Amnesty International is helping promote this action of civil disobedience, which is a long time in coming.
Great article on the history of the driving movement today in Foreign Policy:
In the early 2000s, women’s rights, particularly the right to drive, began to be cautiously discussed in Saudi media. Some newspapers published stories about the daily struggles women faced with foreign drivers and featured Islamic scholars who declared that no religious rule prohibited women from driving. Liberal columnists encouraged the government to lift the ban. This unprecedented freedom in the Saudi press was in part due to the pressure that the United States put on the Saudi government to reform following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In 2005, Shura Council member Mohammad al-Zulfa brought up the topic of lifting the ban of women drivers during a meeting of the consultative body. He argued that doing so would save the kingdom funds that it spends on foreign drivers, which he estimated at over $3 billion a year. – DRIVEN
It’s trending on Twitter under #Women2Drive. Once again proving the importance of social media to women around the world.
When you’re in the car sometime today, take one moment to honk in honor of these brave women who are simply trying to get a basic freedom. Driving. I can’t imagine our life without it.
There’s a constant refrain from the Right that feminism is dead or that we’re in the post-feminism era. As I’ve argued for well over a decade, as long as there are women out there denied freedom, any freedom, the notion and idea of feminism isn’t completed.
Comments are closed.