Middle East
Saudi woman driver to be lashed
Court in Saudi Arabia sentences woman to 10 lashes for defying the country's ban on female drivers.
27 Sep 2011 19:42


The court order came two days after King Abdullah announced that women will be allowed to vote [AFP]
Amnesty International says a court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a woman to 10 lashes for challenging a ban on women driving in the conservative kingdom.

The sentence comes two days after Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud announced women would be allowed to vote and run in municipal elections for the first time in 2015.

"We are now working on a petition to the king ... asking him to stop the lashing order"

- Naila Attar, Saudi activist

He also promised to include them in the next all-appointed consultative Shura Council in 2013.

"Flogging is a cruel punishment in all circumstances but it beggars belief that the authorities in Saudi Arabia have imposed lashes on a woman apparently for merely driving a car", Philip Luther, an Amnesty regional deputy director, said in an emailed statement on Tuesday.

"Allowing women to vote in council elections is all well and good, but if they are still going to face being flogged for trying to exercise their right to freedom of movement then the king's much trumpeted 'reforms' actually amount to very little."

Two other women are also believed to be facing charges related to driving, the UK-based rights group statement said.

Driving 'a necessity'

Najla Hariri, one of the women facing charges, told the Reuters news agency: "They called me in for questioning on a charge of challenging the monarch on Sunday ... I signed a pledge not to drive again, although my driving was a result of necessity not an act of defiance."

Under Saudi Arabia's laws, women require a male guardian's permission to work, travel abroad or even undergo certain types of surgery.

There is no written law banning women from driving but there is a law requiring citizens to use locally issued licences while in the country.

Saudi women will be allowed to vote for the first time in 2015 but driving remains a banned activity.

Such licences are not issued to women, making it effectively illegal for them to drive.

In May, as pro-democracy protests swept across the region, some women in Saudi Arabia called for the right to drive.

A campaign dubbed Women2Drive issued calls on social media such as Twitter and Facebook to challenge the ban.

Some women posted on twitter that they drove successfully in the streets of Jeddah, Riyadh and Khobar while others said they were stopped by police who later let them go after signing a pledge not to drive again.

On May 22, Manal Alsharif, who posted a YouTube video of her driving in the streets of Khobar, was arrested.

She was later released but her case proved a deterrent for many women.

"I am very upset and disturbed ... I believe that this is a message which intends to tell women that they will not get all their demands," Naila Attar, an activist and one of the women who organised the campaign Baladi [My Country] said.

"We are now working on a petition to the king ... asking him to stop the lashing order," she said.

King Abdullah this is 2011! Not the Middle Ages
If you do this hideous punishment, your doomed kingdom, will even go down sooner than I thought

Oh now don't be so negative. The chubby guy in the background has a charming pink towel strapped to his noggin.. how bad can they really be??

Is that you tupa? or is it Blutarsky which one?
What say you? Indonesia?

Saudi Arabia: Woman Driver Verdict Reportedly Overturned By King

ABDULLAH AL-SHIHRI 09/28/11 04:37 PM ET

RIYADH, Saudi Arab — Saudi King Abdullah has overturned a court ruling sentencing a Saudi woman to be lashed 10 times for defying the kingdom's ban on female drivers, a government official said Wednesday.

The official declined to elaborate on the monarch's decision, and spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.

A Saudi court on Tuesday found Shaima Jastaina guilty of violating the driving ban, and sentenced her to 10 lashes. The verdict took Saudi women by surprise, coming just a day after King Abdullah promised to protect women's rights and decreed that women would be allowed to participate in municipal elections in 2015. Abdullah also promised to appoint women to a currently all-male advisory body known as the Shura Council.

The harsh sentence marked the first time a legal punishment had been handed down since female activists began their campaign in June to break the taboo in this ultraconservative Muslim nation.

There are no written laws that restrict women from driving. Rather, the ban is rooted in conservative traditions and religious views that hold giving freedom of movement to women would make them vulnerable to sins.

Normally, police just stop female drivers, question them and let them go after they sign a pledge not to drive again. But dozens of women have continued to take to the roads since June in a campaign to break the taboo.

Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that bans women – both Saudi and foreign – from driving. The prohibition forces families to hire live-in drivers, and those who cannot afford the $300 to $400 a month for a driver must rely on male relatives to drive them to work, school, shopping or the doctor.

The sentance will NOT take place as the KING has revoked the sentance and , of course ,is introducing new reforms to the country including the right to vote for the women .

I your haste to opine you didn't read the above post? It spells it clearly Mr. ADD.
Here is a web site that maybe can be of help to you: http://www.add.org/

On BBC this morning ,,a blogger from Saudi Arabia stated that there were thousands of women driving but occassionally one is fined or imprisoned for a day or two but this corporal punishment , he stated, was probably a set up so the King could pardon . It is a complete monarchy in Saudi Arabia , not just a constitutional monarchy , so the blogger suggested that it was good publicity for the KIng to show how magnanimous he was ...echoed in the Saudi press by his sister , a princess

Have you ever been to Saudi? Let me tell you ii is a police state, and a very autocratic government. You better walk a straight line otherwise the moral goons will get you.
Arabs in general are also full of it, and you can only believe a small percentage of what they say. What you published above is complete nonsense, and propaganda, also not true. Never saw a woman driving in Saudi, and there are thousands of these "princes" and "princess" running around, and yes they are all real.
The above case is not the first one. there have been many, and well kept in the dark.
The horror stories of mistreatment of foreign workers, maids, drivers, nurses, is legendary, and very well documented. Also the dual morality of Saudi's that go kneel on fridays to the mosque, and then go home to their porno movies and get drunk on imported scotch.

Yes I have been to most of the Arab states,both on official business and later as a guest , and although I would not like to live there because of the lack of personal freedoms that I enjoy . I do not like to judge these cultures which are so different to my caucasian upbringing . I am prepared to listen to the blogger on BBC and to read the various reports ,I have noted the various problems that foreigners have had in Saudi Arabia and other Arab states when they are indiscreet with drinking and other perceived vices .
But from all the information that I have read, King Abdullah has increased the wealth of most of his people and he is progressively introducing reforms that give more equality to women .And yes , there is a double standard there and in many Arab states and I think the key word is discretion .
I have never heard anyone call Saudi Arabia a police state but it is most certainly not free as in the normal sense .