Saudi Woman Arrested for Challenging Driving Ban

THE GLOBE AND MAIL: Saudi authorities arrested a female activist on Sunday who launched a campaign to challenge a ban on women driving in the conservative kingdom and posted a video on the Internet of her driving, activists said.

The YouTube video, posted on Thursday, has attracted more than 500,000 views and shows Manal Alsharif, who learned to drive in the United States, driving her car in Khobar in the oil-producing Eastern Province.

“Police arrested her at 3 a.m. this morning,” said Maha Taher, another female activist who launched her own campaign for women driving four months ago to spread awareness of the issue.

An Eastern Province police spokesperson declined to comment and an interior ministry spokesperson was not immediately available for comment. » | Reuters | JEDDAH | Sunday, May 22, 2011

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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.

‘Shariah Does Not Bar Women from Driving’
SAUDI GAZETTE: HAIL – Abdullah Al-Mutlaq, a professor of Comparative Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence) and a former judge at Hail court, has called for women to be allowed to drive, saying that there are no objections to it in Shariah and that “customs and traditions in our society must not rule us absolutely.”

Al-Mutlaq, speaking to Okaz newspaper, said that the study he was currently carrying out on the issue was motivated by a wish to tackle problems associated with foreign drivers being responsible for transporting Saudi females.

Al-Mutlaq said the move would serve to “prevent corruption” and noted “many negative observations concerning drivers.”

Al-Mutlaq said women should be allowed to drive, and cited the fact that many already do in rural areas with no resultant problems.

“They have earned respect with their abidance of traffic laws,” he said.

Al-Mutlaq called upon youth to respect women driving and expressed a wish for the issue to be treated as “normal”.

Al-Mutlaq’s comments support those expressed by Islamic thinker and former Minister of Information Dr. Mohammed Abdo Yamani, who told Al-Watan newspaper on Wednesday that women should be allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia.

Yamani appealed in an interview with Al-Watan to “the Grand Mufti, the Board of Senior Ulema’ and the Shoura Council to resolve the issue and relieve Saudi women of this injustice”.

“How can a person stop his wife and daughters driving a car without a Shariah text to support him, and then go and permit them to get in a car with a foreign man?” Yamani asked.

Yamani was quoted by the newspaper as calling for “some adaptation to the requirements of the age, as has happened in other cases.” – Okaz/SG [Source: Saudi Gazette] By Metib Al-Awwad | Friday, June 05, 2009

Saudi Arabia: Driving for Reform – March 16, 2008

Horror of Horrors! Woman Takes to the Wheel in Saudi Arabia! And in Mecca! Just Imagine!
BBC: A woman has been arrested in Mecca in Saudi Arabia for driving a car.

Police gave chase after she was spotted at the wheel of a 4x4 car, the English daily Arab News reported. She was arrested after hitting another car.

Women are prohibited from driving on all public roads in Saudi Arabia, a ban that has triggered several high-profile protests by women's rights activists.

The woman's name and nationality have not been announced.
Only Muslims are permitted in the holy city of Mecca. >>> | Thursday, March 5, 2009

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The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>

Saudi Arabia: Why Women Should Not Be Allowed to Drive

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Saudi Princess Says She Is 'Ready to Drive'
One of the most prominent women in Saudi Arabia has said she is "ready to drive", adding momentum to efforts to reform the country's religious ban on women motorists.

Princess Amira al-Taweel, the wife of the conservative Islamic kingdom's most renowned businessman, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, said she already drives when she travels abroad.

"Certainly I'm ready to drive a car," she said in an interview with al-Watan, a Saudi Arabian daily newspaper. "I have an international driver's licence, and I drive a car in all the countries I travel to."

Her seemingly innocuous comments carry a high political charge in a country where educated women have been pressing quietly for more rights.

Two years ago Princess Lolwah al-Faisal, the daughter of the late King Faisal, spoke in support of women driving at the World Economic Forum in Davos. >>> | Monday, February 8, 2009

THE TELEGRAPH: Saudi Arabia 'May Allow' Cinemas After Three-decade Ban

The chief of Saudi Arabia's powerful religious police has said some movies may be acceptable in the kingdom, despite a three-decade ban on cinemas, local press reported on Sunday.

Sheikh Ibrahim al-Gaith, head of the feared Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, made the concession after last week's breakthrough public showings in Jeddah of the comedy feature "Manahi".

"A movie could possibly be acceptable if it serves good and is suitable under Islam," Sheikh Gaith said.

Gaith pulled back from comments he made two days earlier branding movies "an absolute evil" in the wake of screenings in the Red Sea port city.

"I did not say that we reject all cinema, but I said that we were not consulted during the organisation of these movie showings," he explained.

For more than a week from Dec 9, the Rotana entertainment group, controlled by Saudi tycoon Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, showed "Manahi" to rapturous audiences in Jeddah and nearby Taif.

The screenings, approved by the provincial governor, Prince Khalid al-Faisal, sparked hopes that Saudi Arabia would soon allow public cinemas. >>> | Monday, December 22, 2008

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Two Saudi Scholars Find Nothing Un-Islamic in Allowing Women to Drive
BBC: Two Saudi scholars have said there is nothing in Islamic law to prevent women from driving.

The senior religious figures said the issue depended on the context.

They say women would need to be protected from harassment and that steps would have to be taken to ensure there was no mingling of the sexes.

An opinion poll published by a leading English-language Saudi newspaper suggests that this is a view supported by most Saudi men and women.

The two scholars are Abdel-Mohsin al-Obaikan - one of Saudi Arabia's senior religious figures - and another well-known cleric, Mohsin Awaji.

Both say that, in principle, Islamic law does not prevent women driving.

Everything depends, they say, on the context.

There are road safety issues. Steps need to be taken to prevent harassment of women drivers. Saudi scholars back women drivers >>> By Roger Hardy

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Mark Alexander (Hardback)