By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – More than 60 Saudi women claimed to have answered the call for women across the country to defy the state law forbidding women from driving in Saudi Arabia. This display of civil disobedience took place on Saturday, when activists for women’s rights across Saudi Arabia called on women to get behind the wheel of a car in defiance of the ultra-conservative state’s discriminatory laws.

The campaign for women’s rights in Saudi Arabia, particularly the campaign for the right of women to drive, has gained international attention on social media after numerous Saudi women filmed themselves driving in open defiance of the law and posted the videos to YouTube.

Saudi authorities stopped five women who were spotted driving in Riyadh. Fawaz Al-Meeman, an assistant spokesmen for the Riyadh police, said, “each case was dealt with accordingly.” He explained that the women were not taken to police stations. Instead, they were detained in their vehicles until their male guardians arrived at the scene, at which point they were released into the custody of their guardians.

Mai Al-Swayan posted a video to YouTube showing her driving from her home to a nearby grocery store in defiance of the law. She said, “I drove on the highway and was noticed by a couple of cars but they were fine with it.”

While Riyadh police did not take any women to police stations for breaking the law banning women from driving, that was not the case in other cities. In Jeddah, photographer Samia El-Moslimany said she was taken into custody for having driven a car. She said she was taken to a police station where another woman was being detained for having driven a car.

Saudi Arabia’s spokesman for the Interior Ministry Mansour Al-Turki said Saturday was a “normal day, just like every Saturday,” and said that he was not aware of any violations to the driving law, but regional police spokesmen said that if violations of the ban on women driving did occur, they would be dealt with. “Not just on the 26th. Before and after. At all times.”

The Interior Ministry issued a warning earlier in the week in response to the calls of activists women who openly defy the law. The warning was issued to women caught driving as well as anyone taking part in demonstrations.

Adam Coogle, a Saudi Arabia researcher for Human Rights Watch said the discriminatory driving laws in Saud Arabia are shameful and that the Saudi Interior Ministry is trying to “deflate the momentum” behind the activists campaign through “direct, individual intimidation.”

There is not a specific traffic law that prohibits women from driving in Saudi Arabia, but religious edicts are often interpreted to mean women are not allowed to operate a vehicle.

Sheikh Saleh Al-Loheidan, a prominent religious figure in Saudi Arabia, claimed that driving can have a negative impact on a women’s ovaries. He claimed that “medical studies show that it would automatically affect a woman’s ovaries and that it pushes the pelvis upward.”

For more information please see:

Al Jazeera – Saudi Women Defy Driving Ban across Country – 27 October 2013

CNN – Saudi Arabia Women Defy Authorities Over Female Driving Ban – 26 October 2013

CNN – Why Saudi Arabia Can’t Ban Women from Driving Forever – 25 October 2013

CNN – Saudi Cleric Warns Driving Could Damage Women’s Ovaries – 30 September 2013