Saudi women fight for right to drive
Five Saudi women campaigners were recently detained by authorities for defying religious traditions by driving a car. Women2Drive campaign is fighting for women's right to drive and has mustered worldwide participations.
Riyadh: Five Saudi women who defied religious traditions recently by driving were detained by police in the Red Sea coast city of Jeddah on June 28, marking what may be a shift to harsher tactics by authorities who largely shrugged off the start of a pro-woman driving campaign in the country's capital city of Riyadh earlier in the month. It is not publicly known whether the women were still in police custody.
News of all this was distributed via e-mail by Change.org, a US-based politically progressive grassroots organisation, which uses social media to mobilise supporters, tabulates figures, issues press statements and rallies media attention for the Saudi women's right-to-drive campaign. In addition, it works with other efforts - such as the Boston-based Honk for Saudi Women Driving - to keep the issue in the media.
Change.org - that has offices in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and New York City - estimates that 50 Saudi women risked jail by taking to the driver's seat in early June. And while it has earned them the wrath of local authorities, huge international support has come their way.
The group claims that more than 100,000 people in 156 countries have supported Women for Driving in Saudi Arabia, a coalition of Saudi women's rights activists, via social networks. As per reports, Saudi Women for Driving has even earned statements of support from the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and European Union High Representative Catherine Ashton.
Of course, Change.org is their staunch supporter and a big reason for its dedication to the cause is Benjamin Joffe-Walt, the group's human rights editor based in Jerusalem, Israel. It was in 2009 when he was covering human rights as a journalist that he made contacts with female activists in Saudi Arabia. Joffe-Walt says he caught wind of Saudi women organising for the right to drive in May and he saw an opportunity for Change.org to help by harnessing international media attention.
For that, Eman al-Nafjan, a pro-driving activist who authors Saudiwomen blog, expresses deep appreciation. "The way I see it is that as a Saudi woman, if someone is going to support my human right ... I'm going to say a big fat 'thank you,'" she says, adding, "Drawing attention to the campaign outside of Saudi Arabia ... will keep it an issue inside of Saudi Arabia."
Petition to the world
On the heels of the June 17 initiative, Joffe-Walt says his top concern has been sustaining international interest. To keep the effort going Change.org launched a petition campaign to pressure Subaru, the Japan-based automaker, to stop selling cars in the kingdom until women are allowed to drive. The site claims that more than 50,000 people have signed on.
But there are those who are skeptical of this move. Activist-student Sara al-Haidar says, "I'm not sure who will be courageous enough to get behind the wheel and deliver the petition to Subaru. The threat of arrest is still very real for women involved in the campaign."
Eman al-Nafjan, a pro-driving activist
Of course, the driving campaign is the leading edge of a wider push for autonomy and citizenship, for its certainly not easy being a woman here. Saudi women must be accompanied in public by a male relative, may not dine alone in restaurants and have fewer educational opportunities.
They do not have the right to vote in elections and they can't travel outside Saudi Arabia without a male relative as a companion. Many work outside the home, but a driver's weekly salary - of $300 or so - eats up their income.
Saudi activists see driving rights as an essential stepping stone towards future progress. "I can't say I want a woman minister, I can't say I want to see democracy ... I can't say all of these things without being able to drive a car," says al-Nafjan. No Saudi law explicitly bans women from driving. It is part of a religious edict issued by the Islamic council that advises King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz. "This won't be resolved until the King says so," she adds.
Abdullah al-Alami, a Saudi writer and economist, says that he is encouraging an advisory group to the king to consider women's right to drive. But he insists any change must come from within. "I do not encourage getting outside groups involved in our internal affairs," he says.
Honking for rights
Nonetheless the international community is keeping a close watch. Boston freelance journalist and activist Trisha Calvarese was drawn to the cause while covering the Middle East. "I literally just made some friends on Facebook," she says. Calvarese launched a solidarity effort a few months ago - Honk for Saudi Women Driving - that calls on women around the world to post YouTube videos of themselves honking car horns in support.
After she posted a few "Honk" videos, a supporter from France offered to help. He and his team at Kinomap, a video-sharing platform site based in Douai, France, developed a smartphone application that supporters can use to upload "honk" videos to the 'Honk for Saudi Women Driving' YouTube channel.
The channel's roughly 50 videos so far include a dozen that Saudi women shot of themselves during the June campaign and also since then. Others come from supporters in Australia, Sweden and England.
But it's not the first time that Saudi women have conducted right-to-drive demonstrations. Joffe-Walt recalls an occasion in 1990 when 47 women drove cars around Riyadh for a half hour. The drivers and their husbands were banned from leaving the country for a year and those with government jobs were suspended from working, NPR reported.
In 2008, a now well-known Saudi women's rights activist Wajeha Al Huwaider had posted a YouTube video of herself driving in the suburbs of Riyadh, as per AFP reports.
And the latest effort started in May-end when Manal al-Sharif, 32, a single mother and computer technician working for an oil company, was arrested and detained in Riyadh, for posting videos of herself driving on YouTube. This got the most media attention globally, Joffe-Walt says, because campaigners turned to the Internet to spread information.
Given the distinctive restrictions on Saudi women, many activists decline to link women driving efforts to the current revolutionary movements in the region. But no women were jailed for driving in June and some activists say regional politics may help explain the government's initially tolerant response.
One Saudi woman, who drove with her mother for about 15 minutes during a rush hour demonstration, recalls that the police actually protected them from the hostility of some male drivers.
Until now, the mild official response could also mean that King Abdullah is biding his time and seeing how it plays out in the international community as well as in the Saudi religious establishment, feels Joffe-Walt. But the arrest of the five drivers has heightened the suspense about how the kingdom will react.
After her release from jail, al-Sharif's lawyer Adan al-Salah, said she voluntarily signed a pledge to end her Women2Drive campaign, which designated June 17 as the women's day of driving. But Wajeha al-Huwaider, her close friend, told the UK newspaper, 'Guardian', that she was "certain" silence was a condition of her release from nine days in prison.
By arrangement with Women's eNews.
(Marley Gibbons is an editorial intern at Women's eNews. For original story, log on to: http://www.womensenews.org/story/equalitywomen%E2%80%99s-rights/110629/saudi-women-allies-keep-driving-campaign)
