Saudi Women Fight Driving Ban

Saudi Arabian women are mounting a challenge to the ban on female drivers in a rare sign of public opposition to the kingdom's ultra-conservative social mores.

The Committee of Demanders of Women's Right to Drive is to submit its petition - the normal form of communication with King Abdullah - to mark Saudi national day next week.

The appeal has sparked debate in the media, but there is said to be little immediate chance of it succeeding.

This is a sensitive but no longer a taboo subject, though the organizers are being careful to present it as a social, not a religious or political question. "And since it's a social issue, we have the right to lobby for it," argued Fawziyyah al-Oyouni, a founding member of the committee. "This is a right that has been delayed for too long."

Activists circulating the petition by email and on websites say they are relying on statements made by government officials and the fact that no law explicitly states that women may not drive. The ban flows from a strict interpretation of the woman's need to be accompanied by a legal guardian in public.

Islamic scholars argue that allowing women to drive would mean they might interact with non-related men such as police officers or car mechanics - and that would be the start of a slippery slope.

Critics counter that the alternative is to use drivers who are also likely to be strangers. Women who cannot afford the $150-$200 a month needed to employ a driver must rely on male relatives to drive them. The ban applies to foreign women residents as well as Saudi citizens.

The issue has been tackled before. In November 1990, as US troops landed in the kingdom to defend it after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, 47 women took off their veils and were briefly detained while driving cars in Riyadh - and demanding the right to do so. The women were dismissed from their jobs, their passports were revoked and were denounced by the Muttawa or religious police as "fallen women".

There have been some recent signs of progress, with workplaces establishing separate sections for female employees. King Abdullah said after coming to the throne in 2005 that women would be permitted to drive one day but he would not permit it against the will of his people.

The Saudi novelist Abdu Khal commented last week that the ban had isolated the kingdom from the rest of the world. "Other than our scholars, of course, no one has said that allowing women to drive might lead to moral corruption," he wrote. "Are we the only Muslims on earth?"

The petition is the first action taken by the newly-formed Society for Protecting and Defending Women's Rights, which says it plans to tackle other issues such as domestic abuse.