The beginning of feminist activity...

 News Center - in the first and second parts, we mentioned how tribes in Saudi Arabia contribute to suffering of women, destroying their human value and their deliberate exclusion from social and political life by using religion to serve the state.

 The authority reinforces the parental system that allows men to control the most accurate details of a woman's life.

 It is not possible to talk about the laws of family and women in Saudi Arabia in an impartial manner, because they are unfair, women haven’t been able to leave their home, travel alone, marry, and even divorce without taking permission from a "guardian" man, under the name of the guardianship system since the late seventies of the last century.

 After getting rid of guardianship law, allowing for every Saudi woman to drive a car on June 24, 2018, and women are more optimistic about repealing the guardianship law through vigorous claims.

The arrest of activists for more than a quarter of a century

1-  Driving a car

 The activists focused on the right of women to drive a car and break the ban imposed in the country since 1957, and they organized four campaigns that started in 1990 and increased in intensity after the Arab Spring began in 2011 and ended in 2014.

 The authorities have violently responded to any human rights movements. The Saudi feminist movement began in 1990, more than 47 women have been dismissed and prevented from traveling after driving 13 cars in the country’s capital, Riyadh.

 In 2009, a writer and human rights activist Wajiha Al-Huwaider and journalist Ibtihal Al-Mubarak filed a petition with the signature of 1,100 men and women to the king to demand the lifting of the ban on driving for women. Wajiha had been prohibited from writing for any newspapers since 2003, and she was arrested in the summer 2006, because she carried a banner demanding Saudi women to be granted their rights, and the authorities forced her to sign a pledge not to perform any field or electronic activities.

Women leading the feminist movement intensified their activities In the beginning of the Arab Spring and launched the second campaign to have driving license... The activist Manal Al-Sharif was arrested on May 21, 2011, after she drove a car in the eastern province of Al-Khabar, and then she was released after paying a fine   and pledging not to drive in Saudi Arabia anymore.

 There is no written law or legislation in Saudi Arabia that prohibits women from driving, but women couldn’t have driving licenses they are prohibited from driving inside Saudi territory.

 On June 17, 2011, Manal Al-Sharif returned to launch a campaign on social media under the hashtag  "I will drive my car myself", ten women interacted with her and drove their cars in the main Saudi cities, and a day after that, they were arrested by the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.  Manal, who was accused of violating the system, received sympathy from Human Rights Watch, and it demanded the country to release her. Indeed, she was released after paying bail and signing a pledge to not drive again.

After two months, the activist Najla Hariri was arrested because she was driving in Tahlia Street of Jeddah. Najla participated in a campaign on social media with the hashtag "Women2Drive".

 In September 2011, Shaima Jastaniah was sentenced to ten lashes after driving a car in the streets of Jeddah but widespread public dissatisfaction pushed the late King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz to pardon her. Shaima said at the time that she had to go to the hospital and had no one to pick her up so she drove her car. Shaima was pardoned, but in return two journalists Nisreen Najmuddin and Samia Al-Essa were summoned to court.

 On October 26, 2013, the second campaign was launched, but it failed due to the strictness of the Ministry of the Interior and the ministry prevented the campaign from spreading. Activists responded to that unexpected failure by launching a campaign on social media said: women should drive on a day that does not exist in a year, and they called the campaign as "November 31 Leadership"

For that campaign, the activist Aziza Youssef was arrested on November 29, after driving her car in the streets of the capital, and then released after she signed a written commitment not to repeat this.

 The fourth and final campaign launched in 2014 was differed from its predecessors, the country witnessed a counter campaign on the blogging site Twitter in the name of “system and not compulsion”, they sided with the authorities “governors of the matter”, and the campaign demanding the driving ban to be lifted  for women describing the driving campaigns by force and outside the desire of Saudi society.  However, the campaign launched on March 29 with the hashtag #Saudi women drive their cars.

 A number of activists took risks and drove their cars, filmed videos, and posted them on their Twitter and Facebook accounts. Lujain Al-Hathloul, who has shown her solidarity with campaigns for driving since 2011, drove her father's car from the airport to her home during her visit to Saudi Arabia and posted her video on the "Kik" website, her father was summoned to the police station and forced to sign a pledge to not allow his daughter to drive in Saudi Arabia.

 She was re-arrested in 2015, after driving her car from the UAE to Saudi Arabia, taking advantage of Saudi laws that allow the driving licenses issued by Gulf countries and she was released after being held in custody for 37 days and was prevented from entering the Emirates.

On May 18, 2018, Lujain was arrested for the third time for a campaign caused the arrest of activists and clerics, the reason for the arrest was to violate religious and national constants and to communicate with suspicious foreign entities without mentioning other details, and the names in the list of detainees included Aziza Al-Youssef and Iman AL-Nafjan.

 The authorities worked to discredit the activists by publishing their photos on the local Saudi newspapers and newspapers belonging to its ally the United Arab Emirates, calling them creatures and embassy agents while preparing for their execution, and they were transferred to solitary confinement.

 On May 15, 2018, Aisha Al-Mana, Walaa Al-Shubar, Hessa Al-Sheikh, and Madiha Al-Ajroush were also arrested but they were not charged and then released.

 Meanwhile, Israa Al-Ghamam continued to be arrested as she was accused of supporting the demonstrations and posting videos on social media in an attempt to incite public opinion.

 Samar Badawi, a women’s rights activist, who won the International Brave Women Award, was also involved in the campaign against the driving ban on women between 2011 and 2012, and the news of her arrest was announced by a press release of Amnesty International at the beginning of 2016.

Samar Badawi was arrested along with Nassima Badawi on July 30, 2018, and Nassima Al-Sada was among the activists who were accused of working with foreign embassies and her detention continued despite the fact that her parents were disability.

 In the same year, Hatton Al-Fassi was arrested and she was the most prominent supporter for women to get their right to drive. She run for municipal elections held in 2011 and in 2015, and she is an academic and competent in the history of women.  Journalist and activist Nouf Abdel Aziz was arrested for launching a campaign for arrested people to be released. Maya Al-Zahrani was arrested after publishing an article about activist Nouf Abdel Aziz.

 In the second arrests campaign (April 5, 2019), a new group of activists, including Khadija al-Harbi, were  arrested even if she was pregnant, there are fears for her life after giving birth in prison.

A glimpse about most prominent arrested activists

 Aziza Al-Youssef: Born in Riyadh, at the age of 70, she studied computer science in the United States, and devoted her life to legal work in 2016, she talked about Saudi women's issues, wrote for local newspapers and appeared on television channels affiliated with the authority to demand the driving ban to be lifted and to call the end of the guardianship system. She discussed the issue of prohibiting men and women coming together in the country, her behavior was characterized by wide acceptance among the Saudi people and she discussed women's rights from both Islamic and liberal perspective.

 Lujain Al-Hathloul: Born in Jeddah in 1989, she traveled between France and Saudi Arabia and started her activities in the field of women's rights while studying French literature in Canada, and she held several meetings with Western media outlets about the status of Saudi women, but the authorities summoned her husband many times to force her to sign a pledge to not write on social media, and she was prevented from traveling, then she was arrested again last year in May and she is still held in prison.

 Iman Al-Nafjan: She is a writer, blogger, and academic. She was named one of Foreign Policy's Top 100 Global Thinkers in 2011. She was born in Taif, studied English literature in Britain spent her childhood in the United States, worked at King Saud University in Riyadh, and is the bridge between the movement Saudi Feminist movement and Western media, so she writes for the Guardian and criticizes the state system and the prohibition of leadership and gender segregation.

Driving ban lifted

 On September 26, 2017, King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz issued a statement to lift the driving ban, with the implementation of the decision beginning June 24, 2018.

 On June 4, 2018, a Saudi woman named Ahlam Al Thunyan received the first driving license as a Saudi woman, and posted her photo on her social media account.