Manal al-Sharif

The Road To Freedom: Manal al-Sharif's Fight for Women's Rights

To many of us in the United States there are only a few ways to be arrested while driving; DUIs, breaking traffic laws, etc, but we would not expect to be arrested simply for being women drivers. According to Manal al-Sharif, however, that's exactly what happened to her. Until recently, Saudi Arabia was home to a unique law that forbade women from driving motor vehicles (1). Women are required to receive permission from male guardians to travel, work, or even have access to healthcare. This plus the inability to drive severely limits the mobility of Saudi Arabian women (1). 

The logo of the Women2Drive movement

The controversial ban has long been protested, with activists organizing in the 1990s but it wasn't until around 2010, with the creation of the Women2Drive movement that things began to change (2). Co-founded by Manal al-Sharif, the Women2Drive movement began with a Facebook group advocating that women's inability to drive in the country made them more vulnerable and susceptible to danger (2). Wajeha al-Huwaider, who had made headlines in 2008 for filming herself driving, expressed interest in the campaign and pledged herself to the cause (2). Soon, the cause called on all women in Saudi Arabia with international driver's licenses to defy the law and drive on public roads, beginning on June 17th (3). Al-Sharif followed in al-Huwaider's footsteps and posted a video of herself driving in 2011, a few days before the mass driving event (3). This resulted in the 10-day detention of al-Sharif (3).

al-Sharif, the face of the Women2Drive movement

However, the event still continued and hundreds of women took to the streets and drove in defiance (3). The Women2Drive movement posted more videos of themselves driving in 2013, despite threats of arrest and detention (3). And in 2014, even more driving activists were detained, for a total of 70 days combined (3). These women placed themselves in dangerous situations, simply by daring to drive! Multiple activists were placed on lists that disqualified them from voting in elections because of the driving, elections they had just recently gained the right to vote in in 2015 (4). 

For Manal al-Sharif, the newfound face of the movement, the Saudi Arabian government would only be harsher. A variety of smear campaigns began against the activists, including al-Sharif, labeling them as traitors working with "foreign entities" (4). Other activists were placed under travel bans, under the condition they cut all ties to the driving movement (4). 

Al-Sharif would eventually flee the country, moving to Australia. However, even distance couldn't prevent al-Sharif from the Saudi Arabian government. As she explains in an article for TIME magazine, al-Sharif planned to revisit the country after the lift of the ban, 7 years after her initial video (1). But with the arrests of 11 activists in May 2018, Manal al-Sharif expressed that her home country was declaring a "war on women" (2). 

"The only charges the women in jail today are facing are for contacting foreign organizations. These foreign organizations are human rights organizations...These women were hunted down and taken from their homes. Women living abroad were flown to Saudi Arabia and literally kidnapped...[some] activists were put in a secret prison, where they were tortured and sexually assaulted," al-Sharif explains (2). 

A screenshot from al-Sharif's 2011 driving video

While al-Sharif remains relatively safe in Australia, she fears for her eldest son. When a Saudi citizen marries a non-Saudi, the government must approve the marriage, according to al-Sharif (2). Manal al-Sharif's second marriage was never approved, meaning her son from the marriage is not recognized. He will never gain a visa to enter Saudi Arabia (2). Her two sons, one of which is from her previous marriage, have never met and, as al-Sharif explains: "The only way to be with one is to leave the other" (2).

News articles and interviews about this movement have gone viral over the years, especially since the long-awaited removal of the driving ban in 2018. What many of us take for granted in the United States is our mobility, our right to drive. Some of the most current human rights issues center around access and mobility; access to education, access to health care, access to clean water and more. Saudi Arabia's, a country often criticized for their human rights violations, decision to finally grant women the right to drive doesn't just affect the women in the kingdom but women everywhere and, as al-Sharif puts it, "..the fight for women's rights anywhere contributes to the fight for women's rights everywhere" (2).

Sources:

1. "Saudi Arabia Issues first driver’s licenses to women.” BBC News, 5 Jun. 2018.

2.  al-Sharif, Manal. “Why Saudi Arabia’s War on Women Is Only Getting Worse.” TIME, 10, Apr. 2019.

3.  Begum, Rothna. “The Brave Female Activists Who Fought to Lift Saudi Arabia’s Driving Ban.” Human Rights Watch, 29 Sept. 2017.

4. Haynes, Suyin. “As Saudi Women Take the Wheel, Leading Activists Remain Behind Bars.” TIME, 27 Jun. 2018.