Saudi women petition King Abdullah

Saudi Arabian women are seeking a meeting with King Abdullah after petitioning the monarch to end a ban on female drivers, according to Bloomberg. Such a meeting would represent the first public challenge to the prohibition in 17 years.

"Our aim was to start a social dialogue that tables this issue and the rights of women," Fawziyah al-Oyouni, founder of the Committee of Demanders of Women's Right to Drive Cars told Bloomberg. "We have succeeded in doing that," she added.

The committee submitted a petition to King Abdullah September 23 with 1,100 signatories.

The agency reports that while Saudi Arabia is the only country that prohibits women from driving, women in the kingdom last challenged the ban on Nov. 6, 1990, when 47 drove in convoy through Riyadh.

They had their passports temporarily confiscated and were banned from employment for two years, the original protesters have said.

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