Saudi Arabia women hail end of driving ban

Campaigners in Saudi Arabia have hailed King Salman's decree allowing women to drive for the first time.
One female activist called it a "great victory", while another said things would "never be the same again".
The country's US ambassador has described the move as "the right decision at the right time".
The Gulf kingdom is the only country in the world that bans women from driving - and women are still subject to strict dress codes and gender segregation.
Until now, only men were allowed licences and women who drove in public risked being arrested and fined.
Campaigner Sahar Nassif told the BBC: "I couldn't believe it. I started laughing and jumping and screaming. It's a great victory.
"I'm going to buy my dream car, a convertible Mustang, and it's going to be black and yellow!"
Meanwhile, Latifah Alshaalan, a member of the Shura council, a government advisory panel, told broadcaster Al Arabiya: "This is a great victory for many Saudi women. This was the one file and issue which Saudi women have fought not just years, but decades for."

What happens now?

  • A ministerial body will be set up to give advice within 30 days
  • The royal order will be implemented by 24 June 2018
The country's US ambassador, Prince Khaled bin Salman, confirmed that women would not have to get male permission to take driving lessons, and would be able to drive anywhere they liked.

What has the road to reform been like?

Rights groups in the kingdom have campaigned for years to allow women to drive, and some women have been imprisoned for defying the rule.
Female activists organised collective protests in 1990, 2011 and 2013, and posted online videos of themselves driving.

What was the reaction?

The move was welcomed by the US state department, which called it "a great step in the right direction".
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres echoed that sentiment.
Manal al-Sharif, an organiser of the Women2Drive campaign who has also been imprisoned for driving, said on Twitter that Saudi Arabia would "never be the same again".
Not everyone reacted positively, however, with conservative voices accusing the government of "bending the verses of Sharia".
The hashtags "I am my own guardian" and "Saudi Women Can Drive" quickly gained traction on social media - but so did the hashtag "the women of my house won't drive"

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Socrates

Image
Socrates was born 470 BC and 399 BC. He was a  Greek  philosopher and is considered the father of western  philosophy . He tough  Plato  in 428-348 BC, was his most famous student and would teach  Aristotle  in 384-322 BC ,who would then tutor  Alexander the Great  in 356-323 BC. By this progression,  Greek philosophy , as first developed by Socrates. It was spread throughout the known world during  Alexander 's conquests.  Socrates' historicity has never been challenged but what precisely.  Although Socrates is generally regarded as initiating the discipline of philosophy in the West, most of what we know of him comes from Plato and so this honor is, rightly, challenged. Many different schools of philosophy were founded by Socrates' student and his influence would be felt for generations and even to the present day.  He studied  music , gymnastics, and grammar in his youth (the common subjects of study for a young Greek) and followed his father's profession as a sc
Read more

Mc Mahon line

Image
Encyclopedia Britannica Mc Mahon line frontier between Tibet and Assam in British India,  negotiated between Tibet and Great Britain at the end of the shimla conference ( October 1913- july 1914) and named for the chief British negotiator, Sir Henry  Mc Mahon.  It runs from the eastern border of Bhutan along the crest of the Himalayas until it reaches the great bend in the emerges from its Tibetan course into the Assam Valley.  Delegrate of the Chinese republication government also attended the shimla conference,  but they refused to sign the principal agreement on the status and boundaries of Tibet on the ground that Tibet was subordinate to China and had not the power to make treaties. The Chinese have maintained this position to the present day and also have claimed that Chinese territory extends southward to the base of the Himalayas foot hills. This frontier controversy with independent India let to the sino-Indian hostilities of October November 1962 . In the conflict the
Read more

Library

Image
Library came from Latin word liber which means Books and library is the old French word. In Greek and Roman language , the word is bibliotheca library is a place where group of collections of books and or other print or non-print materials organized and maintained for use like books,  journals, flims, archives, DVD, DC, research material, thesis, newspaper of different language and years e.c.t . It's a collection of sources of information and knowledge. Different places has different types library according to there need and according there types of libraries. Children library, Public library,  Special library and Digital library which is easier to gain information from anywhere. EARLY LIBRARIES Early libraries consisted of archives materials (writing material of that time)  such as Clay tables,  cuneiform , script,  papyrus,  vellum e.c.t . Those libraries are unique and archives for today ,which came from the legendary and great people who not only work for it but als
Read more