"There is no written law banning women from driving, it's just the known thing that women can't drive. And police arrest women if they drive in public. What's worse [is] that Saudi has no public transportation like the rest of the world. So moving around or going to work is piece of hell and very expensive."
If you visit our FaceBook event, she said, "we have 558 attendees and the number is increasing every hour. Our twitter page is followed by almost 800 followers. We are contacting everyone, asked for help from moviemakers, photographers and cartoonist to support us. And we created a group of female volunteers to teach women how to drive for free to prepare them. We also have men too supporting us so much. and we will get Islamic scholars and public figures supporting our cause too. And we are writing a letter to King Abdallah himself with this decision."
The Group's statement on its Facebook page, found at ( http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=117325311683192) declares:
"On June 17th, 2011, we women in Saudi Arabia, from all nationalities, will start driving our cars by ourselves. We are not here to break the law or demonstrate or challenge the authorities, we are here to claim one of our simplest rights. We have driver's licenses and we will abide by the traffic laws. Enough with the talk... we are here to walk the talk and just do it. it's about time!"
The women are using all the new social networking tools to recruit more drivers and raise public awareness of the activity. There has not yet been any official response from the Saudi government. Its twitter account is:
http://twitter.com/#!/Women2Drive .
I'm sure a lot of us remember the "listening tour" to Saudi Arabia embarked upon by George Bush's public diplomacy advisor, Karen Hughes, back in 2005. Her job was to spread the American message to Muslim publics. But, in Saudi Arabia, one of those publics -- rich women -- had a decidedly pointed message for Ms. Hughes.
The New York Times reported that on September 27th, in Jeddah, "the audience - 500 women covered in black at a Saudi university - seemed an ideal place for Karen P. Hughes, a senior Bush administration official charged with spreading the American message in the Muslim world, to make her pitch."
But, as The New York Times noted, "The response"was not what she and her aides expected. When Ms. Hughes expressed the hope here that Saudi women would be able to drive and "fully participate in society" much as they do in her country, many challenged her.
"The general image of the Arab woman is that she isn't happy," one audience member said. "Well, we're all pretty happy." The room, full of students, faculty members and some professionals, resounded with applause, according to The Times.
The paper said Ms. Hughes "seemed clearly taken aback as the women told her that just because they were not allowed to vote or drive that did not mean they were treated unfairly or imprisoned in their own homes.
Several women told The Times later that Americans failed to understand that their traditional society was embraced by men and women alike.
"There is more male chauvinism in my profession in Europe and America than in my country," said Dr. Siddiqa Kamal, an obstetrician and gynecologist who runs her own hospital.
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