Saudi women plan to petition the government next week over its ban on them driving cars.
A newly-formed group calling itself ‘The Society for Protecting and Defending Women’s Rights’ will present the petition to government on the anniversary of the Kingdom’s unification, Saudi daily Arab News reported on Sunday.
“We demand that the right of women to drive is given back to us,” the petition states, quoted the newspaper. “It’s a right that was enjoyed by our mothers and grandmothers in complete freedom to [utilize] the means of transportation in those times.”
The group has posted the petition on numerous websites and circulated it via email, and is asking not just Saudis, but people from across the world to sign it.
The petition is the first action taken by the group, which has been founded by Fawzeyah Al-Oyouni, human rights activist and wife of poet Ali Domaini, along with poet and human rights activist Wajeha Al-Huwaidar, social worker Haifa Osrah and others.
“Women are in urgent need of driving; it’s a basic need,” said one of the petition drive’s organizers, Al-Oyouni said, quoted Arab News.
“Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah said previously that it is not a political issue, it is a social one, and that the government does not object (to women driving).”
The government said last year that the decision to ban women from driving was a societal decision and not one based on any law.
The ban comes from a strict interpretation of a woman’s need to be with a legal guardian in public.
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