Saudi women celebrate huge protest car ride

Remarkable day
The women have quietly gathered every year at one of their homes to mark the anniversary. At one previous meeting, they ordered a cake shaped like a Volkswagen beetle with women piled inside it. This year, they were congratulated by fans in online chat rooms, but there was no mention of the occasion in Saudi-controlled media.

On that sunny November day in 1990, the 47 women met at a mall parking lot. Fifteen of them — those with international driving licenses — dismissed their drivers and got behind the wheel as the other women piled into the cars.

"My driver was afraid he would lose his job," said Fowziya al-Bikr, an education professor.

They then drove around Riyadh's highways for more than an hour before they were stopped by police accompanying members of the religious police, enforcers of Saudi Arabia's strict interpretation of Islamic law.

The women were taken to a prison cell that was so small they had to remain standing. Most were released a few hours later to their male guardians, mainly husbands. The rest were freed the next day.

'Our action has galvanized society'
The reaction, spearheaded by the religious establishment and conservative Saudis, was phenomenal. Clergymen denounced the women's action in Friday sermons as criminal and aimed at corrupting Muslim societies. Leaflets described the drivers as "fallen women" carrying out an American plot. Some of the women even received calls with death threats.

The government list of their names and those of their male guardians was leaked and distributed by zealots in leaflets across the kingdom. One had an added comment: "These are the names of the fallen women and some of the communists and liberals who stand behind them. Do what is necessary."

But there wasn't only denunciation. Some Saudis wrote poems praising the drivers. And, remarkably for a male-dominated society, the women's husbands, fathers and brothers stood by them and not one of them was divorced because of their actions.

Al-Sowayan said that even though women are still unable to drive, "our action has galvanized society."

"I have no regrets," said al-Sowayan, a sociologist. "But today, I would not repeat it. I would instead move to get more personal rights for women."

Commenting on the often-repeated argument that the women's defiant action has made the government more rigid on the issue, al-Bikr said: "On that day, the world woke up and asked, If women can't have this simple right, what other rights don't they have?"

Al-Bikr said not only would she do it again, this time she would bring along her 13-year-old daughter.

"The new generation should have their chance even if it may mean ruining her chance to get a good husband," joked al-Bikr.

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