Saudi Arabia detains women's rights activists weeks before female driving ban comes to an end

On May 18, 2018 the Washington Post broke the story that activists supporting women driving in Saudi Arabia had been detained. This story from the UK's Telegraph has now published it to. A link to the story is here and the text is pasted below. 

By Raf Sanchez

18 May 2018 • 3:58pm

Saudi Arabia has detained several prominent female activists who campaigned for women’s right to drive, taking them into custody just weeks before the decades-long driving ban finally comes to an end.
Human rights groups said Loujain al-Hathloul, Eman al-Nafjan and Aziza al-Yousef - three of the most prominent voices demanding women be free to drive - were all detained on Thursday. Two male advocates for women’s rights were also detained, activists said.

The activists were detained as Saudi Arabia prepares for the driving ban to come to an end on June 24. The policy shift has become a symbol of the modernising drive of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and the Saudi government is eager for positive media coverage of the move. 

The detentions appear to be an effort by Saudi authorities to make sure they do not have to share credit for the end of the driving ban with activists who spent years campaigning for it.
They may also be concerned that the women right’s campaigners would use the end of the driving to call for further advances in women’s freedom - like an end to the male guardianship system that severely limits Saudi women’s ability to travel independently.

A woman in a black niqab drives in Saudi Arabia

Neither Ms Narfjan nor Ms Hathloul could be reached for comment. Ms Hathloul told The Telegraph earlier this year that shortly before Saudi authorities announced the end of the driving ban in September she was warned not to speak publicly about it.

Instead, she Tweeted just the word “Alhamdulillah” in Arabic, or “Praise be to God”.
“Shutting up or submitting to these threats is unacceptable to me, it is not an option to stay quiet any more,” she said, breaking her silence in January. “We have been quiet for too long.”
Ms Hathloul had been detained twice before for her activism. She and other Saudi women sometimes filmed themselves driving in defiance of the ban and published the videos online, to the fury of the government.
Ms Hathloul was voted the third-most powerful Arab woman by Forbes in 2015, but was forced to quit her job that same year because of driving restrictions. Her husband, a well-known Saudi comedian who acts as her male guardian, was often out of the country meaning she had to pay for taxis to and from work.

Saudi women tour a car showroom for women on January 11, 2018, in the Saudi Red Sea port city of Jeddah. Credit: AFP

“The Uber and Careem applications would take more than 30 per cent of my salary. For instance I would pay 2,000-3,000 riyals (£375-560) a month to get around, while my salary was 6,000 riyals,” she said. “At the end of the month I basically had nothing.”
It was not clear if she or any or any of the other activists had been charged with a crime. Prisoners of Conscience, a human rights group, said that two men - Mohammed al-Rabjah and Ibrahim al-Mdmyegh - had also been arrested.

The driving ban has been in place since 1979 and women’s rights activists have been fighting it against for it for decades. In 1990, around 50 women launched the first high profile protest by driving in a convoy around Riyadh. They were eventually stopped by police.
The Saudi government under the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed has shown itself willing to use detention as a tool against political rivals. Dozens of princes and prominent businessmen were arrested in November and detained at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh on allegations of corruption.
Most were released only after agreeing to pay large sums as part of a settlement with the authorities.

Reposting from Saudi Woman's Weblog: Sixth of November at the Riyadh Book Fair

Reposting from the excellent blog: Saudi Women's Weblog - which is written by Eman al-Nafjan. She is translating an important book about the first Saudi women's 'drive-in' that took place on November 6, 1990. A link to the blog is here, text pasted below.

Date: March 13, 2014 - Today at the Riyadh Book Fair, Dr. Aisha Al Mana and Dr. Hissa Al Sheikh sat down to sign their book documenting the first demonstration to lift the ban on women driving on November 6th, 1990. Dr. Madiha Al Ajroush was there too with her camera and was kind enough to share the photos she took here. Dr. Al Ajroush had participated in the 1990 demonstration and is the only Saudi woman to take part in every single demonstration and movement to lift the ban on women driving since the first one. She’s also a renowned photographer who has at this year’s book fair an aisle named in her honor.
I’m currently in the process of translating the Sixth of November book. Scroll down to read a sample of the book in English.

Dr. Aisha Al Mana (left), Aziza Al Yousef (center), and Dr. Hissa Al Shiekh (right)

Dr. Madiha Al Ajroush under the sign for the aisle named in her honor.

Security guards make sure that book signings are gender segregated.

A view of the crowd lining up to say hello and get their books signed.

Sample from the book:

At around 2:30 in the afternoon of November 6th 1990, a good crowd of women started showing up at the parking lot of the Safeway supermarket. Some were driven there by their drivers and others were driven their by their husbands or sons. Once at the parking lot, the chauffeurs, husbands and sons relinquished the cars to the women. The number of women outnumbered the number of cars available. There were forty-seven women and fourteen cars taking part in the demonstration. Not all of the women knew each other and some had never met before that fateful day.
Every woman with a valid driving license obtained from abroad assumed the driver’s seat in each car while the other women got in the passenger’s seats for support. As the prayer call for the afternoon prayer began, the women started their cars. Their husbands, sons and drivers stood in the parking lot, in silence, watching. The simplicity and justice of the movement lent it a reverence that enabled the women to trust in each other and have the courage to act together in their shared cause.
The women started driving their cars one after the other. At the head of the demonstration was a car driven by Wafa Al Muneef followed by another driven by Dr. Aisha Al-Mana. They started on King Abdulaziz street and went on to Ouroba street and then took a left onto Thalatheen Street. The stop lights slowed some of them down. The cars at the beginning of the movement would every once in awhile slow down so that the cars behind could catch up, as they had decided that they would stay together. The scene drew spectators both pedestrians and other car drivers. They stood in shock and disbelief but did not interfere with the procession.
Emboldened by the fact that the police had not stopped them or paid them any attention, the women at the head of the demonstration decided to drive another round. It was at the beginning of the second round that the police finally intervened and stopped the women. The police stopped the women’s cars one by one in a line against the pavement in front of The Riyadh Palace Function Hall on King Abdul Aziz street. The presence of members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Religious Police) shortly followed the appearance of the police.
The first thing the policemen did after stopping the demonstration was to ask the women to produce their driving licenses. One woman quickly handed over a valid driving license she had obtained from the U.S.A. Faced with this awkward situation, the perturbed policemen called for their superior who arrived just as the members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice did. The Commission members requested that the police entrust the women and the investigation over to the Commission. The women opposed the idea completely and the police refused as well.

Saudi police pounce on woman defying driving ban

Global Post published this AFP story on December 28, 2013. The story is pasted below and a link to the story is here.

Saudi police on Saturday pulled over a woman minutes after she got behind the wheel in the Red Sea city of Jeddah after activists called for a new challenge to a driving ban.

"Only 10 minutes after Tamador al-Yami got behind the wheel police stopped her," activist Eman al-Nafjan told AFP, adding that Yami carries an international driving licence and was with another woman who was filming her in the car.

Tamador's husband was called to the scene and she was forced to sign a pledge not to drive again without a Saudi licence, said Nafjan on her Twitter account.

Women are not allowed into driving schools in the ultra-conservative kingdom are not granted licences.

Elsewhere in Khobar, in Eastern Province, another woman drove for two hours, accompanied by her husband, without being stopped, Nafjan said.

Activists say Saturday was chosen as a "symbolic" date as part of efforts first launched more than a decade ago to press for the right for Saudi women to drive.

The call for action is a "reminder of the right so it is not forgotten," activist Nasima al-Sada had told AFP.

The absolute monarchy is the only country in the world where women are barred from driving, a rule that has drawn international condemnation.

Saturday's action is a continuation of a campaign launched on October 26, when 16 activists were stopped by police for defying the ban.

In addition to not being allowed to drive, Saudi women must cover themselves from head to toe and need permission from a male guardian to travel, work and marry.
bur-lyn/bpz