Until June 2018,

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries by area, fifth-largest country in Asia ...

was the only country in the world in which women were forbidden from driving motor vehicles. The Women to Drive Movement ( ''qiyāda al-marʾa fī as-Suʿūdiyya'') was a campaign by Saudi women, whom the government denies many rights to which men are entitled, for the right to drive motor vehicles on public roads. Dozens of women drove in

Riyadh Riyadh (, ar, الرياض, 'ar-Riyāḍ, lit.: 'The Gardens' Najdi pronunciation: ), formerly known as Hajr al-Yamamah, is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of the ...

in 1990 and were arrested and had their passports confiscated. In 2007, Wajeha al-Huwaider and other women petitioned King Abdullah for the right to drive, and a film of al-Huwaider driving on

International Women's Day International Women's Day (IWD) is a global holiday celebrated annually on March 8 as a focal point in the women's rights movement, bringing attention to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against wom ...

2008 attracted international media attention. In 2011, the

Arab Spring The Arab Spring ( ar, الربيع العربي) was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in Tunisia in response to corruption and econom ...

motivated some women including al-Huwaider and

Manal al-Sharif Manal was an Argentine rock group. Together with Almendra and Los Gatos, they are considered founders of Argentine rock. In late September, Shaima Jastania was sentenced to ten lashes for driving in

Jeddah Jeddah ( ), also spelled Jedda, Jiddah or Jidda ( ; ar, , Jidda, ), is a city in the Hejaz region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the country's commercial center. Established in the 6th century BC as a fishing village, Jeddah's promi ...

, although the sentence was later overturned. Two years later, another campaign to defy the ban targeted 26 October 2013 as the date for women to start driving. Three days before, in a "rare and explicit restating of the ban", an

Interior Ministry An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministr ...

spokesman warned that "women in Saudi

rabia Rabia or Rabiah is the transliteration of two Arabic names written differently in Arabic text however they may be written similarly in the Latin script: * An Arabic, usually male name (' ) meaning "Spring" * An Arabic, female name (' ) meaning " ...

are banned from driving and laws will be applied against violators and those who demonstrate support." Interior Ministry employees warned leaders of the campaign individually not to drive on 26 October, and police road blocks were assembled in Riyadh to check for women driving. On 26 September 2017,

King Salman Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud ( ar, سلمان بن عبد العزیز آل سعود, , ; born 31 December 1935) is King of Saudi Arabia, reigning since 2015, and served as Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia from 2015 to 2022. The 25th son of King ...

issued an order to allow women to drive, with new guidelines to be created and implemented by June 2018. Women to drive campaigners were ordered not to contact media and in May 2018, several, including Loujain al-Hathloul,

Eman al-Nafjan Eman al-Nafjan is a Saudi Arabian blogger and women's rights activist. She was detained by Saudi authorities in May 2018 along with Loujain al-Hathloul and five other women's rights activists in what Human Rights Watch interpreted as an attem ...

, Aisha Al-Mana,

Aziza al-Yousef Aziza al-Yousef is a Saudi Arabian women's rights activist and academic. She was detained by Saudi authorities in May 2018 along with Loujain al-Hathloul and five others. As of November, 2018, she was apparently being held in the Dhahban Cen ...

and Madeha al-Ajroush, were detained. The ban was officially lifted on 24 June 2018, but many of the women's rights activists remained under arrest. , twelve remained in detention.

Background

According to scholar David Commins, "In 1957, Riyadh pronounced a ban on women driving." , women's rights in Saudi Arabia were highly constrained in comparison to international standards. This included their right to drive cars and other motor vehicles. In 2002, ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...

'' magazine estimated that the salaries of the approximately 500,000 chauffeurs driving women in Saudi Arabia accounted for 1% of the national income.

History

1990 driving protest

On 6 November 1990, 47 Saudi women in

drove their cars in protest against the driving ban. They were imprisoned for one day, had their passports confiscated, and some of them lost their jobs as a result of their activism.

2007–2008 petition and YouTube video

In September 2007, the Association for the Protection and Defense of Women's Rights in Saudi Arabia, co-founded by Wajeha al-Huwaider and Fawzia al-Uyyouni, submitted a 1,100-signature petition to King Abdullah asking for women to be allowed to drive. On

2008, al-Huwaider filmed herself driving, for which she received international media attention after the video was posted on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most vis ...

. Al-Huwaider's drive began within a residential compound, where women are permitted to drive since roadways inside the compound are not considered to be public roads, but she left the compound and drove along a main highway. Al-Huwaider expressed the hope that the ban on women driving would be lifted by International Women's Day in 2009. In June–July 2007, a Gallup poll found that the majority of Saudi men and women thought that women should be allowed to drive.

2011–2014 campaign

New Saudi Arabia's traffic sign (women2drive)

In 2011, a group of women including

Manal al-Sharif Manal was an Argentine rock group. Together with Almendra and Los Gatos, they are considered founders of Argentine rock.Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

campaign named "Teach me how to drive so I can protect myself" or Women2Drive that says that women should be allowed to drive. The women said that their campaign was inspired by the

The campaign called for women to start driving from 17 June 2011. , about 12,000 readers of the Facebook page had expressed their support. Al-Sharif described the action as acting within women's rights, and "not protesting". Wajeha al-Huwaider was impressed by the campaign and decided to help. A woman from

, Najla Hariri, started driving in the second week of May 2011, stating "Before in Saudi, you never heard about protests. utafter what has happened in the Middle East, we started to accept a group of people going outside and saying what they want in a loud voice, and this has had an impact on me."

Subaru

In mid-2011, as

Subaru ( or ; ) is the automobile manufacturing division of Japanese transportation conglomerate Subaru Corporation (formerly known as Fuji Heavy Industries), the twenty-first largest automaker by production worldwide in 2017. Subaru cars are k ...

vehicles tend to be marketed heavily towards women (in the US), several Saudi women groups including

Saudi Women for Driving Saudi may refer to: * Saudi Arabia * Saudis, people from Saudi Arabia * Saudi culture, the culture of Saudi Arabia * House of Saud The House of Saud ( ar, آل سُعُود, ʾĀl Suʿūd ) is the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia. It is ...

asked the parent company of Subaru,

Fuji Heavy Industries is a Japanese multinational corporation and conglomerate primarily involved in both terrestrial and aerospace transportation manufacturing. It is best known for its line of Subaru automobiles. Founded in 1953, the company was formerly named ( ...

, to stop selling motor vehicles in countries where women cannot drive.

Manal al-Sharif

The following week, al-Huwaider filmed al-Sharif driving a car as part of the campaign. The video was posted on

and

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

. Al-Sharif was detained and released on 21 May and rearrested the following day. On 30 May, al-Sharif was released on bail, on the conditions of returning for questioning if requested, not driving and not talking to the media. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' and '' Associated Press'' associated the women's driving campaign with the wider pattern of the

and the long duration of al-Sharif's detention with Saudi authorities' fear of protests.

Late May – early June

On 23 May, another woman was detained for driving a car. She drove with two women passengers in

Ar Rass Rass (also spelled Ar Rass, or Al-Ras; ar, الرس) is a Saudi Arabian City, located in Al Qassim Province. It lies southwest of Buraydah, the capital of the province and north of Riyadh, the national capital. Arrass is the largest city in ...

and was detained by traffic police in the presence of the CPVPV. She was released after signing a statement that she would not drive again. In reaction to al-Sharif's arrest, several more Saudi women published videos of themselves driving during the following days. Wajnat Rahbini, a Saudi actress famous in the Arab world for playing in the satirical comedy '' Tash ma Tash'', broadcast annually during

Ramadan , type = islam , longtype = Religious , image = Ramadan montage.jpg , caption=From top, left to right: A crescent moon over Sarıçam, Turkey, marking the beginning of the Islamic month of Ramadan. Ramadan Quran reading in Bandar Torkaman, Iran. C ...

, drove her car "in defiance of a long-standing ban on female driving" on 4 June in Jeddah. She was detained after exiting her car and released the following day without bail.

17 June 2011

On 17 June, about 30 to 50 women drove cars in towns in Saudi Arabia, including Maha al-Qahtani and Eman Nafjan in Riyadh, and other women in Jeddah and

Dammam Dammam ( ar, الدمّام ') is the fifth-most populous city in Saudi Arabia after Riyadh, Jeddah, Mecca, and Medina. It is the capital of the Eastern Province. With a total population of 1,252,523 as of 2020. The judicial and administrative ...

. When she drove for a second time the same day, al-Qahtani was given a ticket for driving without a Saudi Arabian licence. Al-Qahtani was pleased to receive the ticket, stating to a ''

Time magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published Weekly newspaper, weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New ...

'' journalist travelling with her, "It's a ticket. Write this down. I am the first Saudi woman to get a traffic ticket." ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the G ...

'' stated that "police appeared to be under orders not to intervene" during women's drives on 17 June.

Late June 2011

Two Saudi women were photographed by

Thomson Reuters Thomson Reuters Corporation ( ) is a Canadian multinational media conglomerate. The company was founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where it is headquartered at the Bay Adelaide Centre. Thomson Reuters was created by the Thomson Corpora ...

after driving in Riyadh on 22 June. On 29 June, five women driving in Jeddah were arrested. The Saudi Arabian blogger

described the arrests as "the first big pushback from authorities". She claimed that the June drives were more significant than the 1990 protest, stating, "When actually the 1990 protest was only fourteen cars that had 47 passengers,

rom Rom, or ROM may refer to: Biomechanics and medicine * Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient * Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac * R ...

June 17th and onwards there have been about seventy documented cases of women driving."

July–September

In July, Princess al-Taweel, niece-in-law of

Abdullah of Saudi Arabia Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud ( ar, عبدالله بن عبدالعزيز آل سعود ''ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al ʿAzīz Āl Saʿūd'', Najdi Arabic pronunciation: ; 1 August 1924 – 23 January 2015) was King and Prime Minister of Saudi A ...

, spoke about her opposition to the women driving ban on the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

(US) radio station

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

and called for women to have equal rights in the workforce, in the

legal system The contemporary national legal systems are generally based on one of four basic systems: civil law, common law, statutory law, religious law or combinations of these. However, the legal system of each country is shaped by its unique history an ...

, and in

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Var ...

. She described these

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hum ...

as more important than the right to drive. In response to criticisms of women's rights campaigns, she described her approach as "evolution not revolution". At the end of September, Shaima Jastania was sentenced to 10 lashes for having driven a car in Jeddah. The sentence was announced shortly after King Abdullah decreed that women would be able to participate in the

2015 Saudi Arabian municipal elections Elections were held in Saudi Arabia on 12 December 2015 for municipal councils, which have limited decision-making powers on local issues such as rubbish collection and street maintenance. The previous two elections, in 2005 and 2011, were for ha ...

and be appointed to the Consultative Assembly; King Abdullah overturned the sentence.

November

On 15 November 2011, Manal al-Sharif filed charges in the Grievances Board, a non-

Sharia Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...

specialized court, against the General Directorate of Traffic for the rejection of her application for a driver's licence. Al-Sharif had applied for a licence in May 2011. The lawsuit was transferred to the

Ministry of Interior An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministr ...

December

In early December, a member of the Consultative Assembly, Kamal Subhi, submitted a report to the Assembly saying that lifting the ban would cause prostitution, pornography, homosexuality and divorce and the "end of virginity". The head of the Assembly told women campaigners that he was "still open to hearing the case for lifting the ban".

February 2012

On 4 February,

Samar Badawi Samar bint Muhammad Badawi ( ar, سمر بدوي; born 28 June 1981) is a Saudi Arabian human rights activist. She and her father filed court cases against each other. Badawi's father accused her of disobedience under the Saudi Arabian male gua ...

, a human rights activist who had driven regularly since June 2011 and helped other women drivers with police and court procedures, filed similar charges to those of Manal al-Sharif, objecting to the rejection of her own driving licence application. Badawi was asked by the Grievances Board to "follow-up in a week". The women to drive campaign circulated an email about the court case.

June 2012

On 29 June 2012, to celebrate the anniversary of the June 2011 driving campaign launch, a member of the ''My Right to Dignity'' women's rights campaign drove her car in Riyadh. She stated that she had driven about 30–40 times in 2011 and that about 100 Saudi women had driven regularly since June 2011.

October 2013

In October 2013, there was a campaign calling for women to defy the ban in a protest drive on 26 October, which gained support from some prominent women activists. In response, the campaign's website
www.oct26driving.org
was blocked within Saudi Arabia and Sheikh Saleh al-Lohaidan, one of Saudi Arabia's top clerics, said women who drive risk damaging their ovaries and bearing children with clinical problems. Interior ministry employees had also contacted leaders of the campaign individually to tell them not to drive. However, despite this discouragement and a heavy police presence, as of Sunday 27 October Saudi activists had posted 12 films on YouTube said to be of women driving on Saturday, and said some other women had also driven but without recording their exploits on video or in photographs. Also a YouTube film made by Hisham Alfageeh and other male Saudi comedians went viral on Saturday to support the women's driving campaign, parodying the

Bob Marley Robert Nesta Marley (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981; baptised in 1980 as Berhane Selassie) was a Jamaican singer, musician, and songwriter. Considered one of the pioneers of reggae, his musical career was marked by fusing elements ...

song "No Woman No Cry" as "No Woman No Drive". Loujain Al-Hathloul On 30 November 2014, Loujain Al-Hathloul made her move toward the Women to drive Movement in Saudi Arabia. As known, Saudi women are not able to have a driver's license, but Al-Hathloul previously obtained a driver's license from the United Arab Emirates. She filmed her experience of driving from the United Arab of Emirates with the intention of crossing the border back to Saudi Arabia. As a part of the support of the issue of the Saudi ban on women drivers. Al-Hathloul filmed herself driving on 26 October 2014. Her videos had over 800,000 views, a hashtag on Twitter, and also over 3,000 comments on YouTube. The public opinion with Al-Hathloul's case was divided to two groups, one group was supportive to what Lujain did, and the other one was not. Al-Hathloul tweeted her followers about her journey from the beginning. When she arrived at the border of Saudi Arabia she tweeted that she was stopped by a Saudi customs officer at the border. Al-Hathloul tweeted to her followers to keep them up with her and said: "Twenty-four hours spent on the border of Saudi." She also tweeted: "They won't give me back my passport and they won't let me pass through and no word from the Ministry of Interior. Complete silence from all the officials." Loujain Al-Hathloul was arrested after she filmed her attempt to defy the ban of driving for Saudis Women. She was arrested for 73 days. Prince Mohammed bin Salman Prince Mohammed bin Salman talked about the Ban of Saudi Women Driving in an interview and he said that "Saudi Arabia is not ready for women drivers". The prince Mohammed also said that "Women driving is not a religious issue as much as it is an issue that relates to the community itself that either accepts it or refuses it." However, he was later seen as the figure behind the removal of the driving ban in September 2017.

Lifting of ban 2017–2018

On 26 September 2017,

issued a statement recognizing the right of Saudi women to drive in keeping with

. Licenses were set to be issued to women starting on 24 June 2018. Saudi authorities also contacted women to drive campaigners. Around 15–18 May 2018, Loujain al-Hathloul,

, Aisha Al-Mana,

, Madeha al-Ajroush, and several other women and two men also involved in the women to drive movement and the

anti male-guardianship campaign The anti male-guardianship campaign is an ongoing campaign by Saudi women against the requirement to obtain permission from their male guardian for activities such as getting a job, travelling internationally or getting married. Wajeha al-Huwai ...

were detained by Saudi authorities.

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human ri ...

interpreted the purpose of the arrests as frightening "anyone expressing skepticism about the crown prince's rights agenda". On 24 June 2018, as promised by Saudi authorities, several women received driving licences and started driving their cars. Many of the women to drive movement and anti male-guardianship women activists, including Loujain al-Hathloul, remained in detention as part of the

2018–2019 Saudi crackdown on feminists The 2018–2019 Saudi crackdown on feminists consisted of waves of arrests of women's rights activists in Saudi Arabia involved in the women to drive movement and the Saudi anti male-guardianship campaign and of their supporters during 2018 and 201 ...

. , twelve remained in detention without any legal charges laid against them and without legal representation. In late November 2018, the Women to Drive campaigners detained in Dhahban Central Prison were tortured. According to Human Rights Watch, several of the women were lashed and given electric shocks, one was "made to hang for long periods of time from the ceiling" and one tried several times to commit suicide. , the women had been publicly accused of "undermining state security and aiding enemies of the state" but had not yet been charged. , according to the Saudi newspaper

Okaz ''Okaz'' ( ar, عكاظ) is an Arabic Saudi Arabian daily newspaper located in Jeddah. The paper was launched in 1960 and its sister publication is ''Saudi Gazette''. The paper is simultaneously printed in both Riyadh and Jeddah and has offices a ...

, the women were to be tried at the

Specialized Criminal Court The Specialized Criminal Court (SCC) ( ar, المحكمة الجزائية المتخصصة) is a non-Sharia court created in Saudi Arabia in 2008 that tries suspected terrorists and human rights activists. On 26 June 2011, the court started tri ...

, with prosecutors calling for prison terms of up to 20 years. In late March 2019, the women presented their defence and described physical and sexual abuse they had endured in captivity. Aziza al-Yousef, Dr Rokaya Mohareb and Eman al-Nafjan were released on bail.

International solidarity

United States

An international new media campaign started in the US to support women drivers in Saudi Arabia with tweets, pictures, and YouTube videos of people honking to support women drivers in Saudi Arabia, included Rep. Nancy Pelosi and race car driver Lelani Munter. On 15 June 2011, women drivers in the United States organised a protest in solidarity with Saudi women, planning to encircle the

embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington, D.C. The Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington, D.C. ( ar, سفارة المملكة العربية السعودية لدى الولايات المتحدة) is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's main and largest diplomatic mission to the United States. ...

In mid-June, three women from

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

, supported by an advocacy group, announced a gender discrimination complaint against Saudi Arabia's

livery A livery is an identifying design, such as a uniform, ornament, symbol or insignia that designates ownership or affiliation, often found on an individual or vehicle. Livery will often have elements of the heraldry relating to the individual or ...

services in Rochester to coincide with the 2011 "Women2Drive" campaign.

Recording industry

The

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...

to the M.I.A. song " Bad Girls", released on 2 February 2012, is a protest piece in solidarity with the movement. Elizabeth Broomhall, writing in ''

Arabian Business ''Arabian Business'' (''AB'') is a weekly business magazine published in Dubai and focusing on global and regional news analysis. The brand is aimed at the English- and Arabic-speaking communities and is published in both languages. Its circula ...

'', appreciated M.I.A. for "pushing boundaries" to get the world to pay attention to women's right to drive in the kingdom, and for being a female artist who "finally" did something different. Lucy Jones of ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' praised the video for its stance against Saudi driving law.

References

{{2011–2012 Saudi Arabian protests 2011–2012 Saudi Arabian protests Road transport in Saudi Arabia Women's rights in Saudi Arabia Feminism in Saudi Arabia