March 11, 2008
Not Riding Shotgun In Saudi
-- By CNN's Octavia Nasr
Wajeha Al-Huwaider did what many women in Saudi Arabia can only dream of doing. She drove her car, an act banned in cities around the kingdom and only permitted in remote areas such as the one where Wajeha videotaped her message.  "For women to drive is not a political issue; it is not a religious issue. It is a social issue and we know that many women in our society are capable of driving cars. We also know that many families will allow their women to drive," says Al-Huwaider. To mark International Women's Day, Wajeha and her sister-in-law took a drive in the countryside, taped a video message and later posted it to YouTube for the whole world to see but especially for Saudi officials to hear. "On the occasion of this Women's day, we appeal to our interior minister his Highness Prince Nayef bin Abdel Aziz to permit us to drive," she adds in her plea. The last time women publicly demanded their right to drive in the ultra conservative kingdom, back in 1990, they were arrested by religious police and insulted in public. The row was then followed by a fatwa - a religious edict - officially banning women from driving in Saudi cities. Wajeha says this ban on women driving “paralyzes half the population." After repeated petitions to the king that went unanswered, Wajeha and 125 women, already holders of drivers' licenses from various countries, have signed a petition to the minister of interior asking him to lift the ban on women driving. A move they say they are willing to repeat until their voices are heard. Egyptian columnist Mona El-Tahawy believes the tactic will bear fruit: "She's protected herself in a way that's very clever; and in using YouTube, she's also connected to something that's becoming incredibly powerful in the Arab world and that's the internet. Either through blogs or social networking sites like Facebook and YouTube, you are seeing this kind of rumbling in the underground, which I think is about to bring about tremendous change in the years to come."
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