#WhenASaudiWomanDrives, online communities speak out

Sep 14
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#WhenASaudiWomanDrives, online communities speak out

The Stream asked its viewers and online community members to finish the sentence what happens #WhenASaudiWomanDrives



While a recent Shura Council decision has opened the door to the possibility of women’s suffrage in Saudi Arabia, women are still prohibited from driving a car. There is no law explicitly banning women from driving, but driver’s licenses are only issued to men.

To protest what they say is an unfair and gender-discriminatory policy, some Saudi women are organising mass right-to-drive protests. Women are defying the ban and getting behind the wheel, sometimes daring police officers to try to arrest them or issue tickets.

Opponents of the law say it not only limits women’s ability to work and seek an education, but it unfairly discriminates against women who cannot afford to hire a private driver.

Police officers have commonly responded by issuing tickets to women for driving unlicensed, but on occasion authorities in the kingdom have arrested some of the drivers, including 32-year-old Manal Al Sharif, who says she was detained for two weeks.

A Facebook campaign called Women2Drive encourages participants to get behind the wheel and connects Saudi-based activists with supporters around the world. In a YouTube campaign to draw attention to the movement, women drivers in other countries were encouraged to “honk for Saudi women.”

The Stream asked its viewers and Twitter followers to tell us what happens #WhenASaudiWomanDrives, and received hundreds of enthusiastic responses. While most responded to the hashtag with messages of support, some were more negative.


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