseaux sociaux arabophones et alerté tous les médias occidentaux par communiqué de presse, avec deux autres bloggeuses. » | Delphine Perez | mercredi 06 février 2013

Saudi Woman Campaigns for Right to Drive
And a Saudi woman is held after mounting an internet campaign to get more females driving

A woman has been detained in Saudi Arabia for defying the ban on driving.

The kingdom is the only country in the world where women are discouraged from getting behind the wheel.

Manal al Sharif is part of an online campaign group determined to get women in the driving seat more.

Al Jazeera's Anu Nathan reports.

Growing Female Saudi Middle-Class Women Pushing for More Reform
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: What tells us more about Saudi Arabia – the knowledge that it remains the only country in the world where women are banned from driving, or that an increasing number of women are prepared to take the risk of openly flouting the rule?

Manal al-Sharif, 32, was arrested at the weekend after posting a dramatic YouTube video – mundane anywhere else – of herself at the wheel in her home city of Khobar. But then her weekday life as a computer security consultant hardly squares with the popular image of the repressed Saudi woman either.

Much has been written about the Arab Spring this year, and Saudi Arabia has become its leading opponent. It offered asylum to President Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali of Tunisia, backed President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt to the hilt, and sent troops to crush protests in neighbouring Bahrain.

But in its own way it started the whole process off. Since King Abdullah, the current monarch, came to the throne in 2005 he has eased restrictions on freedom of speech and particularly on women, encouraging them to study and work.

He opened Saudi Arabia's first mixed sex university, and even appointed a woman minister.

In return a small but growing band of middle-class professional women have both expressed gratitude and used the opportunity to press for further reforms, big and small. » | Richard Spencer, Middle East Correspondent | Monday, May 23, 2011

Related links here, here, and here

Manal Al-Sharif on Saudi Women-Channel 2
The interview aired in February 2008. The host is Mohammad Khalil from Jordan


Please note that the sound quality in these videos is poor.

Five Saudi Women Arrested for Driving

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Five Saudi women have been arrested in the first government response to an organised campaign by women to drive in defiance of long-standing rules in the country.

Campaigners said that four women were arrested by religious police in a single car being driven by one of them in the Red Sea city of Jeddah on Tuesday morning.

Later in the day, four regular police cars also in Jeddah surrounded a vehicle being driven by another woman, in which a man, either her husband or brother, was riding as a passenger. Both were arrested and taken into custody.

On Wednesday night, the authorities had released no news about the arrests or said what would happen to the women. Manal al-Sharif, the computer security expert whose arrest for driving triggered the campaign last month, spent several days in custody before being released after signing a pledge not to repeat the offence.

The dispute about women driving has become symbolic for the demands of many women, particularly in the professional classes, for less restrictive rules on their public lives.

Two Fridays ago, a group of women launched a Facebook campaign for a lifting of the ban on women driving by taking to the wheel. Those who took part all have international licences. » | Richard Spencer, Middle East Correspondent | Wednesday, June 29, 2011