Rights groups want Saudi Arabia driving ban lifted

International rights groups called on Saudi Arabian authorities to allow women to drive as a group of women prepared to defy a decades-old driving ban. On Thursday, rights watchdog Amnesty International urged Saudi Arabia to respect the right of women to drive on October 26 in defiance of the ban on women driving in the Kingdom, press tv reported. "It is astonishing that in the 21st century the Saudi Arabian authorities continue to deny women the right to legally drive a car," said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s director for the Middle East and North Africa Program. "The driving ban is inherently discriminatory and demeaning to women and must be overturned immediately. It is completely unacceptable for the authorities to stand in the way of activists planning to campaign against it. "Instead of repressing the initiative, the authorities must immediately lift the ban to ensure that women are never again arrested or punished simply for being behind the wheel of a car," Luther noted. Human Rights Watch has also thrown its weight behind the Saudi women’s campaign to take to the wheel in defiance of the ban. "It is hard to believe that in the 21st century, Saudi Arabia is still barring women from driving," said Rothna Begum, Middle East and North Africa women’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. "It’s past time to address the country’s systemic discrimination; driving could open roads to reform," she added. An online campaign has called on women who want Saudi Arabia to lift the ban on their driving to stage a demonstration by driving cars on October 26. Saudi authorities have warned against launching any campaigns for women’s right to drive in the kingdom. The Saudi Interior Ministry said on Wednesday that calling for "banned gatherings and marches" to encourage women to drive is illegal. "The Interior Ministry confirms to all that the concerned authorities will enforce the law against all the violators with firmness and force," the ministry said in a statement. In 2011, dozens of women took part in a similar campaign, dubbed Women2Drive, challenging the ban. They posted on internet social networks pictures and videos of themselves while driving. In 1991, authorities stopped 47 women who got behind the wheel in a demonstration against the driving ban. After being arrested, many were further punished by being banned from travel and suspended from their workplaces. Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world where women are prohibited from driving. The medieval ban is not enforced by law but is a religious fatwa imposed by the country’s Wahhabi clerics. If women get behind the wheel in the kingdom, they may be arrested, sent to court and even flogged. Supporters of the ban say allowing women to drive will threaten public morality and encourage them to mix freely in public.