Saudi Arabia has issued its first batch of licenses to women drivers, a few weeks ahead of the official lift of its long-standing ban. It’s a significant step for the kingdom, though there are still questions left unanswered, like: Why are some of the advocates responsible for the ban’s vanquishing still in jail?
After years of international attention, Saudi Arabia has reversed its longstanding prohibition on women driving.
Despite the recent large investment Saudi Arabia made in the ride-share company Uber—an investment pegged at roughly $3.5 billion—it looks like a number of women are not optimistic about the service granting them a sense of agency in a country where they are forbidden to drive by law.
On Thursday, two Saudi women who were arrested earlier this month for defying the country's driving ban were referred to a court that specializes in terrorism cases, not for the driving itself, but for speaking out against the driving ban on social media.
Early this morning, the Associated Press reported that the Shura Council, the advisory body to the king Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, recommended easing the driving restrictions placed on women in the country, which is some pretty great news.
Two more women activists were arrested for driving in Saudi Arabia last Friday despite claims that Saudi authorities are reassessing the ban.
A Kuwaiti woman arrested in al-Khafji, a small Saudi town close to the border of Kuwait, is still in custody "pending investigations" after illegally operating a motor vehicle. Her father, suffering from diabetes, could not drive and had to be taken to the hospital for urgent treatment.
Activists in Saudi Arabia have planned an organized action this coming Saturday to protest the ban on female driving, and the government is NOT PUMPED. "It is known that women in Saudi are banned from driving and laws will be applied against violators and those who demonstrate in support," said an interior ministry…
Last month, Saudi official Sheikh Saleh al-Lohaidan attempted to justify his country's dumb ban on women driving cars by claiming car driving can result in tErRiBlE ladyproblems like, I don't know, turning your uterus into a basketball and your fallopian tubes into sparklers. Doesn't matter. It was silly, silly stuff…
Ahead of yet another campaign urging women to defy Saudi Arabia’s dude-only driving rules in a protest drive on October 26, a conservative Saudi cleric has used his thoroughly medieval understanding of human organs to argue that women who drive cars risk damaging their ovaries and giving birth to children with…
Saudi Arabian former computer security consultant Manal al-Sharif, arguably the most public face of those who oppose the Saudi female driving ban, got behind the wheel of a car in May of 2011 when she realized that nobody was taking action against the ban. al-Sharif's friend filmed that drive with an iPhone, put it on…
This weekend, two people were in a car accident. One was hurt, one was killed. If this had happened in the US, it would be tragic, but it likely wouldn't be news. This incident, however, happened in Saudi Arabia, and the two involved were women.
A Saudi Arabian cleric has warned his fellow countrymen against lifting the country's ban on allowing women to drive, asserting that letting ladies take the wheel will lead to a complete extinction of virgins within 10 years. Because everyone knows that ladies will only use their newfound freedom to cars to drive…
Fairy tales teach us that part of being a princess means having your dreams come true. Getting what you want. Princess Ameerah al-Taweel is gorgeous, rich, and owns a pet zebra. But her true desire? To be able to drive in her homeland of Saudi Arabia — and for other women to be able to drive as well.