On Saturday, 26 October 2013, Saudi Arabia’s women got behind the wheel in a national day of defiance against the Kingdom’s ban on female drivers. With over 60 women joining the call to allow women drivers, the protest is said to be the biggest ever demonstration the country has seen against the ban.
Most of us reading this are fortunate enough to live in places where such restrictions don’t hold us down. In fact, Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world who have banned their women from driving. While the ban is only an informal ban and isn’t actually stated within the context of the law, Saudi women have found themselves having to fight for their right to drive with everything they’ve got. And they did just that on Saturday.
As the Internet began circulating videos of women driving through the streets of the country, another video went viral too. Social activist and comedian, Hisham Fageeh, posted a parody video of Bob Marley’s ‘No Woman, No Cry’, changing the words to ‘No Woman, No Drive’ in a clever remake that brings to light the issue women in Saudi Arabia are facing. Apart from doing so in a witty way, the video also highlights some of the recent controversial remarks that have been made by Saudi Arabia’s officials about the driving ban, such as the “fact” that driving could cause damage to women’s ovaries.
Posted on the day of the driving protest, the video was viewed over 530,000 times before the end of the day. Support the brave women in the fight for their rights by sending them a message here or following the campaign on Twitter through the #oct26driving hashtag.
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