On the bright day of October 26th 2013, a beacon of hope enlightened the realms of Saudi Arabia. Hope that touted that ban on women drivers may well finally cease to exist.
The reason? More than 60 Saudi women stood up and got behind the wheels of their cars so as to assert themselves as an important part of the society. Many activists reported that this was the first time that Saudi women came together to “stir the stagnant waters” (13 videos and another 50 phone messages were received in this regard) and purported that it is time to change the law against women drivers in the kingdom.
It all started with 16,600 signatures on an online petition that spread like a wildfire on various social media platform. Millions of twitter users and Facebook fans were put to the use giving a whole new and an unprecedented dimension to the wind of change that brought the message “recognizing the rights of women to drive a car in accordance with the principles of Sharia and traffic laws” is of utmost importance.
Video of women driving cars were uploaded to the YouTube evincing that women are yearning for the long awaited change in Saudi society. While this movement found many staunch supporters from all over the globe, still some powerful clerics termed this protest as "licentiousness". Some of them raised eyebrows with statement that says that driving a car harms a woman's ovaries.
Amid all this protest and counter-protest, one thing is clear that women of Saudi Arabia are now ready to foster a society that will treat women at par with men, a society that will suppress disparity of sexes and safeguard the rights of one and all, a society that will not be marred by blinkered thinking but be embellished by fruits of equality.
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