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Saudi women continue to break driving ban

May 12, 2014 at 3:45 pm

Saudi women continue to break the driving ban imposed on them. Analysts believe that in recent years the number of female students sent by their families to study abroad has increased, they believe that the women return with driving licences and a motivation to break the ban.

Meanwhile, Saudi traffic patrol and police insist on arresting female drivers and forcing them to sign statements not to drive again.

In Riyadh, a young female driver died after losing control of her car while speeding and hitting a wall in the early hours of the morning.

Saudi women living in remote villages and the desert have been driving for decades; a few years ago, an 80-year-old woman who was arrested for driving said she had been driving for over five decades.

The movement to allow women to drive has been gaining momentum and support in Saudi Arabia.

Recently, a university student was reported to have asked the Minister of the National Guard Prince Abdullah Bin Meteib about the driving ban during a conference on the challenges facing the Saudi national economy organised in the King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah. However, the Prince refused to comment on the issue.

Meanwhile, the Prince of the Jizan region Mohammed Bin Nasser said that there was no system that prevents or allows women to drive in the Kingdom, pointing out that there are laws that are difficult to change or limit.

Writer, Abdullah Al-Moghathi said through his Twitter account that women driving cars in Saudi Arabia is an inevitable reality. Al-Moghathi responded to a follower who supports the ban saying: “You will see women driving some day, and you will wonder how did we ever oppose it just as we opposed educating them in the past.”