Saudi Women Lobby to Drive
Challenging their culture's conservative gender laws, a group of Saudi Arabian women from the Committee of Demanders of Women's Right to Drive Cars is preparing to petition King Abdullah to allow women to, well, drive cars.
Challenging their culture’s conservative gender laws, a group of Saudi Arabian women from the Committee of Demanders of Women’s Right to Drive Cars is preparing to petition King Abdullah to allow women to, well, drive cars.
Rock Solid JournalismBBC:
The current driving ban applies to all women in Saudi Arabia, whatever their nationality.
It was originally unofficial, but became law after an incident in 1990, when 47 women challenged the authorities by taking their families’ cars out for a drive.
After strong criticism from the Saudi religious authorities, the women were jailed for one day, their passports confiscated and many lost their jobs.
A founding member of the Committee of Demanders of Women’s Right to Drive Cars, Fawzia al-Oyouni, said its electronic petition would highlight what many Saudi men and women consider a “stolen right”.
In 2026, amid chaos and the nonstop flurry of headlines, Truthdig remains independent, fact-based and focused on exposing what power tries to hide.
Support Independent Journalism.
I was curious how you could be king of a country that beheads people, doesn’t let women drive and regularly flogs people and be remembered as a “reformer” when you die.
U.S. ally and oil-rich Middle East monarchy Saudi Arabia has responded to domestic dissent by slapping a ban on public demonstrations.
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah marked the first day of Hajj by pardoning the so-called Qatif girl, who was sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in prison because she was traveling with a man when she was attacked and gang-raped. The Saudi justice minister said that, despite the pardon, the king was "convinced and sure that the verdicts were fair."
One of Bush's biggest buddies in the Mideast, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, described the Iraq war as an "illegitimate foreign occupation" while pleading for Arab unity. His remarks came during a summit of the Arab League, which plans to approach Israel with a renewed diplomatic effort.
You need to be a supporter to comment.
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.