Three women arrested for driving in Saudi

My apologies for not posting much in the last few weeks. The whole world has been watching Saudi women and their triumphant appearance at the Olympics, and most news stories about them mention that they can't drive back home. But other than that the news about the Saudi women's driving campaign has been relatively quiet. I am hoping that is a sign of some very good things to come. Last September on Saudi Arabia's National Day, King Abdallah announced that women would have the right to vote in municipal elections and said he would appoint them to the Shura Advisory Council. Some had hoped he would lift the ban on women driving. It didn't happen then, but I have a hunch that it's possible this year, especially with the first-time appearance of women at the Olympics. Change is in the air.

That said, below is one of the few news items on the topic, from Emirates 24/7.

A link to the story is here, and the text is below.

Published Sunday, August 05, 2012

Saudi police arrested three Arab women for driving a car after a chase that resulted in a collision with the police patrol vehicle.

A police patrol spotted the two Tunisian and an Egyptian woman in a car driven by one of them in the eastern town of Dammam late night.

“The patrol chased them and tried to stop their car…but as they tried to escape, their car collided with the police vehicle...they were all arrested,” the Arabic language daily Sabq said.

Women are banned from driving in the conservative Moslem kingdom but there have been campaign by Saudi women over the past year to end the ban.