Saudi women drop plans for 'drive-in' after legal threats

This from AFP via Gulf News, printed October 25, 2013. A link to the story is here, and the story is below.

Dubai: Activists pressing for an end to Saudi Arabia’s ban on women driving have dropped plans to hold a “drive-in” Saturday after threats of legal action against anyone getting behind the wheel.

Instead, rather than making the date of October 26 a symbolic one, they have called for an open-ended campaign.

“Out of caution and respect for the interior ministry’s warnings ... we are asking women not to drive tomorrow and to change the initiative from an October 26 campaign to an open driving campaign,” activist Najla Al Hariri said on Friday.

Several women said they had received telephone calls from the ministry, which openly warned on Thursday of measures against activists who chose to participate, asking them to promise not to drive on Saturday.

Ministry spokesman General Mansur Al Turki said: “It is known that women in Saudi are banned from driving and laws will be applied against violators and those who demonstrate in support” of this cause.

On Wednesday, the ministry said it would crack down against anyone who attempts to “disturb public peace” by congregating or marching “under the pretext of an alleged day of female driving.”

In remarks to the Al Hayat daily published on Friday, Turki even warned against supporting the campaign online.

When asked what would happen to those who did, Turki said legal measures will be taken “against whoever violates the anti-cyber crimes law,” an offence punishable by up to five years in prison in the kingdom.

Activists have repeatedly insisted throughout their campaign that no demonstrations would be held in the country, which officially bans public gatherings.

A campaign website, where an online petition amassed more than 16,000 signatures before authorities blocked it two weeks later, was hacked on Friday.

“Drop the leadership of Saudi women,” read a cryptic message in English posted on the website, http://www.oct26driving.com.

Referring to Saturday, blogger Eman Nafjan said “the date was only symbolic, and women have begun driving before and will continue to drive after October 26.”

Over the past two weeks, videos posted online have shown women already driving in Saudi Arabia.

Women who have defied the law in the past have run into trouble with the authorities and been harassed by compatriots.

In 1990, authorities stopped 47 women who got behind the wheel in a demonstration against the driving ban

In 2011, activist Manal Al Sharif, one of the organisers of this Saturday’s campaign, was arrested and held nine days for posting online a video of herself behind the wheel.

That year Saudi police arrested a number of women who defied the driving ban and forced them to sign a pledge not to drive again.

Saudi women are forced to cover from head to toe and need permission from a male guardian to travel, work and marry.

Saudi king asked to lift driving ban

The following is an AFP story about a petition urging King Abdallah to lift the women's driving ban. It now as 600 signatures. A link to the story is here, . and the text is below. In another story, the BBC reports that Manal al-Sharif wrote a letter to the Saudi ruler, asking the same thing. Link to the BBC story is here.

(AFP) – June 13, 2012

RIYADH — Hundreds of people have petitioned Saudi King Abdullah to allow women to get behind the wheel on the first anniversary of the Women2Drive campaign launched in June 2011.

The signatories, who numbered nearly 600 on Wednesday, are asking the king of the only country in the world that forbids women to drive to "encourage women who have obtained driving licences from neighbouring countries to begin driving whenever necessary."
They also called on the monarch to "establish driving schools for women and (begin) issuing licences."

The petition thanked the king, a cautious reformer, for giving women the right to vote in municipal elections set to take place in 2015, saying "our initiative is not aimed at violating laws."

"We only want to enjoy the right to drive like all women over the world," said the petition signed by Manal al-Sherif, the icon of an Internet campaign launched last year urging Saudi women to defy the driving ban.

Najla Hariri, a Saudi mother who was freed after she was briefly arrested for driving in the western city of Jeddah in August, said "the petition will be handed to the king on our campaign's anniversary on Sunday."

Sheima Jastaniah, who was pardoned by the king after being sentenced to 10 lashes for breaking the driving ban last September, has also signed the petition.

Hundreds of women have driven since the campaign was launched and many of them have been arrested and forced to sign a pledge stating they will never drive again, according to activists.

A group of defiant women got behind the wheel of their cars last June in response to calls for nationwide action to break the ban.

The campaign, which spread through Facebook and Twitter, was the largest mass action since November 1990, when 47 Saudi women were arrested and punished after demonstrating in cars.

There is no law that specifically forbids women to drive, but the minister of interior formally banned women from driving following that protest.

Women who have the financial means hire drivers while others must depend on the goodwill of male relatives to get around.

They also have to be veiled in public and may not travel unless accompanied by their husbands or a close male relative.

Saudi Authorities to try Najla Hariri for Driving

The Associated Press is reporting today (9/26/2011) that authorities in Jeddah are going to bring housewife and mother Najla Hariri to trial for driving illegally. This is one day after King Abdallah announced that women would have the right to vote in the next municipal elections four years from now, and that he would begin appointing women to sit on his Consultative Council next year.

The text of the story is below, and a link to the piece on ABC News' website is here
They managed to mangle Ms. Hariri's name, both first and last.

Stay tuned for more updates.

From AP: Saudi Authorities to Try Woman for Driving

A Saudi lawyer and rights advocates say authorities will bring a Saudi activist to trial for defying the kingdom's female driving ban.

The attorney, Waleed Aboul Khair, says Najalaa Harrir was summoned for questioning by the prosecutor general in the port city of Jeddah on Sunday, the same day that Saudi King Abdullah introduced reforms giving women the right to vote and run in local elections four years from now.
Harrir is one of dozens of Saudi female activists behind a campaign called "My Right, My Dignity" that is aimed at ending discrimination against women, including the driving ban, in the ultraconservative Islamic country.

Harrir recently appeared in a TV show while driving her car in Jeddah.