or on the street.. or behind the wheel.. i like the mention of 'family values.' i wonder if it's in the same family values book that wraps kids up in bombs and sends them places.
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Qatif, 12 August (AKI) - Saudi religious police have arrested a woman in the region of Qatif in eastern Saudi Arabia for driving a car.
The 47-year-old woman was spotted by agents from the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice after other men reported the woman, said Saudi daily Okaz.
The woman was later released after her family posted bail, and will now be put on trial.
There is no law in Saudi Arabia that prevents women from driving. However, fatwas or religious edicts, have been issued by Wahhabi scholars saying it is sinful for women to drive.
Conservatives argue that if women were allowed to drive, this would lead to women being able to mix freely with men, to corruption and the destruction of family values.
Saudi women have been continually pushing to be allowed to drive, and have asked the government to make reviewing the ban a priority.
On 23 September, a group of civil rights activists will formally demand that the government reinstate women's right to drive. The date also marks Saudi Arabia's independence day.
In 1991, a group of 47 women activists challenged the ban by driving through the centre of the Saudi capital Riyadh in protest. They were arrested by the religious police but later released. However, some were then suspended from their university jobs for one or two years as punishment.
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