WATCH: Saudi Woman Filmed Driving in Protest

Has not yet been arrested

  • Share
  • Read Later

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN0vnhPX2hc&feature=youtu.be]

A Saudi woman said that she was able to drive through the Saudi Arabia capital of Riyadh without being stopped by police.

Activists say that and at least 60 women have successfully driven in protest Saturday in Saudi Arabia, the only country to ban women from driving, the Associated Press reports.

A clip of the protest (above) was uploaded on YouTube, along with several other videos of Saudi women driving in Riyadh, al-Ahsa and Jeddah on Saturday, despite warning from police and conservatives against breaking the ban, according to The Guardian.

The woman in the video, May al-Sawyan, obtained a driver’s license from abroad. She drove with a local female television reporter—and no men—in the car, and said she was prepared to be jailed but happily found no problems while driving.

“There were some cars that drove by. They were surprised, but it was just a glance,” she told the Associated Press.

Reuters reported that police had put up checkpoints Saturday to deter female drivers, and some women stayed off the road after receiving phone calls from men who said they were from the interior ministry, according to the demonstration’s organizers. But Saudi women turned to Twitter and Facebook to encourage one another and inform each other of potential dangers and road blocks.

[The Guardian]

MORE: Forbidden to Drive: A Saudi Woman On Life Inside the Kingdom