JEDDAH: Police have ruled out any criminal involvement in the death of a 21-year-old Saudi woman who died when the car she was driving overturned at high speed in Riyadh on Saturday night.
Maj. Sami Al-Showeyrikh, spokesman for Riyadh police, said the accident was caused by reckless driving. “The accident took place around 12:30 a.m. The woman died on the way to King Abdul Aziz Medical City,” he told Arab News.
He also denied rumors that police had detained a man for causing the crash by harassing the woman. “That is not true; no one has been arrested or accused of causing the accident,” he said.
Al-Showeyrikh said it was unclear whether the woman was a student and why she was driving the car, which belonged to her brother. “The accident is rather simple and does not deserve further investigation... All regular procedures and checks have been carried out,” he said.
Al-Showeyrikh said that the woman was formally identified by her family and that her body was handed over for burial. The 21-year-old took the car, a Nissan Maxima, without permission and was driving at a high speed when it overturned, he said.
Zuhair Al-Harithy, spokesman for the government-run Human Rights Commission (HRC), said the organization has no information about the death other than what has been published in the press. “If anyone has anything to say about the case, then our doors are open, but we are not going to follow up on the case on the basis of assumptions,” he said.
Although Bedouin women drive in rural parts of Saudi Arabia, women generally are prohibited from driving in the Kingdom’s cities and towns. In 1990, 47 Saudi women were briefly detained in Riyadh for driving in a show of support for the right to drive. The Interior Ministry announced at the time that “all women are prohibited from driving in the Kingdom and anyone violating the law would be penalized.”
On the Saudi National Day last year, more than 1,100 women petitioned to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah asking him to allow women to drive.
Government officials say that the decision to lift the driving ban must come from society when it is ready.
Women are prohibited from driving in the Kingdom due to a strict interpretation of a law requiring women to be with their legal guardians (mahram) when in public. A religious edict was issued to this effect in 1991 by the late Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz ibn Baz.
---Arab News
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