While Saudi Women Hit the Roads, Activists Are Waiting to Be Released

The ban on Saudi Arabian women’s right to drive has officially been lifted after decades. As a mark of celebration, many Saudi Arabian women took to the wheel on Sunday midnight. Having said that, campaigners who fought to allow women to drive are still in detention.

Saudi Arabia started issuing licenses to women this month, though the change was announced last September. There was a kind of festive and celebratory atmosphere in the country after the good news began circulating. New female drivers played loud music in their cars; some celebrated with friends, traffic police presented women drivers with flowers and women took to social media to share photos of themselves behind the wheel.

Women and children cheered other female drivers who hit the road at midnight and several male drivers supported women by showing a thumbs up. To mark the historical day, Aseel Al Hamad- the first woman to become a member of the Saudi Arabian Motorsport Federation drove a Formula One car in France just hours before the French Grand Prix. “It is a historic moment for every Saudi woman," Saudi television presenter Sabika al-Dosari told the AFP news agency.

According to Saudi Interior Ministry, more than 120,000 women have applied for licenses and the demands are quite high. The first driving licenses were issued to women on June 4th.  On June 5 ten women became first female license holders after swapping their foreign licenses with Saudi Arabian ones. The Saudi Authorities previously stated that they expected around 2000 women to receive licenses by the time the ban was lifted.

Activists who campaigned are still behind bars

Ironically, despite the celebrations, Amnesty (Human Rights group) says many female activists who fought to lift the ban on female driving are detained and could face trial in a counter-terrorism court or face long prison sentences. Among them are social media figure Loujain al-Hathloul, University Professor Eman al-Nafjan, and Aziza Al-Yousef, a 60-year-old mother of five. These women were branded as “traitors” by social media. Many women were arrested last month too. Earlier, dozens of women were arrested for driving in Riyadh in 1990. Amnesty has also called for wider reforms in the country.

Some activists are now residing outside the country like Manal-al-Sharif who was arrested for driving in 2011 and is now living in Australia. She cheered all the Saudi women via twitter calling them “Unstoppable.” In addition, the activist has announced a new campaign to free the activists and to end Saudi Arabian’s male guardianship system which requires a male relative or any other guardian’s consent for women to work, travel abroad or to get married.

Saudi Arabia was the only country left in the world where women could not drive. And if females had to travel, private chauffeurs had to be hired for them. The move is a great milestone for women in Saudi Arabia who had to depend on drivers, male relatives, and taxi services to move around in their own country.