Saudi Arabia: Women Behind the Wheel  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

This post is part of our special coverage Global Development 2011.
Several Saudi women took the wheel yesterday to break the siege on driving in Saudi Arabia, where women are banned from driving cars. The campaign to drive was announced on Facebook, and fueled by conversations on other social media platforms, such as micro-blogging site Twitter.
Laila Sindi, from Jeddah, shares her experience in a series of tweets [ar].
She starts saying:
طبعا كان إعلان المكان والتوقيت مجرد تمويه.. لم نخرج الساعة ٥ فجرا ولا كنا في منطقة العوالي.. #women2drive
Instead, they left at 9am:
Accompanied by her cousin and a friend, Laila drove. They all wore the head cover (Hijab) but had their faces showing.
The roads were clear, but not empty:
Laila sums up the reactions of passers-by as follows:
Ten minutes into the drive, the unexpected happens:
At the checkpoint, an officer and a soldier asked them to stop the car and step out of it. Laila explains:
She adds:
And continues:
While outside, the soldier spoke on the phone:
نزل وتكلم بجواله ثم عاد وأخذ حقائبنا وخرجبدأ في تفتيشها خارج السيارة.. أعترف أنني بدأت أصرخ وأشتم وصديقتنا انهارت وتبكي #women2drive
About 15 minutes later, the soldier returned to the car, handing the girls back their bags, but keeping their mobile phones so that they don't record any footage or call their relatives.
Laila explains:
هددته بالفضيحة والمقاضاة فلم يرد وقالت له سناء بنت عمي أن والدها سيرفع دعوى فلم يرد وقاد السيارة الى طريق العابدية وقلقنا جدا #women2drive
She then continues:
And adds:
Laila tweets that the soldier said that he was there to help them.
وقال انه من “عيال مكة” وان لو قبض علينا راح يصير لنا شيء مو طيب ابدا فقرر يساعدنا.. طبعا ما صدقته واصريت اكلم والدي #women2drive
She notes:
And continues:
Laila says they decided to trust him and let them return them home.
The girls stayed in the back of the car for around two hours. Laila writes:
and continues:
After an hour, the soldier told them that he would return them home during the noon prayer, when the roads were empty. She explains:
وفعلا جلسنا في سيارته اكثر من ساعتين وبعد اقامة صلاة الجمعة بدا في السواقة في اتجاه بيت بنت عمي والجندي يسوق سيارتنا #women2drive
The officer turns out to be a good Samaritan.
The officer however kept their mobile phones:
وصلنا بيت عمي ونزلنا وشكرناه وراح هو والجندي وطبعا صادر الجوالات احتياطا واعتذر وقال انسوا جوالاتكم #women2drive
She concludes:
Many videos were uploaded on YouTube, showing women driving their cars in the Kingdom. Estimates show that between 20 to 50 women challenged the ban on driving and got behind the wheels. The news was relayed on social networks, where even husbands showed off their wives driving skills.
Aziza134 shares this video showing a woman driving:
On Storify, PaulTOwen shares this collection of Twitter reactions to women driving in Saudi here.
For more reactions on Twitter, follow the hash tag Women2Drive
This post is part of our special coverage Global Development 2011.