A Few Brave Women Dare Take Wheel in Defiance of Saudi Law

Good luck ladies,
www.bloomberg.com...

Manal, a 32-year-old woman, is planning something she’s never done openly in her native Saudi Arabia: Get in her car and take to the streets, defying a ban on female drivers in the kingdom.

Manal and 10 other people are organizing a campaign on Facebook and Twitter urging Saudi women with international driver’s licenses to join them starting June 17, risking their jobs and their freedom. The coordinated plan isn’t a protest, she said.

“I’m doing it because I’m frustrated, angry and mad,” Manal, who asked to be identified only by her first name, said in an interview from the eastern city of Dhahran. “It’s 2011 and we’re still discussing this insignificant right for women.”

The risk the women are willing to take underscores both their exasperation with the restrictions and the infectious nature of the changes sweeping the region. Saudi Arabia, which has the world’s biggest oil reserves, so far has avoided the mass demonstrations that have toppled the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt and threaten officials in Libya, Yemen and Syria.

I will drive starting June 17, link, has a video,
SaudiWomenDrive

vimeo.com...

My mother never drove, she was shocked that I did, but yes, change will begin when the women decide to stop being considered second class citizens.

Now, with this in mind, what percentage of this forum is female?, was it around 40%? I can't remember, would you ladies like to post an opinion?

reply to post by Stormdancer777

risking their jobs and their freedom.

What about risking their lives?!?!?

Until you get Muslim men onboard with this, it ain't gonna' work.

Prepare to be stoned to death or worse.

Originally posted by Signals
reply to post by Stormdancer777

 

risking their jobs and their freedom.

What about risking their lives?!?!?

Until you get Muslim men onboard with this, it ain't gonna' work.

Prepare to be stoned to death or worse.

I think they know the risk they are about to take, I wish them well.

reply to post by Signals



What about risking their lives?!?!?


Who else is going to champion them..? They will have do this themselves, or they will continue to live under the old Greek philosophy of:

A woman for babies, a man for pleasure.

Of all the philosophical conjecture out there, the muslims had to adopt that one...





Good luck ladies..! And make sure to run over a few of the local patriarchs when no ones lookin'...

I wish em well, But its a shame that this is what its got to come to in the modern era.
2nd line

Thanks for the replies, folks, are any of you female?

I guess we will see what happens in June.

Wow I say good luck to them!



Says it all!

ALS

Female here!

I wish these women much fortitude and good fortune! They're going to need it.

Every oppressed group has to stand up FOR THEMSELVES! No one can do it for them. Bless them! There will be hurdles to overcome, just as there are when any group stands up. Look at the black people and gay people who have been killed right here in the USA for standing up and owning their lives! Women will die over this. But they're dying now.

These women know what they're up against and I support them all the way!

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic


Odd how few women are weighing in on a topic pertaining to their sisters.

It's encouraging to see they are taking matters into their own hands, but frightening to think of the price they could pay.

If they are successful, this could be a giant step..... and maybe the time and place is right, because the Saudi's don't want what's happening in Egypt and Libya to happen there. So maybe they will acquiesce, and other middle eastern countries will follow suit.

With all my heart, I wish them the best.

Originally posted by ladyinwaiting
maybe the time and place is right, because the Saudi's don't want what's happening in Egypt and Libya to happen there. So maybe they will acquiesce, and other middle eastern countries will follow suit.

With all my heart, I wish them the best.

Agree!

To the brave Saudi women who in 1990 drove, your younger sisters are now ready to follow your example. What I take for granted, you must continue to struggle for.

reply to post by ladyinwaiting

and maybe the time and place is right, because the Saudi's don't want what's happening in Egypt and Libya to happen there.

That's a good point, hadn't crossed my mind.

Saudi woman detained for defying driving ban
apnews.myway.com...

Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world to ban women - both Saudi and foreign - from driving. The prohibition forces families to hire live-in drivers, and those who cannot afford the $300 to $400 a month for a driver must rely on male relatives to drive them to work, school, shopping or the doctor.

Women are also barred from voting

Go the women of Saudi Arabia!

I wish them well in their stand against their insane laws!


I never knew they couldn't drive there, that has to be horrible! Driving gives you freedom and independance imo.

I hope they do well and I hope nobody is hurt in the process.

Facebook page calls for beating Saudi women drivers
www.breitbart.com...

A campaign has been launched on Facebook calling for men to beat Saudi women who drive their cars in a planned protest next month against the ultra-conservative kingdom's ban on women taking the wheel.

The call comes as activists are demanding the release of Manal al-Sharif, a Saudi woman who was jailed for defying the ban.

The page, titled "The Iqal Campaign: June 17 for preventing women from driving," refers to the Arabic name for the cord used to hold on the traditional headdress worn by many men in the Gulf, advocating the cord be used to hit women who dare to drive.

I wish them well.

They are literally placing their lives in jeopardy. That takes a sort of courage that few of us have. Saudi Arabia, and much of the Middle East are still living in the middle ages, it's time, and past, for them to join the 21st century.

I wish them well.

How dare they violate policy!

The noble men upholding the policy will no doubt be remembered for their brave treatment of these violators.

Policy is king! If you dont like it change the policy but never go against the policy.

At least that's what I understand from the policy pounding cops who frequent our boards when a violator of policy is apprehended here in the "free" Western world.

Policy enforcement is policy enforcement whether it's a cop in Ohio or some cleric nut in Saudi Arabia.

I hope these women are kept safe from the flavor of policy enforcement that surely awaits them.

Video about Saudi women are organizing a mass drive for the17th of June. Goats can ride in the front seat but the women can't drive, sit in the back seat.


After this I wonder if they'll campaign to be able to eat at the same place that men eat. Well I guess technically they can but they have to use the back door and eat in a separate room. Religious police enforce these rules and violators get a swift blow from a stick.

Originally posted by Stormdancer777
Saudi woman detained for defying driving ban
apnews.myway.com...

Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world to ban women - both Saudi and foreign - from driving. The prohibition forces families to hire live-in drivers, and those who cannot afford the $300 to $400 a month for a driver must rely on male relatives to drive them to work, school, shopping or the doctor.

Women are also barred from voting

Good for these women! You have to start somewhere, maybe they will pay a price, but isn't that what history is? People who stood up for changes and made changes, we read about them in books today, and in some cases we still revere them.
Saudi's can his my arse. I have a passion for cars, I build them, buy them, race them. Saudi's wont let me drive? Piss off. I'd have my head chopped off in a week if I lived there,but you better believe I'd chop off as many heads and body parts (ahem) of the men I could before I went out. Ladies get the hell out of there, elsewhere We've COME A LONG WAY BABY!

Not a feminist, just a gal who believes women can do anything as good or better.