Daring To Drive 9-12-2017

^{12, September 2017                           Daring To Drive}

^{Manual Al-Sharif superb book, ‘Daring to Drive’ provides a disturbing insight into the suffocating life for women in Saudi Arabia. In 2011 “Rosa Parks” Manual defied Saudi’s archaic laws and decided to drive alone, and was promptly arrested and charged with “driving while female”.}

^{In 1990, prior to Manual’s courageous effort to buck the Saudi dominated patriarchal system, forty-seven women defied the ban on driving. For 30 minutes (much like Thelma and Louise) they set up their cars in a convoy and drove around the capital City, Riyadh, until the religious police caught and arrested them. These 47 women, known as the “women drivers” were vilified for the rest of their lives. Those who had government jobs were fired and suffered religious persecution. The late journalist and photographer, Saleh Al-Azzaz who documented the protest was arrested and tortured. The cruel irony - there is nothing in the Saudi traffic code that prohibits women driving.}