IMAN Chairman slams Saudi edict on women drivers
Tuesday, 13 January 2015
Saudi Antiterrorism Court to Try Women Held for Driving
NEW YORK TIMES
Two Saudi women detained for nearly a month after they defied edicts that prohibit women from driving were referred on Thursday to a court established to try terrorism cases, several people close to the defendants said.
The cases of the two women, Loujain al-Hathloul and Maysa al-Amoudi, were sent to the antiterrorism court in connection with opinions they expressed on Twitter and other social media sites, according to four people close to them.
They did not elaborate on the charges or what the opinions were. Both women have spoken out online against the driving ban. Activists say they fear the case is intended to send a warning to others pushing for greater rights. The four people said they would speak only on the condition of anonymity because they feared government reprisals.
The Specialized Criminal Court, to which their cases were referred, was established in the capital, Riyadh, to try terrorism cases but has also tried and given long prison sentences to a number of human rights workers, peaceful dissidents, activists and critics of the government.
Human Rights Watch recently warned that the “Saudi authorities are ramping up their crackdown on people who peacefully criticize the government on the Internet.” It said that judges and prosecutors are using “vague provisions of a 2007 anti-cybercrime law” to charge and try Saudi citizens for peaceful messages posted online.
This is the first time women detained for driving have been referred to the court, activists said.
The detention of Ms. Hathloul, 25, and Ms. Amoudi, 33 — both arrested on Dec. 1 — has been the longest yet for any women who defied the driving ban. They were vocal supporters of a grass-roots campaign started last year to oppose the ban, and have a significant online presence, with 355,000 followers on Twitter for the two of them at the time of their arrest.
Though no formal law bans women from driving in Saudi Arabia, ultraconservative Saudi clerics have issued edicts forbidding women to drive, and the authorities do not issue driver’s licenses to women.
The four people close to the women said their lawyers appealed the judge’s decision to transfer their cases. An appeals court in Dammam, the capital of Eastern Province, is expected to decide on the referral in the coming days, they said.
The authorities have a history of clamping down on Saudi women who attempt to drive. In 1990, 50 women were arrested for driving. They had their passports confiscated and lost their jobs. More than 20 years later, a woman was sentenced in 2011 to 10 lashes for driving, though the king overturned the sentence.
Supporters of the current driving campaign delivered a petition to the royal court this month asking King Abdullah to pardon the two women.
Organizers behind the campaign say the ban on women driving is related to wider issues about guardianship laws in Saudi Arabia that give men control over women’s lives. One activist said the driving ban was also part of “a wider effort to quash any chances of raising the ceiling on civil liberties” in Saudi Arabia.
The women appeared in court Thursday in the eastern Al-Ahsa region, where they were detained after driving to Saudi Arabia from the United Arab Emirates.
Responding to the news, IMAN Chairman, Ribal Al-Assad said:
"These rulings banning women from driving in Saudi Arabia are complete nonsense and only go to show the backward mentality of the government behind them.
Islam is not about repressing women or anyone for that matter and we must take a united stand against such discrimination.
A key tenant of Islam is about respecting others and it is an absolute travesty that these two women are being tried by 'anti-terror' legislation simply for driving; this is exactly the kind of extremist mentality that we must stop.
It is perplexing how instead of tackling the real causes of terrorism, radical hate Clerics and media outlets which promote sectarian hatred and violence, the Saudi government are using this legislation to go after women drivers?
Women in Arab and Islamic countries have to be treated equally; no society can advance if women are not part of it. Women constitute 50% of all societies, so how could a country function if half of it is paralysed? We have seen women in Islam fight in battle alongside men on horseback; how does this reconcile with these current rulings?
In addition, with more women in Saudi working to support their families, how are they meant to commute without paying to hire a driver? The whole situation is completely archaic.
The people behind these rulings have no place in formulating policy and the international community must hold the Saudi government to account for this wholly repressive measure."
