Saudi Arabia Lets Women Drive

On 24 June 2018, Saudi Arabia formally lifted its longstanding prohibition against female drivers, ending its status as the only country in the world to outlaw the practice. According to scholar David Commins, authorities in Riyadh had established a ban on women driving as early as 1957. Over subsequent decades, the restriction imposed severe economic and personal constraints on women, leaving them dependent on male relatives or hired chauffeurs. The policy eventually spurred a persistent civil rights effort known as the Women to Drive movement.

Organized public resistance emerged in November 1990, when forty-seven women drove through the streets of Riyadh in a direct challenge to the policy. The participants were detained, barred from foreign travel, denounced by clerics, and in many cases fired from their jobs. The struggle gained fresh visibility in September 2007 when activists submitted a petition bearing 1,100 signatures to King Abdullah. The following year, campaigner Wajeha al-Huwaider filmed herself driving and posted the footage on YouTube to draw global notice on International Women's Day.