Two Saudi female activists have filed law suits against the government for refusing to issue them driver’s licences and banning them from driving a car, they said on Saturday. Manal al-Sherif, the icon of an Internet campaign launched last year urging Saudi women to defy a ban on driving, and human rights activist Samar Badawi filed their suits against the interior ministry. Sherif, who was arrested in May 2011 and detained for 10 days after posting on YouTube a video of herself driving, said she decided to file the lawsuit after having been denied a driver’s licence.
“There is no actual law that states woman can’t drive” in Saudi Arabia and therefore “no justification for preventing them from issuing a licence,” said Sherif, one of the activists behind a “My Right, My Dignity” campaign aimed at ending discrimination against women in Saudi Arabia. Badawi said the grievance board at the interior ministry had informed
her to “follow-up in a week” to confirm a court appointment for her lawsuit. Ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia is the only country where women are not allowed to drive. However, they sit behind the wheel in desert regions away from the capital. Women in the kingdom who have the financial means hire drivers while others must depend on the goodwill of male relatives. They also have to be veiled in public and cannot travel unless accompanied by their husbands or a close male relative
Women's right to drive in Saudi Arabia is only a fringe of the overall problem.It is time now that all the kingdoms and dictatorships created by the western powers in Middle East after the first world war move into the modern era and allow the common man to participate in governance.Hopefully Arab Spring has started the process although it is going to be tough and bloody.There is no other way because the rulers,with their divine rights,refuse to see the emerging scenario.
Saudi Arabia is going on good way,why the females are allowed for driving cars.Where are the International Human Rights Organisations to start compaign agaisnt THE BAN OF REMOVAL OF HIJAB IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.WHY THEY HAVE KEPT CLOSED THEIR EYES ON THESE BASIC ANS DEMOCRATIC RIGHT OF LIVING WITH THEIR OWN TRADITIONS AND CUSTOMS? IF SOME THING IS THOUGHT AGAISNT MINORITY,IMMEDIATELY SO-CALLED HUMAN RIGHTS CRY AND STARTS SHOUTING.WE APPRECIATE SAUDI GOVERNMENT FOR ITS STAND ON THIS ISSUE.LOOK ON EID UL AZHA COWS AND ANIMALS ARE NOT ALLOWED PUBLICALLY TO BE SLAUGHTERED IN THAT SO-CALLED SECULAR COUNTRY.SO WHY UNISLAMIC ACTIVITIES ARE TO BE ALLOWED IN MUSLIM STATE.FRANCE,BELGIUM,GERMANY AND OTHER EUROPEAN COUNTRIES ACCORDING TO THEM THE MODERN AND DEMOCRATIC CHAMPIONS ARE FORFWITING THE RIGHT OF ITS MINORITIES.WHAT A CO-ACCIDENT AND DOUBLE POLICY.
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