Saudi Arabia: Woman who dares to fight for her fair share in Saudi

By Caryle Murphy, Foreign Correspondent

Wajeha al Huwaider has openly challenged the underpinning of women’s legal status in Saudi Arabia. Mido Ahmad / AFP

RIYADH // She wears pink and green head scarves. She calls Saudi Arabia a “prison” for women. She writes, and talks, and protests. But nothing changes.

Wajeha al Huwaider has fans among western diplomats and international human rights monitors. But in her own country, the place she cares about most, this Saudi women’s rights activist is almost invisible, largely because of reservations, even among reformers, about her tactics.

For several years, Ms al Huwaider has been campaigning for greater personal freedom for Saudi women and an end to the kingdom’s “guardianship” system, which gives men virtually total control over women’s lives.

“If Saudi Arabia wants to be part of this world they … cannot continue paralysing half of society and discriminating against them and treating them like, you know, a third-class citizen,” Ms al Huwaider recently told the BBC.

Known for her blunt language in media interviews, she also favours high-profile tactics to promote her cause. In 2006, she walked along the Bahrain-Saudi causeway holding up a sign that said “Give Women Their Rights”.

To mark International Women’s Day in 2008, she protested against the ban on female drivers with a video of herself on YouTube driving a vehicle. And in June, she sought to leave Saudi Arabia without written permission from her male “guardian” three times – but was turned back by border guards.

During a recent visit to Washington, Ms al Huwaider, 48, stood outside a subway station with a sign saying “Saudi Women Need Your Support”.

The divorced mother of two, who works as an educational analyst at Aramco, the Saudi oil company, defends her approach, arguing that other tactics are ineffective.

“We tried to ask for our rights quietly, nicely. We wrote articles, we sent petitions. We haven’t heard anything from the authorities,” she told The National. “So I thought that if we can do it more in a bold way, then maybe they will hear us. And still we don’t get any response. But at least the rest of the world will hear us.

“Can you imagine that for 30 years we are asking for our right to drive cars?” she said.

A good number of Saudis – both men and women – agree with Ms al Huwaider and say they admire her courage and perseverance. But they do not openly join her campaign, they say, because they find her language too harsh and her tactics counterproductive.

“Her determination is admirable,” said Reem Asaad, a college lecturer in Jeddah who led a mostly online campaign to get female sales clerks in lingerie shops. “But I still don’t think she’s approached her Saudi audience in a way that is doable.

“She is demanding steps beyond what most women can do, like go to the airport [and try to travel without a guardian’s permission]. We all know the results and what the consequences are going to be; they will be sent back home.”

Many Saudis dislike Ms al Huwaider “because they believe she is out to air Saudi Arabia’s dirty laundry in front of the world”, Eman al Nafjan, an educator, wrote at the Saudi woman blog. “When I asked a group of my mother’s generation about her, they called her subversive, disobedient, and disloyal to her religion, family and country. They also felt bad for Huwaider’s parents.”

Ms al Nafjan added that when she told a group of women her own age who Ms al Huwaider was, “they shrugged their shoulders. I guess they are more aware of whatever they are currently showing on MBC 4”.

Ms al Nafjan herself believes that Ms al Huwaider should “be respected for her sacrifices”, she wrote on her blog, but concedes that the activist “most likely … won’t be appreciated and celebrated until my daughter’s generation”.

Many Saudi women argue that in a very conservative society, which places high value on privacy, discretion and behind-doors diplomacy, the preferred way to effect change is quiet, grass-roots activities.

There is no organised women’s “movement” in the kingdom, but many locally orientated groups are working to improve conditions for women. They offer such services as job training, financial assistance, computer literacy and business courses. Women also run a national programme for raising awareness about breast cancer.

In addition, women are becoming increasingly vocal about ending domestic violence, getting fairer treatment in divorce and setting a minimum marriage age. While none of these campaigns so far has resulted in legal reforms, many women say they see improvements, adding that change comes slowly to Saudi Arabia.

Ms al Huwaider, however, is in a hurry. And unlike her peers, she is openly challenging the underpinning of women’s legal status, which is the “guardianship” system. Under this regime, women must have permission from male guardians to travel, get an education, take a job, open a bank account and, in some instances, receive medical care.

The system is not a burden for women if their guardian – father, husband, brother or uncle – is kind and reasonable. But when he is not, a woman can be confined to her home, forbidden to work, travel or socialise with friends.

The Saudi government has chipped away at the system’s edges in recent years. For example, it no longer requires businesswomen with some types of companies to hire a male agent to deal with the government. It also has ruled that unaccompanied women may stay in hotels and furnished apartments.

Ms al Huwaider, however, finds the entire system unacceptable. It turns “women into prisoners from the day they are born until the day they die. They cannot leave their cells, namely their homes, or the larger prison, namely the state, without signed permission,” she once wrote at a liberal Arabic website, according to a translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute (Memri).

In the BBC interview, Ms al Huwaider said she began to see the restrictions on Saudi women differently when she was a student in the United States. “I realised … I can do things my government doesn’t allow me to do … and I should get my rights.”

When she returned to the kingdom, she said, “I saw how women are complaining all the time of certain laws and how they are suffering with their husbands or their fathers … [but] they just keep complaining between each other. I said … this will get us nowhere just talking to ourselves. So I decided to start writing.”

In 2003, she said, the Saudi press was told not to carry her columns. Security officials have twice warned her to stop public protests, and she told a Saudi interviewer in 2007 that she gets hate mail wishing she would contract a deadly disease or have a hand cut off.

Ms al Huwaider has paid a personal price for her campaigning. After it made her husband uncomfortable, the couple divorced. “Otherwise we had a very wonderful, good life together,” she told the BBC interviewer. ”I still consider him a very good friend.”

Ms al Huwaider’s latest scheme is to ask Saudi women to wear a black ribbon as a sign that “we’re not happy, we’re not satisfied [and] we deserve to be treated kindly”.

Unlike a public protest, she explained in an interview, “I thought this is very simple. To put something on their arm is not going to cause them much trouble.” She is also appealing to women in other countries to wear a ribbon “to show their support”.

With all her frustrations in Saudi Arabia, has she considered living elsewhere?

“It’s my country [and even] with all this darkness, I love it,” Ms al Huwaider said.

“I have something to give. I haven’t given up … Maybe I’ll leave when I reach that point. [But] I don’t want to reach it either.”

Saudi Arabia: Saudi applauds women appointments to council

Saudi leaders have commended the appointment of six women to the Shura Council, which oversees the implementation of Islamic laws and values, and are calling for women to be allowed to drive in the conservative Muslim country.

Women are needed to decide various issues, especially concerning families, said Sheikh Azeb bin Saeed Aal Mesbil, head of the Islamic affairs and judiciary committee at the Shura Council, daily Saudi Gazette reported on Thursday.

"It should be borne in mind that the life of our society has changed and so we at the council need to seek the opinions of experts, be they men or women. We need to listen to women on social and family issues," Aal Mesbil said.

Saudi Arabia regularly comes under fire globally for its strict values based on an austere form of Sunni Islam, which does not allow unmarried men and women to mix

Some senior clerics have recently called for women to be banned from the media and other forms of art. There is also a ban on women drivers.

But a leading Islamic thinker and former government minister has said women drivers are a necessity.

"What is best?" Mohammed Abdo Yamani questioned in a recent interview. "That we let women drive cars in safety or that we sit them next to male foreign drivers who might harm them?"

Another leader told a Saudi newspaper: "Driving has become a necessity for Saudi women. It is their right to drive - at least in cities and safe areas."

Maktoob Business

Saudi Arabia: Saudis Debate Ban on Women Drivers

The New York Times
By Robert Mackey

Updated | May 8 A young Saudi woman has launched an online campaign using YouTube, Facebook and Flickr to get Saudis to discuss, and possibly reconsider, the ban on women drivers in the Kingdom.

As an article published last month in the English-language Saudi newspaper Arab News explained, the project, called “We the Women,” was started by Areej Khan, a 24-year-old Saudi woman currently studying design in the United States. According to Arab News, she started thinking about how onerous the ban was when she saw that her retired father was forced to spend much of his time “chauffeuring her, her mother and three sisters.”

The core of the campaign is a set of stickers, in the form of speech bubbles and bumper stickers, which Saudi men and women are encouraged to download from Flickr, fill in with their thoughts, and then display. Some people are also taking pictures of what they write on their stickers and then adding those photographs to the project’s Flickr set of “Declarations.”

Printed at the foot of each sticker is the simple message: “To drive, or not to drive, that is the question.”

As the project description on Flickr explains, Ms. Khan wants to hear other voices, not just amplify her own:

We the Women is a campaign that aims to raise the issue of women driving in Saudi Arabia and to start a real, public conversation. The We the Women declaration bubbles and bumper stickers were created as a space for self expression. Feel free to fill it out with your opinion on the issue and stick it wherever you feel it needs to be.


An image posted on the We the Women “Declarations” set on Flickr.
The images of the speech bubbles posted on Flickr so far have already sparked debate. Here is part of an exchange Ms. Khan had in the comments thread beneath a speech bubble that said, simply, “I don’t like the backseat!” with two other Flickr users, calling themselves Mac Moo and Mr. Nice 2009 (web punctuation intact):

Mac Moo says:

lol….my dear….u are goood at writing,,,but its for your own safety… women must not left alone…in islam…and thats for good of both man and women…. you know how exactly west world is…..i think the government is doing it rite.

N7nu - We the Women says:

just to clarify…This is a user submission. I did not write this. Secondly, do you think that if women were allowed to drive we would be westernized as a society? How come women in the time of the prophet were allowed to ride camels. Isn’t that the same thing?

Mr. Nice 2009 says:

how pleasure it’s to be drived. the roads in the kingdom need fast driving and braveness. if u got some1 to do for u the driving, u should be proud of. i am against that if woman drive there is alot of dangers, but my confidence in saudi women is high. not driving does not mean u r denied right, but means u r well cared of. Thank ur creator for that.

Other speech bubbles posted on Flickr include: “God did not say I can’t drive” and “I saved 1500 SR by driving myself around Saudi.”

In addition to the back and forth on Flickr, the campaign’s Facebook page has 1,100 fans, who are engaged in an active debate of whether the ban should be lifted, and comments have appeared on the promotional video for the campaign posted on YouTube (the version embedded above is in English, other are in Arabic). The video was shot in Oregon, but Ms. Khan told Arab News “I had to make look like it was in Saudi.”

According to Arab News, there is apparently wide support in Saudi Arabia for ending the ban: “Although there are no specific statistics on the number of people who are for or against women driving, most women believe it is their God-given right to drive.”

Saudi Arabia: Could the ban on women drivers be lifted?

Saleswomen check under the hood of a car at a showroom where women sell cars to women, even though they cannot drive them. AP

Hamida Ghafour

It was a tragic accident, but one that seemed no different from thousands of others that happen every day in cities across the world: a woman, 21, was driving so fast late at night that her Nissan Maxima turned over and she died on the way to hospital.

Police blamed the accident, on July 5, on reckless driving.

The difference was this happened in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where women are banned from driving.

The death of the woman, whose name has not been released, has caused a stir in the kingdom, with radio shows, blogs and newspaper pundits discussing her story.

Her father reportedly said his daughter got what she deserved.

The buzz was partly attributed to an incident three weeks ago, when another woman in her 20s drove her family’s car in Jeddah’s Aziziah district and was arrested by police.

She was taken to the police station and released after her parents posted bail.

Indeed, over the past three months there has been a spate of reports about women defiantly getting behind the wheel and incurring the wrath of the mutaween, the religious police whose job it is to regulate morality on the streets of the kingdom.

The women seem to be testing the political climate, which some activists say is one that hints Saudi women may finally enjoy the same right given to females in every country in the world but theirs.

“This year, you heard about many ladies driving,” says Dima al Hajri, 33, a member of the Society for Defending Women’s Rights in Saudi Arabia. “It is a good step; I can’t believe it.

“I worked for an insurance company and quit last month, but they told me when they had meetings with officials they were told women will be allowed [to drive] this year. So we are waiting.”

Yet another indication came at a press conference on July 13, when the director general of the Saudi traffic department announced that new laws to curb dangerous driving were not gender specific. Previously, the rules referred to men, but now “the new law speaks only about the driver of the vehicle and there is no specification of either man or woman”, he told reporters.

Social change in Saudi Arabia is famously slow and the laws are sometimes so ambiguous that in many areas relating to the strict segregation of the sexes and guardianship of men over women, there are actually no written legal provisions. While women are forbidden to drive, for instance, they are allowed to buy cars.

And when change arrives, it is usually done after a series of seemingly inconsequential developments, statements or tests of public opinion that Saudis must decipher and relate to the bigger picture. Some television programmes have featured women driving cars – unheard of a decade ago – while the newspapers debate the merits and drawbacks of female drivers.

Nissan Middle East, no doubt keen to get a slice of the lucrative market if it opens, released a survey earlier this year that stated Saudi women preferred black sports utility vehicles, replacing pink as their favourite car colour. One Saudi princess, in particular, is well known for her pink Hummer studded with faux diamonds.

Then there is the email in circulation, which is supposedly a government plan that gives details of times women are allowed to drive and in which cities. It is being forwarded and read eagerly by thousands of people but no one knows if it is a forgery or a real official document.

Ms Hajri says the rumours and contradictions in the law are confusing and no one in the government tries to clarify them.

“Sometimes, I can’t understand what they want from us women. You are between the sky and the earth,” she says.

Still, the issue of women being able to drive appears to be a question of when, not if.

“I think we will drive by the end of the year,” says Wajeha al Huwaider, 46, who caused a sensation in March when she posted a video of herself on YouTube driving around her company’s compound.

“The head of the traffic department is the highest person who said this kind of thing. Before, they [the government] allowed people to discuss in the newspapers and that was it. Now they are connecting the dots and heading towards a decision. We sent two petitions to the king and Prince Naif, the interior minister. One was in September last year and one at the beginning of this year. We had 3,000 signatures in total and took them by going to the malls and cafes. We got men and women, but 80 per cent were women. We haven’t heard anything from the government, but they haven’t said to stop either so it gives us hope to continue.”

Women caught driving are taken to the police station with their male guardians who usually sign a paper promising she will not do it again, Ms Hajri says.

To some, that may be considered degrading, but it is a marked contrast to 1990, when 47 women gathered in a supermarket car park in Riyadh, dismissed their chauffeurs and drove through the city on the eve of the first Gulf War – when hundreds of foreign journalists were in Saudi Arabia.

The women were arrested, most lost their jobs and all had their names and telephone numbers published and distributed in pamphlets under the heading “communists” or “harlots”. They received death threats.

One of those women is watching a new generation take up the cause while she cheers quietly from the sidelines.

“Yes, it’s a brave act although tragic for the young woman who died,” says the woman, 54, who lives in Riyadh but does not want to be named because she had to sign a paper stating she would never speak to the press about her experience.

“But if the intention of the girls driving around is to change, it won’t work,” she says. “Sometimes an individual can change things, but not here. I think it is about preparing society for the concept, ‘Let’s talk about it, let’s discuss it’. The pressure is mounting. When will it happen? I don’t know. But I think the government is preparing people.

“I don’t regret what I did. Absolutely not. At that moment, it was important because the government kept saying women were not ready for change and that was just not the case. It’s not like we thought our driving would change the law, but it would show that we were not happy and there were many issues that needed to be addressed.”

Instead, there was a strong backlash from the powerful religious establishment, which issued a fatwa in 1991 that made driving a punishable offence. Previously, there was only an informal ban.

The late Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah bin Baz, chairman of the council of senior religious scholars, stated at the time that there was “no doubt” women were not allowed to drive because “women driving lead to many evils and negative consequences”.

The view was that the royal family placated religious conservatives as a way to gain concessions on the more pressing issue of allowing American soldiers on Muslim soil on the eve of the first Gulf War.

However, this February, Sheikh Abdul Mohsen al Okaikan, a member of the council of senior religious scholars, said “in principle, women driving is permitted in Islam”. He insisted the ban was related to the issue of men’s behaviour and road safety and if those were resolved, there were no religious grounds for preventing women from driving.

There is no appetite for another public protest to force the issue, says Rasha al Dabaan, a dentist who is studying to become a lecturer at King Saud University.

“We wouldn’t take that approach now, you learn from others,” she says. “It’s about working from within. Riding my car with 50 women won’t change anything. Our names will be out there and we will be harassed. But we’re out there, society is changing. Women need to work these days. It’s difficult for society to accept because it’s very rigid and afraid of change especially relating to women. Women used to work as teachers only. Even in a hospital it was a big thing to work there because it was a mixed environment. It was like, ‘My God, this lady is doing something bad. She has less virtue’. But now you see women in all areas of work.”

Many observers say the new climate is largely due to King Abdullah, who came to the throne in 2005 following the death of his half brother Fahd and has since gained a reputation as a reformer. After being crowned, he declared in a television interview, “I believe the day will come when women drive” in Saudi Arabia. This week, the king convened an unprecedented interfaith conference in Madrid between the three Abrahimic faiths, as well as Sikhs, Buddhists and Hindus.

Many women say the law will not be changed on the grounds of gender equality but economic necessity because a lot of families cannot afford to have a driver and public transportation does not exist.

“Society is not what it used to be,” says Ms Dabaan. “There are also so many single women out there and the number of divorced women have increased. It does not make sense to depend on a man. I live with my family, but a lot of women can’t afford that, a driver, and they take a taxi and that is a risk.”

A problem that needs to be addressed before women are allowed to get behind the wheel is the dangerous state of Saudi roads, which are overrun with arrogant teenagers in fast sport cars.

The new laws announced last week received a lot of attention because drivers may now be sent to jail for reckless behaviour. A new point-based system has also been set up where, after losing 96 points, the driver loses his licence and is required to enrol in driving school. The measures have been taken to discourage young Saudi men from speeding for kicks.

“Driving is high risk, even if it was allowed,” says Ms Dabaan. “They have to have really strict rules.”

A recent survey in Arab News, a Saudi-based newspaper, asked 400 Saudi and non-Saudi women where they stood on the issue and 282 said they would drive on their own without a male driver. However, 296 said they would want to see better enforcement of traffic laws before they felt safe enough to drive.

Alanoud Badr, 28, founder of Fozaza, an online boutique based in Dubai, grew up in Riyadh and says the social atmosphere needs to be changed because men are not used to the sight of women in public.

“Can you imagine a girl driving? She will be followed home by seven guys. Guys follow a girl home even if she is in a car with her family. If you allow them to drive, you need to change the whole social atmosphere.”

---The National

Saudi Arabia: New Saudi traffic law does not prevent women from driving says top official

By Mariam Al Hakeem, Correspondent

Riyadh: There is no provision in the new traffic law, which came into force on Monday, that prevents women from driving vehicles, said Major General Fahd Al Bishr, Director General of Saudi Traffic Department.

"The new law speaks only about the vehicle driver and there is no mention of either man or woman. Concerning women driving, we are not bothered about it," he said.

Addressing a press conference at the traffic department headquarters on the eve of enforcing the new traffic law, which replaces Saudi Arabia’s 40-year old traffic law, he said allowing women to drive or not has nothing to do with the Traffic Department. "It is purely an issue concerned with the legislative authorities," he said.

If Saudi Arabia officially lifts the ban on women driving, it could be years before the full impact is seen. Practical hurdles stopping women obtaining licences and insurance must be overcome.

---Gulf news

Saudi Arabia: Saudi women close to securing right to drive

Saudi women close to securing right to drive
By Rob Corder



The ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia may soon be lifted according to a senior government official.

Saleh al-Turki, the chairman of the Saudi Chambers of Commerce, told a BBC documentary maker that women were playing a more and more active role in the Kingdom and it is only a matter of time before they are allowed to drive.
He said that increasing numbers of women entering the workforce will act as a catalyst to other changes. Only one in 20 women currently work, according to the BBC report.

"Once the rest of the society realises that allowing women going to work is not a challenge to anybody, it is to the benefit of society, to the benefit of the family, driving will not become a problem in my opinion," said Mr Turki.

There has been an increase in the number of reports of women flouting the Saudi Arabian driving ban in the past year.

Last Septmeber, a group called The Society for Protecting and Defending Women's Rights presented a petition to government demanding that "the right of women to drive is given back to us."

The petition text continued: "It's a right that was enjoyed by our mothers and grandmothers in complete freedom to [utilise] the means of transportation in those times."

---ArabianBusiness.com

Saudi Arabia: Young Saudi woman drives to death

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

Saudi Arabia: The Women Who Dared to Drive

Saudi Arabia: The Women Who Dared to Drive

I’ve posted previously about the Saudi women who dared to drive on the streets of Riyadh in 1991. I have since come to know a few of these women and their families. They were kind enough to share some of the experiences which followed after their act. To begin with, not only were all the women rounded up and arrested after this attempt, but any men in the vicinity watching the women on the streets were also rounded up, arrested and questioned. The male family members of these women were arrested with most having to spend hours in the jail.

The women and their male family member(s) were questioned separately on the impetus why they chose to drove. Of course interrogators wanted full information on these women, their positions, their family and what positions the male family members held.

All of the women who took to the streets were professional women from good established and well-known families. The women also agreed among themselves that when they chose to drive they would all wear the hijjab and niqab. One woman wanted to forego and drive with her head uncovered and she was overruled.

The passports of the women and for those who were married, the passports of their husbands, were confiscated. The women were also prohibited from resuming their jobs or in the case of one woman, prohibited from returning to her studies. In most cases, this was enforced for a two year period. The women could not work, did not receive any pay or benefits. The woman who was a student was prohibited from coming to her university classes. Although an exception was made that she was eventually only allowed to come to the University in order to take exams but she could not participate in classes at all.

The men related to the women were placed under great pressure and observation. They were routinely called and directed to come to the Interior Ministry for questioning. Sometimes the questioning was direct and indicated a desire to keep abreast of their activities. Other times the questioning was more obscure. Regardless, noone refused to not make themselves available.

At the same time, the mosques, imams, scholars and sheiks publicly condemned the actions of the women and by default their families. It was implied the families had no control over their women and needed to be taught a lesson.

After the two year period one man had his and his wife’s passport returned to him although not before a lecture on the need to control his wife. What was his reaction after leaving the passport office? He went directly to the airport and bought a ticket on the first available flight out of the country just to savor that feeling again of being in control and having freedom.

Now in analysis of the 1991 action, there are many Saudis who view what happened as a probe. Let me explain…the belief is that the women who participated in the activity were in fact sanctioned to do so by certain members within the Saudi government with the endorsement of American officials in order to gage the reaction and effect of such an effort on the part of the Saudi woman. If the reaction had not been so strongly negative initiatives would likely have been taken towards paving the way for women to drive in the Kingdom. However the negative outcry illustrated that the time was not yet right for such a step to take place. So where does that leave us now and for today? Does it look as if women will be given the right to drive in Saudi Arabia? Or at least, officially be given the right to drive anywhere in the Kingdom like the men? In spite of King Abdullah’s positive talks and movements of reform, I personally doubt women driving will happen during his reign. Why you likely ask? The society and culture is still not ready. I think women driving would cause another chain reaction of chaos, outcry and outcast.

----American_Bedu Blog by delhi4cats

Saudi Arabia: Female teachers dying on the roads in Saudi Arabia

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia—Roads in Saudi Arabia are among the world's most dangerous but one type of victim stands out: female teachers who are dying at alarming rates because of long commutes through the desert to reach remote schools.

The Saudi government appoints teachers to work in villages where local staff cannot fill all vacancies. But unlike their male counterparts, female teachers in this conservative Muslim country have difficulty living alone in the villages, forcing them to commute each day.

Nof al-Oneizi was so worried she would die that she wrote to education officials urging them to find her a school nearer to her home in the northern town of Jouf, rather than the one she was assigned to 108 miles away -- a three-hour drive because of the bad roads. Since women are forbidden to drive, she carpooled in a van with a driver along with several other female teachers.
Her fears came true before a solution to her problem could be found: The 28-year-old English language teacher died in a horrific crash last November. Five other female teachers, their driver and four people in the car they hit also were killed.

"We were devastated," said Suad Amri, al-Oneizi's aunt. "I still have her school papers, all splattered with blood. Her mom can't look at them. She can't absorb what has happened to her daughter."

Nearly 6,000 people died in traffic accidents in 2007 in this country of 27.6 million, according to the Saudi Traffic Department. That is a rate of about 21 deaths per 100,000 people -- one of the highest in the world. By comparison, around 14 per 100,000 people died in road accidents in the United States in 2006.

A study released in October by the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, a Riyadh-based government research institute, found that female teachers commuting to their jobs have about a 50 percent greater chance of getting into car accidents than average Saudis. Its findings were based on figures from the late 1990s.

"The issue has become a national concern," said the study, which warned that the problem is growing with the rising number of teachers graduating and being assigned to remote schools.
There are no current statistics on how many female teachers die every year. But 21 female teachers were reported killed and 38 others injured in 11 accidents reported by Saudi newspapers since the school year began in September.

Accidents involving teachers often occur in areas where there is no cell phone reception or nearby medical help, leaving them vulnerable to dying from their injuries. It took 2 1/2 hours for the first victim from a deadly crash to reach a hospital last week, according to Al-Riyadh newspaper.

"It breaks my heart to hear of those deaths," said Suad al-Khalaf, a home economics teacher whose commute from the Saudi capital of Riyadh to her school 30 miles away in Dilim is 75 minutes each way.

"Every day, I'm on edge until I reach the school," she said. "I love teaching. But how can we be comfortable doing our job when we have to worry about getting to school in one piece?"

Many roads leading to the remote schools are windy, unpaved and full of potholes. Even on back roads, speeding is common and is even worse on straightaways through the empty desert. Many vehicles -- particularly buses and vans -- are old and poorly maintained.

Women are not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, so the teachers must hire drivers -- sometimes sharing rides in minivans, leaving home as early as 3 a.m.

"It's as if Saudi (female) teachers are doomed to bid farewell to their families every day and embark on a journey they may not return from," Hasan al-Harthi wrote in Al-Hayat newspaper.

The Saudi Education Ministry appoints thousands of teachers to fill vacancies every year at government-run schools in remote areas. Ministry officials say they stipulate teachers should live near their schools.

But female teachers find it difficult to move because they need permission from a male guardian to live alone and have to find a landlord willing to rent them an apartment. Many take positions anyway and suffer through long commutes because job opportunities are scarce for women in Saudi Arabia, mainly limited to teaching and health care.

Education Ministry spokesman Abdul-Aziz Jarallah said in December that a ministry effort to build housing for female teachers appointed to remote schools had failed. None of the teachers wanted to live in the buildings, so the ministry shut them down, he said in remarks published in Al-Riyadh newspaper.

In 2005, four women made headlines when they decided to put an end to their hazardous commute: They married their driver and settled in a village near their school. Islam allows a man to take up to four wives at the same time.

-- Donna Abu Nasr, Associated Press

Bahrain: Activists demand Bahrain reintroduce driving ban on fully covered women

MANAMA — Activists in Bahrain, citing security and safety reasons, want the government to re-introduce the ban on fully covered women from driving.

Abdullah Al Ayobi, an activist and writer, said that Bahrain is the only country in the world that allows unidentified individuals to drive and that could lead to many dangerous circumstances such as crimes.

Women covering their faces were allowed to drive after the establishment of the parliament in 2002 as MPs pressured the government to allow women to lead normal lifestyles. However, Al Ayobi feels that criminals could fully cover themselves and commit crimes before speeding away from the scene without being noticed by the authority or the public.

He also warned that underage boys and girls could cover their faces and drive in public roads after stealing their parents’ vehicles and put their’s and other people’s lives in danger. “I’m not against religious ladies as Bahrain is a free country and there is no dressing code in the Kingdom, but the safety and security of the country should come first,” Al Ayobi said.

He said that it wasn’t too late to reconsider the decision as admitting the fault was better than continuing with it.

When the government approved the decision, it imposed certain restrictions such as ladies have to cooperate with traffic men by presenting their licences or other documents required to avoid facing legal charges.

In rare cases, the traffic authority might demand to see the face of the lady drivers to make sure of their identities.

Before the Cabinet decision, fully covered women needed to take off their veil while driving to avoid getting traffic fine.

The government’s hesitation in the beginning to allow fully covered women to drive was out of fear that terrorists might cover their faces and drive cars to perform terror acts or in case of accident the identity of driver couldn’t be known as the face of the driver would be covered.

Saudi Arabia: Lifting Ban on Women Driving Will Bring Economic Windfall: Experts

As women’s rights groups continue to steam ahead in full speed petitioning for the reversal of the ban on women’s driving in the Kingdom, experts on the issue conclude that the move, if successful, would not only lift the ban itself but the Saudi economy as well.

“Overall, lifting of the women driving ban in Saudi Arabia is expected to have a major effect on the local economy in three different ways,” said Dr. John Sfakianakis, chief economist at the Saudi British Bank (SABB) in Riyadh.

“First, by putting a large portion of house drivers out of work and increasing the purchasing power of Saudi families; secondly by causing a shift in the ownership of vehicles; and thirdly by a trickle down of additional vehicles being sold to women translating into greater opportunities of opening up new markets.”

Accounting for 49 percent of the population, the economic power of the Kingdom’s women is a force not to be taken for granted, according to a report published in December last year by state oil firm Saudi Aramco. The report said car ownership among Saudi women climbed to 60 percent between 2003 and 2006, taking the total number of automobiles owned by Saudi women to 120,334.

Realizing a limitless profitability, a number of local companies have been waking up to the impact that catering to the Kingdom’s women could make on their businesses. “I feel lifting the ban on women’s driving will cause a boom effect on local automotive businesses,” said Sam Maatouk, sales manager at United Motors in Jeddah.

“It is only logical that the lifting of the driving ban would create a chance for the opening up of so many different markets,” he said, adding that women’s driving schools would begin to be established, fuel consumption would rise, and tires and spare parts manufacturers would also benefit. “I feel the government would also gain financially from a lift on the ban through the issuance of licenses and auto insurance contracts,” he said.

Maatouk, who previously worked in the UK, said most English women prefer small, four-cylinder vehicles, which are easier to drive and park, but added that he expects Saudi women to be more assertive. “Maybe you might see a woman wanting to buy a Dodge Charger because her husband, brother or father has one,” he said.

Anees Salamah, marketing manager of Balubaid Automotive Co. in Jeddah, agreed that the economic consequences of the lifting of the driving ban would be a windfall. “We heard the news about a petition going around and the possibility of the ban being lifted, and have been working on facilities especially designed for women,” said Salamah.

He also said that the company has been dealing with women for a while now and has some women customers who are already owners of two or three cars. “We are currently working on catering to businesswomen by developing special links with financial institutions for them and also a training program for female staff in order to advise new car owners on maintenance procedures, such as changing tires and getting the car regularly tuned up,” he said.

Salamah concluded that they have just completed a survey into identifying the specific needs of Saudi women customers and found that entertainment features were the biggest attraction for women when purchasing a new vehicle. “GPS navigation systems were the most sought after feature,” he explained.

Another primary factor that could drive the number of women car owners up is what he calls economic necessity. “It simply means that some people can’t afford to hire drivers anymore and lifting the driving ban would make life more affordable for women, who would prefer to purchase a car and chauffeur themselves,” he said, adding that with a large population of divorced women and those who have no male guardian more money would be forced into the local economy, money that he says could be put to good use for improving the social infrastructure by developing Saudi ladies’ branches of police departments, gas stations, spare parts shops, and new ladies-only car showrooms.

The only question still remaining is when will be the driving ban lifted. When the question was posed to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, he was quoted in the local media as saying that the ban would be lifted “when the country is ready,” which when translated by automotive businesses and so many eager women means it’s only a matter of time.

-- Sarah Abdullah, Arab News

Saudi Arabia: Shura Council Recommends Allowing Saudi Women to Drive With Limitations

On March 17, 2008, Alarabiya.net reported that the Saudi Shura Council has recommended allowing women to drive. The recommendation follows recent efforts by Saudi women rights activists headed by Wajeha Al-Huwaidar and Fawziya Al-Uyuni.

Ten days ago Al-Huwaidar marked the International Women’s Day, March 8, 2008 by driving her car in Saudi Arabia appealing to the minister of interior, Prince Nayef to allow women to drive. Her driving was posted on Youtube and received international attention.

[To view the clip translated into English see MEMRI TV clip No. 1712, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1712.htm ]

The following is a summary of the Saudi Shura Council recommendation.

The Recommendations

A source in Saudi Arabia's Shura Council reports that the council has submitted a recommendation to senior elements in the country to permit women to drive vehicles, with the following stipulations:

• The woman driver must be under 30.
• The woman's driving is conditional upon the permission of a relative [father, husband, brother, or son].
• The woman driver must obtain a driver's license from the center for teaching women to drive.
• The woman driver must be modestly dressed.
• The woman driver will be permitted to drive alone in the cities, but outside the cities she must be accompanied by a relative.
• The woman driver will be permitted to drive Saturday through Wednesday between 7:00 AM and 8:00 PM.
• The woman driver must have a cell phone with her, so she can call for help in an emergency.
• The woman driver must pay a certain sum when her license is issued; this sum will be set aside for car repairs.

The Shura Council also ordered the following:

• The establishment of a special women's transportation department; this department will collect the fees.
• The establishment of a telephone emergency center.
• The establishment of transportation centers for women in the cities, which will be under religious supervision.
• The council stipulated that a woman driver who violates these rules will have her license revoked.

In the framework of this recommendation, the Shura Council is required to impose a one-month prison sentence and a fine on anyone talking with a woman driver from another car, and an eight-month prison sentence and a fine on anyone who sexually harasses a woman driver.

A transportation administration source reports that the Shura Council has as yet issued no guidelines for establishing a women's transportation department.

From MEMRI.org

Saudi Arabia: Al Jazeera Coverage of Woman Driving on YouTube (in English)

Saudi Arabia: YouTube Video of Woman Driving

Saudi women's rights activist Wajeha Al-Huwaider sent a video message -- while driving in the kingdom -- to all Saudi women about driving on International Women's Day.

This is the video:

Saudi Arabia: Authorities studying law to allow women to drive, says report

Riyadh, 18 March(AKI) - Saudi Arabia's Majlis al-Shura or advisory council is reportedly debating a proposal to allow women to drive in the conservative Muslim country, said Arab newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi on Tuesday.

According to the newspaper, the law would only allow women over 30-years-old to drive, but they must first have written permission from their legal guardians, whether it's their husbands, brothers or fathers.

Only with this authorisation will women be allowed to enroll in driving classes in the women's section of the motor vehicle division, an entity created by the government especially for women.

"For the woman to avoid falling into sinful temptations, she will be allowed to drive alone in the city centre, while she will have to be accompanied by a male family member if she is outside urban centres," said the newspaper report.

Moreover, women will only be allowed to drive from Saturday to Wednesday from 7am to 8pm, and will also be allowed to carry a mobile phone in case they need assistance.

In the last few days, the Saudi police have arrested several women who were seen driving openly in the kingdom.

The move comes after a video by a Saudi female activist, showing her driving a car alone, was aired on the website YouTube on 8 March (International Women's Day). In the video, the activist asked the advisory council to approve a law which would allow women to drive.

Saudi Arabia: Woman Drives on YouTube

By LARA SETRAKIAN for ABC News

When Wajeha Al Huwaider gets behind the wheel of a car, it's a daring and defiant act, flying -- or driving -- in the face of Saudi Arabia's ban on female drivers.

This weekend, in honor of International Women's Day and in protest of the law, she posted a video on Youtube of her driving inside the kingdom.

Al Huwaider is one of a group of women petitioning for the right to drive in Saudi Arabia. In a country governed by fundamentalist interpretations of Islam its activities have earned the group a rash of slanderous accusations and death threats from religious conservatives.

"They accuse me, [saying] 'you are a prostitute and you want all the women to be like you.' That's how they see when a women drives a car," Al Huwaider told ABC News after making the video.

She made the video while driving outside the city limits of her hometown, Dahran, a city in Saudi Arabia's eastern province.

She says women can get away with driving outside major urban areas. Some Saudi women drive within private compounds or limited rural spaces. Al Huwaider, who took driving lessons in Bloomington, Ind., drives to work each day within a compound.

In the clip Al Huwaider makes an impassioned speech in Arabic from behind the wheel. She congratulates women around the world for their achievements and calls on all women in Saudi Arabia to fight for more legal and social rights.

Al Huwaider and her fellow activists have collected signatures from women around the country hoping that the Ministry of the Interior will overturn the ban. Saudi women have protested the ban for decades, but with new technology they have been able to amplify an emboldened voice of opposition.

There have been broad calls for greater legal and civil rights in Saudi Arabia. Those in favor of change include the Saudi ruler, King Abdullah, who announced an initial set of judicial reforms last year. The King has said that he expects Saudi women will drive one day. But, for the time being, the ban remains.

Seeking Her Son's Permission

Change has come gradually for women in Saudi Arabia. More women have been joining the work force and earlier this year they were granted permission to stay in hotels alone, though only with the consent of a male guardian. Saudi women need the permission of a mehram, or male guardian, for basic activities like work or travel.

"Women cannot do anything. She cannot study, she cannot work, she cannot marry, she cannot get a divorce. It's a long list. You cannot move from the house, you cannot get medical care without a man's permission. So driving is a minor issue compared to some others," Al Huwaider told ABC News.

Sheikh Assem Al Hakeem, a conservative religious TV preacher based in Jeddah, describes and advocates the fundamentalist thinking behind the requirement of a male guardian. One conservative moral argument against letting women drive is that they will be able to mix more freely with men outside their families.

"Guardianship in marriage is a must," Al Hakeem told The Middle East magazine. "Islam looks at marriage as a boat. The woman is the passenger and the man is the captain."

Under the Saudi system a woman's male guardian can be her husband, brother or son. In Al Huwaider's case, her guardian is her 17-year-old son.

"He's the one in charge of my life, he's the one who has the control if I want to travel & even if I want to have surgery I have to get a permission from him," she said.

Al Huwaider says the general consensus among Saudi women is that sons are the worst male guardians because "they feel they own their mothers." Brothers, she says, make the best male guardians. Husbands fall somewhere in between.

"In general, brothers are the best ... especially when he has a wife and is open-minded," she said. "But of course we don't want anybody, we want to be responsible for ourselves."

Despite opposition from the religious establishment Al Huwaider expects change to come eventually. In January there were reports that the driving ban would be lifted by year's end, an optimistic view that Al Huwaider has adopted.

"We feel it will happen soon. & I feel it's going to happen this year," she told ABC News.
Until then she remains part of a growing movement in Saudi Arabia engaged in the fight for women's rights.

"I'm not afraid of the government, but I'm afraid of the religious establishment -- people who think that I am trying to change the society, to make it Westernized," said Al Huwaider.
"In a country like Saudi Arabia you always have to take risks."

Saudi Arabia: Women Driving Is Not in Conflict With Religion: Scholars

JEDDAH, 21 February 2008 — A well-regarded Saudi religious scholar said that there is nothing in Islamic law that bans women from driving and that the fatwas issued in this regard are based on individual judgments.

“In principle women driving is permitted in Islam,” said Sheikh Abdul Mohsen Al-Obaikan, a member of the Kingdom’s Council of Senior Islamic Scholars.

The ban, he said, has to do with the social complications rather than the act itself. As an example, the sheikh referred to a fatwa from former Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Bin-Baz that said it is permitted for women in rural areas to drive cars, but that they should be forbidden from driving in the cities where, as Al-Obaikan said, “youths (even) harass women accompanied by parents and drivers.

He said if certain issues are resolved, such as the problem of men’s behavior and traffic safety, then he sees no religiously motivated conflict with women driving.

Sheikh Mehsin Al-Awaji, another prominent religious scholar in the Kingdom, agreed. “No religious scholar is going to tell you differently,” he said. “But (the issue of) women driving comes as a ‘package’ and we need to fix the ‘package’ before making the decision (to allow women to drive).”

Expanding on the idea that allowing women to drive in Saudi Arabia comes with a “package” of issues, Al-Awaji said there needs to be Saudi women working as police officers, mechanics and other positions. The sheikh diminished the significance of women driving, saying that myriad social reforms have higher priority, even in the realm of empowering women or encouraging public participation in important social challenges.

Fawzeyah Al-Oyouni, a woman’s rights and human rights activist, said that most people agree that Islam doesn’t forbid women from driving. The problem, she says, is that the government isn’t moving fast enough to implement the necessary actions to open the way for a smooth transition toward allowing women to drive.

The Saudi government has pointed out that there is no law that states women cannot drive. “The Interior Ministry’s stand is clear on this,” said ministry spokesman Gen. Mansour Al-Turki.

But in reality women are occasionally arrested when found driving. Arab News reported several instances in recent years of situations where women have been stopped by authorities and detained for the infraction of driving a vehicle.

In a previous statement, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah said that Saudi women would be permitted to drive someday.

Arab News asked 125 men what they thought of the issue. Ten men categorically opposed the idea; 36 men were fully in support of an unqualified lift on the social ban; and the rest would be OK with women driving with a few ground rules.

Most of the men who expressed reservations to an unqualified lift on the social ban — 80 of them — said they were concerned about safety due to the hazardous conditions on Saudi roads and lack of sufficient enforcement of traffic laws. Sixteen men expressed religious reservations; 21 men expressed financial reasons while eight expressed social concerns.

Four hundred Saudi and non-Saudi women were asked by Arab News about the subject. Out of this survey, Arab News found that 282 of these women would drive cars on their own, without a male guardian. Forty-four women said they would continue to use drivers. Thirty women said they would only drive with their male guardian in the car. Thirty-two women said they would drive with a relative in the vehicle. A dozen women said they opposed the idea of women driving.
Out of these women, 122 said they wouldn’t drive on Saudi roads due to safety concerns while 296 said they would have to see better enforcement of rules before they would feel safe driving. Seventy-two women said they’d rise to the challenge of driving in Saudi Arabia’s traffic.

- Samir Al-Saadi, Arab News

Saudi Arabia: Women See a Brighter Road on Rights

By Faiza Saleh Ambah
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, January 31, 2008; Page A15

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia, Jan. 30 -- Buoyed by recent advances in women's rights, advocates for the right of women to drive in Saudi Arabia -- the only country in the world that prohibits female drivers -- say they believe the ban will be lifted this year.

The women's group has collected more than 3,000 signatures in the past five months and hopes that King Abdullah will issue a royal decree giving women the right to drive.

Since taking the throne in 2005, Abdullah has championed women's right to work and often takes official trips overseas with delegations of female journalists and academics. The king has said that he does not oppose allowing women to drive but that society needs to accept the idea first.

"I think the authorities want people to get used to the idea and will lift the ban before the end of the year," said Wajeha al-Huwaider, 45, an educational analyst and co-founder of the group.
The group, which sent the king petitions in September and December asking him to lift the ban, is working on a third. "Every time we gather 1,000 signatures, we will send them," Huwaider said.

She and co-founder Fouzia al-Ayouni said they were encouraged by the recent easing of certain strictures on women and statements from senior officials saying the driving ban is more social than religious or political.

In November, the foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, told Britain's Channel 4 news that there was no Saudi law prohibiting women from driving.

"Myself, I think they should drive," he said, but added: "For us, it is not a political issue, it is a social issue. We believe that this is something for the families to decide, for the people to decide, and not to be forced by the government, either to drive or not to drive."

Saudi Arabia follows a strict form of Islamic law that does not allow women self-guardianship, mandating a male guardian for women of all ages. A woman cannot travel, appear in court, marry or work without permission from a male guardian, sometimes her own son.

Until recently, women were also barred from checking into hotels and renting apartments unless they were with a male guardian. But a royal decree announced this month now allows women to stay in hotels and furnished apartments unaccompanied.

The newspaper Al-Watan reported last week that a circular has been issued to hotels asking them to accept women who show identification. The hotel is then required to register the women's details with the police.

But in this deeply religious and patriarchal society, many believe that allowing women the right to drive could lead to Western-style openness and an erosion of traditional values.

Many women complain that driving is a necessity and argue that not everyone can afford to hire foreign drivers, whose salaries range from $300 to $600 a month, plus room and board. Live-in chauffeurs, often from the Philippines or the Indian subcontinent, are considered unlikely to develop relationships with the women.

Several times a week, Haifa Osra, 31, one of the first members of the group, walks 10 minutes from her apartment to an Internet cafe to sort through the details of the women who have signed the latest petition.

This week, she approached four women at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf and asked them to add their names.

Haifa Khashoggi, 48, a homemaker, agreed that women should be allowed to drive, "but with conditions."

The other women concurred, saying that initially only women older than a certain age should drive, and not at all hours.

"It's safer and more Islamic for me to drive myself than to sit with an unrelated male driver," said Nadia Nusair, 45, a consultant on educational and family issues.

"It will be chaos at first," said Ibtisam al-Sharif, 47. "But pretty soon, driving will be accepted and everyone will find it normal."

Saudi Arabia: Steps Toward Women's Rights?

By Stephen McInerney,
Director of Advocacy, Project on Middle East Democracy

The royal family in Saudi Arabia has long been decried as one of the world's most repressive regimes. In Freedom House's annual survey of political rights and civil liberties, released earlier this month, the House of Saud maintained its ranking as one of the seventeen most repressive governments in the world. Perhaps most infamous is the particular lack of rights for the half of the Saudi citizens who are female. When King Abdullah ascended to the throne following the death of his half-brother King Fahd in 2005, many had high hopes that his rule would bring reform and greater freedom to Saudi Arabia, and to women in particular. But the reforms of the first couple of years of King Abdullah's rule were markedly underwhelming, and the area of women's rights was essentially ignored.

However, the past two weeks has quietly seen a flurry of small steps toward greater rights for women in the kingdom. Last Monday, January 21, it was reported that the Saudi government had ruled to permit women to stay in hotels without the presence of a male guardian, effective immediately. On the same day, government officials also confirmed that a decision had been reached to remove the ban on women drivers, with a decree to that effect to be issued before the end of 2008. Lifting the ban on driving would be a move of great symbolic value, as Saudi Arabia is the only country to prohibit women behind the steering wheel, and this fact is the most often cited example to demonstrate the oppression of Saudi women. Also, on Tuesday, January 29, it was revealed that the Saudi Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs has approved the establishment of the first women's rights organization in the kingdom, to be known as Ansar al-Mar'ah (patrons/supporters of women).

In addition, last Friday, the first-ever women's soccer game was played in a large stadium in Dammam between teams of two Saudi universities, with the stands full of female fans and the score reported in local newspapers. Within a few days, it was announced that the Saudi government will establish women's sport clubs in the country. This is a far cry from the recent past of soccer in Saudi Arabia - just last year a professional men's game was interrupted by the official on the field so that security personnel could remove the one female in attendance - a 12-year-old girl enjoying the game with her family.

Although there have been some reports of complaints by local residents and the governor of the Eastern province over last week's game, it seems that opposition has been milder than in the past, perhaps encouraging the government to move forward with women's sport clubs.

Why Now?

This string of announcements does follow a period of intensified scrutiny and key interactions with the West, as well as some increasingly bold internal demands for reform. In December, the sentencing of a 19-year old rape victim to 200 lashes and six months in prison for being alone in a car with a man who was not her relative sparked international outrage. Following widespread condemnation, including the introduction of three bills in the U.S. Congress demanding that all charges against the victim be dropped, King Abdullah announced his decision to pardon the girl.

In UN meetings that followed in Geneva in January, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women challenged the Saudi delegation on numerous aspects of gender inequality in the kingdom. In response to concerns raised in these meetings, the UN has
now announced that the UN special rapporteur on violence against women will visit Saudi Arabia from February 4 to 13 and give a series of reports on the findings of her visit to the UN Human Rights Council.

January also saw President Bush pay a visit to the kingdom during his eight-day visit to the Middle East. On January 14, as Bush arrived in Riyadh, the State Department officially notified Congress of a controversial agreement to sell 900 Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) advanced missile systems to Saudi Arabia. The sale had been delayed in the fall by strong opposition within Congress, which considerably raised the profile of numerous concerns with regard to the Saudi regime including its fostering of extremism, its destabilizing ties to insurgent groups in Iraq, and the repression of its own people.

Conclusions

In short, the Saudi regime deserves credit for these apparent openings in terms of women's rights. Given the timing, the moves appear to be at least partly the result of constructive pressure from the international community including the United States. Needless to say, the Saudi regime still has a very long path to tread in terms of women's rights and equality, but hopefully these measures signal the beginning of a long period of steady progress, rather than merely an isolated burst of activity. The recent moves can also be taken as encouraging evidence that international diplomatic pressure can yield results.

But it is critical that such pressure on the Saudi regime not abate once the long-awaited arms deal is finalized in February and a few positive steps have been taken. It is also essential that recently announced measures such as the lifting of the driving ban be carried out as planned - authoritarian Arab regimes have become increasingly adept at timing announcements of reform to relieve international pressure, then failing to carry out the steps as promised once the outside attention has diminished. If those conditions are met, and the recent moves turn out to be merely the beginning of women's rights reform in Saudi Arabia, then the steps taken in January 2008 will have been very important indeed.