10 lashes for Saudi woman who drove
A Saudi woman has been sentenced to 10 lashes for defying the kingdom’s ban on female drivers, according to recent reports. The sentencing is the first of its kind since the social media-based Women2Drive movement launched in the country a few months ago.
The Associated Press says Shaima Ghassaniya was found guilty Tuesday of driving without the Saudi government’s permission. A report from the BBC, which identifies the woman as “Shema,” says the woman had been driving in the city of Jeddah in July.
News of the sentencing comes two days after Saudi King Abdullah announced that the kingdom’s women would have the right to vote and run in local elections — for the first time — in 2015. Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world to prevent women — Saudi and foreign alike — from driving. Though there is no written law keeping women from driving, religious rulings enforced by the police have the same effect as a ban. Women tend to rely on live-in drivers or male relatives for transportation.
As a result, the Women2Drive movement was born, with its mission promoted via sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Women were asked to drive their own cars on June 17 — and some have continued doing so since that date.
Sara al-Haidar, a Saudi woman who doesn’t know how to drive, has been involved with the driving campaign by shooting videos of her mother driving and uploading them. She has also participated in a campaign asking automobile company Subaru to leave Saudi Arabia until women have the right to drive. She says she is outraged and humiliated if news of this latest sentencing is true.
“I’m hoping that there’s an underlying issue that we don’t know about concerning this specific individual. In Islam, adulterers — male and female — are lashed,” she says. “A man can go out and drive his car. A woman can go and drive and be lashed. Where’s the equality there? It makes you think it has nothing to do with religion.”
But she also feels that it’s important for the campaign to continue.
“I was just talking to my mom about this — I was saying, if it’s 10 lashes, I say bring it on. I’ll take that to stand for my rights,” she says. “That being said, I’d have to say please don’t lash me. But if that’s what it takes to get things done, that’s what we’re going to have to deal with.”
While the lashings are the first sentencing of their kind for defying the driving ban, other women have been dealing with additional consequences as well. Najla Hariri, who has defied the ban more than once, is now trial. Just last month, Hariri was briefly arrested and released without having to sign a pledge promising not to drive again — something most other women had to do when detained for going behind the wheel.
The Wall Street Journal is also reporting that Madihah Al-Agroosh, part of a group of women who drove in 1991, was arrested for driving Tuesday in Riyadh. (The Women2Drive account on Twitter, @W2Drive, has been providing updates, saying that Al-Agroosh has been waiting on the street for a taxi.)
Meanwhile, the campaign for women to drive continues in other forms online. #Women2Drive remains an active hashtag on Twitter, and a newer one — #Right2Dignity — has also made an appearance. Activist group Saudi Women for Driving has also launched a new Change.org petition asking King Abdullah to “immediately resolve the issue of women driving” now that women have been granted the right to vote. At the time of writing, the petition has more than 8,000 signatures.
