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The women of Saudi Arabia are in the midst of a quiet revolution. On Friday, more than 40 Saudi women took to the roads in protest of the country's driving ban. Some of the women later tweeted accounts of their civil disobedience.
One such woman, 39-year-old Maha Al Qahtani, who works for the ministry of education, said most of her friends didn't participate in the protest. "But we have to make our point that it's our right and they should respect that."
Launched last March, the grassroots campaign hopes to challenge the restrictions on the independence and mobility of Saudi women. Under the current legislation, women need a male guardian to accompany them outside the home. There is no law against driving per se, but just imagine the inconvenience of having to rely on a man in order to leave the house. To pick up the kids from school. To buy some milk, a loaf of bread...
Somewhat ironically, many Saudi women hire drivers (foreign men from India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan) so they can get where they need to go. It's estimated that the number of chauffeurs is somewhere around 750,000.
The custom arises out of social and cultural mores rather than legal obligation. Driving is seen as leading the women one step closer to Westernization, or the first step to "losing their society's Islamic identity" according to a recent article in the Toronto Star. Still, the driving ban is not to be taken lightly. Just last month, the Saudi government detained a woman for nine days after she posted a video on YouTube of herself driving.