A Fight for Women's Rights in Saudi Arabia

A first since 1990, Saudi Arabia experienced a petition for the rights of women to be able to drive at the beginning of this week. This particular demonstration was spread quickly by foot, text messaging, and emails - collecting, 1,100 signatures that were sent to King Abdullah last Sunday. The Committee for Women's Right to Drive's cofounder Wajeha al-Huwaider stated, "... we will not stop campaigning until we get the right to drive." Traditionally, Saudi Arabia is a strict Islamic, patriarchal country that does not allow women to travel, marry, or rent a place to stay without a male guardian. With a strict system of gender separation, Saudi Arabia is the only country that does not allow women to drive. The ban affects both locals and foreign women. Most women have to depend on taxis, public transportation, or hired drivers - which can cost nearly three-hundred U.S. dollars in one month. In the last petitioning of Saudi women's right to drive, forty-seven women protested by driving together through Riyahd and were detained, banned from traveling, stripped of their jobs, and segregated by their families. King Abdullah is known as a supporter of reform in Saudi Arabia. However, opinions of clerics and senior princes may change his mind otherwise on the matter of women mixing freely with unrelated men while driving.

The fight for equal rights has been a struggle for women in every country throughout history. Similar to the movements beginning in Saudi Arabia, women in America had to fight for their own rights as equals to men. In the duration of the 1840's, the United States experienced both cultural and economic changes resulting from the Revolution. Many issues of the time were not accepted by most Americans and reform groups attacked problems including slavery, the abuse of alcohol, and the rights of women. Throughout the Revolutionary era, women had the capability to establish themselves throughout society while the men were out fighting on the war front. Women began writing, publishing works, and attending reform organizations. The trigger that inspired the discussion of women's rights was the abolitionist movements where female members were in great numbers. Women took advantage of this and used their participation in this movement to promote female rights. The first women's rights convention in America took place at Seneca Falls, New York, July 1848. The result of this convention was the Declaration of Sentiments, which was modeled after the Declaration of Independence. Under the Declaration of Sentiments, "all men and women were created equal."



Sources & links
Saudi Women Petition for Right to Drive (Original Article)
Saudi Women Demand the Right to Drive
Women's History in America
Timeline of Women's Suffrage in the United States