Saudi Arabia’s women can now drive — but activists jailed

As women in Saudi Arabia celebrate their right to drive from today, some of the women who campaigned hardest to get them there will not be allowed to join them.

While her female friends get behind the wheel legally for the first time, prominent women’s rights campaigner Loujain al-Hathloul will be behind bars.

Ms al-Hathloul is one of several women jailed since mid-May for their activism — a month before the Saudi Government promised to lift its longstanding ban on women driving.

She played a high-profile role in the Women2Drive campaign.

In 2014, she was famously arrested while trying to drive from the United Arab Emirates, where she held a valid driver’s licence, across the border into Saudi Arabia.

Footage of her journey was posted online and broadcast around the world. But after returning home, Ms al-Hathloul was jailed for 10 weeks and had her passport confiscated.

It was another three years before the Women2Drive campaign finally paid off.

But last September, on the same day the Government agreed to lift the ban, the Saudi Royal Court issued a decree ordering women like Ms al-Hathloul not to speak to the media.

Many of those targeted were the most vocal of all. And, as they continued to campaign publicly on other women’s rights issues, they remained under Government scrutiny.

Six women in jail over activism

At least nine women have been jailed since last month. Three were later released.

But six, including Ms al-Hathloul, remain in jail — along with two men who supported their campaign.

Some of the women prisoners are in their 60s and 70s, and many have spent their lives speaking out against discrimination.

Retired professor Aziza al-Yousef, 60, taught computer science at King Saud University for three decades.

In 2016, she began a petition against Saudi Arabia’s strict guardianship laws — which prohibit women from working, travelling or marrying, among other activities, without permission from a key male relative.

Human rights campaigner Eman al-Nafjan — who writes a blog about women’s rights, and has written regularly for publications including Foreign Policy magazine, Newsweek and The Guardian — also lobbied loudly to end the guardianship system.

Writer and activist Nouf Abdelaziz was arrested in early June, after supporting the cause of the other detainees.

A few days later, her friend Mayaa al-Zahrani was also arrested after reportedly posting a letter from Abdelaziz, professing her innocence.

“I am not a provoker, not a vandaliser, not a terrorist, a criminal or traitor,” the letter read.

“I have never been [anything] but a good citizen who loves her country and wishes for it nothing but the best.”

Human Rights Watch said the two women have been held incommunicado and demanded the immediate release of all those still detained since last month.

“The Saudi Government appears determined to leave its citizens without any space to show even rhetorical support for activists jailed in this unforgiving crackdown on dissent,” Human Rights Watch’s Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson said.

“Nouf Abdelaziz’s only crime seems to be expressing solidarity with their fellow imprisoned activists.”

Ban’s end must be followed by more reforms, Amnesty says

Ironically, the man behind the latest crackdown on women’s dissent is Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — the same man praised for removing the ban on women drivers and promising a raft of other social and economic reforms.

Amnesty International said some of the same women whose long-term campaign has helped overturn the driving ban now face a possible trial before the Saudi counter-terror court and up to 20 years in prison for their activism.

“While we welcome the fact that women can finally get behind the wheel, we should not forget that many people are still behind bars for their work in fighting for women’s rights in Saudi Arabia,” Amnesty International’s Middle East director Samah Hadid said.

“The latest crackdown on women’s rights activists comes despite [Prince Mohammed] presenting himself as a ‘reformer’.

“His international public relations campaign contrasts sharply with an intensifying crackdown on dissenting voices, including those campaigning for equal rights for women.”

The imprisonment of prominent women activists has seen the previous Women2Drive slogan replaced by a new campaign dubbed Beep4Freedom.

“We need you to tweet, hoot [and] shout aloud! #Beep4Freedom [and] tell Saudi to free them now,” Amnesty International posted on Twitter.

Amnesty International said the ban’s end must now be followed by other reforms to improve the plight of Saudi women.

“The lifting of the ban is a long-overdue small step in the right direction, but must now be followed by reforms to end a whole range of discriminatory laws and practices,” the organisation said.

“It is outrageous that women are still treated like second-class citizens in Saudi Arabia.

“The smear campaign that targeted these activists is unprecedented, and proves that any views that do not align with the Government’s reform agenda will not be publicly tolerated.”

When she launched her own campaign against the driving ban in 2013, Ms al-Hathloul said: “It is unjust for men authorities to stop us. There are no laws or regulations that forbid women from driving.”

Laws or not, Ms al-Hathloul may now have to park her own driving ambitions for weeks or months longer.

While other Saudi women will today put their foot on the accelerator, the best she can do is stamp her own foot in protest.