This may not look like a protest – there’s no chanting, no picket lines or banners – but activist Loujain Hathloul is taking a stand.
And she is doing it simply by sitting behind the wheel of her car.
Image via Twitter.
The 25-year-old student was arrested after trying to drive across the border of the United Arab Emirates into Saudi Arabia – the only country in the world where it is illegal for a woman to drive a car.
Ms Hathloul, who lives in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, had her passport confiscated and was blocked from returning to her own country, according to Al Jazeera.
“I have been at the Saudi border for 24 hours. They don’t want to give me my passport nor will they let me pass,” she said in a tweet.
Loujain Hathloul’s profile picture on Twitter.
The French literature graduate is an active social media user and was using Twitter to document her protest, before her account went silent.
Her followers responded online and one woman, Saudi journalist Maysaa Alamoud, went to the border to show her support.
We haven’t heard from @LoujainHathloul in about 4 hours since the police took her away. It’s very worrying. Hope she’s staying strong.
— Manal (@manalness) December 1, 2014
Top Comments
I remember back in 1990 just before the first Gulf War when a group of Saudi women drove their cars in downtown Riyadh. I was told later by a female Saudi doctor, that a couple of the women were imprisoned, another woman's father hanged himself in shame at his daughter's actions. There were no happy endings. Not only can they not drive, but they cannot travel in a car with a man (taxi driver excepted) who is not a male relative, nor leave the country without their father or husband's position. People may argue that these are the laws of their country, but these laws reflect the ultra conservative Wahhabi Islam which is being exported throughout the world. These women will be OK if their families are well connected.
UAE doesn't stack up well. It jails women who are raped. Including westerners. Utterly reprobate, backward country. It allows men to beat their wives. Marital rape is not a crime in the UAE.