Saudi women have officially been granted the right to drive a car
The decision was announced last September, and the first licenses began to be issued to women in early June. However, as BBC reports, before the ban was lifted, authorities intensified their crackdown on activists who advocated for women's right to drive. At least eight people who advocated for women's rights were detained last month, and they could face long prison sentences, according to the human rights organization Amnesty.
The campaign for the right of Saudi women to get behind the wheel had been going on for many years, but traditionally conservative theologians opposed this "innovation." On June 5, ten women received their licenses for the first time, exchanging their documents from other countries for Saudi ones. Local authorities expected that about two thousand women would receive licenses by the time the ban was lifted.
At the same time, some men in Saudi Arabia have already expressed their displeasure with the changes, spreading the Arabic hashtag "You will not drive" on social media.
The lifting of the ban is part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's program to modernize Saudi society. He initiated the Vision 2030 program, aimed at reducing the Saudi economy's dependence on oil and making society more open. However, women in Saudi Arabia still face many restrictions.
Saudi laws are based on the Sunni version of Islam known as Wahhabism, which enforces strict gender segregation. Women must adhere to strict dress codes. They cannot interact with men who are not their relatives, and if they need to go somewhere, go to work, or seek medical help, they must be accompanied by (or have written permission from) a man.
Incidentally, about 1.4 million private drivers work in Saudi Arabia. Of these, approximately 90% are foreign nationals, mainly from India and Southeast Asian countries. Their total annual income is about $7 billion. Many of them will lose their jobs as a result of the law change.