Taking on the Government Brave Saudi Women who Defied driving ban spared from being lashed by Kings pardon.
Brave Saudi Women who Defied driving ban spared from being lashed by Kings pardon.
As mentioned earlier in May, http://www.banthecams.org/Taking-on-the-Government/video-used-to-arrest-saudi-women-for-driving.html, driving Saudi Arabia can be hazardous if you are a lady.
Another women was recently sentenced to 10 lashes for "daring" to drive. Ban the Cams is GLAD THE KING HAS INTERVENED and pardon her. But the facts is that both sexes should be able to drive if able and safe.
http://bikyamasr.com/43922/saudi-king-pardons-woman-for-driving-no-flogging/
Saudi King pardons woman for driving, no flogging
Saudi King pardons woman for driving, no flogging
Sharifa Ghanem | 29 September 2011 |
Women in Saudi Arabia face discrimination.
DUBAI: Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has pardoned a woman sentence to 10 lashes for driving in the conservative Gulf kingdom. It came one day after international outrage was sparked by reports the woman would be flogged for driving.
On Tuesday, a Saudi court found Shaima Jastaina guilty of violating the driving ban, and sentenced her to 10 lashes, igniting a firestorm in the conservative Muslim kingdom.
“Flogging is a cruel punishment in all circumstances but it beggars belief that the authorities in Saudi Arabia have imposed lashes on a woman apparently for merely driving a car,” said Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director Philip Luther.
“Belatedly allowing women to vote in council elections is all well and good, but if they are still going to face being flogged for trying to exercise their right to freedom of movement then the King’s much-trumpeted ‘reforms’ actually amount to very little,” added Luther
“Saudi Arabia needs to go much further. The whole system of women’s subordination to men in Saudi Arabia needs to be dismantled.”
The sentence was passed by a court in Jeddah on Tuesday. Two other women are believed to be facing charges for driving, one in Jeddah and one in al-Khobar.
The Minister of Interior has formally banned women from driving in Saudi Arabia since 1990, when a group of women staged a driving protest to challenge a customary ban in place until then.
Earlier this year an online campaign called on women who hold international driving licences to start driving on Saudi Arabian roads.
The “Women2Drive” campaign has used Facebook and Twitter to encourage women to drive as part of their normal daily activities rather than converge in one place.
Corporal punishment, particularly flogging, is routinely imposed as a sentence by courts in Saudi Arabia.
BM
Najalaa Harriri, who is also facing court for driving, told The Associated Press she needed to drive to take better care of her children.
Tuesday's verdict is the first of its kind in Saudi Arabia. Other women were detained for several days, but had not been sentenced by a court.
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