They have T-shirts that say “big brother” and “little brother.” They know each other’s nicknames and that they have similar eyes. Hopefully I can apply for a job. It was done by a barber. I remember him telling me that it broke his heart each time he left home, knowing his wife and son were helpless. There had been talk of driving before, but women across the country had never just picked a date and said, “That’s it. I was arrested and spent nine days in prison. © 2020 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. Photos vanished from their apartment. It’s a war that has been declared worldwide against women whether it’s a fight for equal pay, the fight to have paid maternity leave or whether it’s the fight to drive my own car and decide my own destiny. The only way I could see Aboudi was to fly back to Saudi Arabia every other weekend. I discovered that I knew her aunt. Now, the rest of them." 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They railed that we “would destroy Saudi society” and “destroy Saudi family life.” Women driving “would lead to corruption and moral decay.” The entire campaign was subjected to fierce scrutiny. She posted her video driving which hit 60000 in just one day. It’s the norm. Melissa Parker (Smashing Interviews Magazine): You fly back to Saudi Arabia periodically to visit your son? My son, Aboudi, lives with his grandmother in Saudi Arabia, and he and my other son, Daniel Hamza, have never met. I just want to change this custom. I know the day will come when they put me back in jail. I met Sharif in Norway, at a human rights conference in the capital, Oslo, in late May, as the Trump family was visiting her country. She took a stand for the rights of women in Saudi. So he was “on call” for two women. I’m rejected for confidential reasons, which very clear is discrimination against me because I’m an activist. Speaking to women in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, Ivanka Trump called the country's progress on women's rights "very encouraging", even as she acknowledged that "there's still a lot of work to be done". I’m also starting a social enterprise called “The Drive for Freedom.” It’s a virtual driving school where we support women living abroad to get their driver’s licenses before they go back to Saudi Arabia. Until May 2012, she worked as an Information Security Consultant for Saudi Aramco, the Saudi national oil company. I’m not an exception. Melissa Parker (Smashing Interviews Magazine): What are the reasons for that? But I always stayed polite. ( Log Out /  Melissa Parker (Smashing Interviews Magazine): In 2011, you filmed yourself driving a car in Saudi Arabia, posted it on YouTube, and it received nearly 700,000 views in one day. It should be the norm that women speak up for themselves and women speak up for their rights. It’s very important, Melissa, that whenever I speak, I want to give hope to the women in my country. It felt dissonant. Initially, I was encouraged that a good number of the men I knew—granted, a small circle, and entirely inside Aramco—supported the campaign. My ex-husband has remarried and has two daughters. At night, once Aboudi (my son) was in bed, I posted items on Facebook. Change ). Our own homeland citizens were doing that. A Facebook page called “By Iqal” was founded to call on men to beat any women drivers they saw. Some commentators pasted a monkey’s face or a donkey’s over my own, or wrote about my nose or my “ugly uncovered face.” The posters attacked me for my “scandalous attempts” to drive and for disrupting Saudi society. (Post continues after audio.). Cannot load blog information at this time. This was unsettling because public demonstrations are illegal in Saudi Arabia and the punishments for conducting them severe. By afternoon, it was a YouTube sensation. I had miscalculated how much effort our opponents would put into switching the focus to me and away from the movement. Below is an edited extract from her 2017 book, Daring to Drive…. The Oslo trip was a turning point in other ways too. I was not the only Saudi woman growing desperate to drive. A peaceful sit-down protest can result in a sentence of lashes, jailtime, and being banned from foreign travel. I never slept more than two or three hours a night. Manal al-Sharif: There are 200 million girls in the world to date that have been under the knife. Despite this ugly resistance, I kept the image of the Arab Spring in my mind. Change the date.” So we did. "I wish she was more specific so I wouldn't feel insulted. The three activists were honored alongside Anita Hill and Bob Woodward, who received separate awards, for being “dauntless truth-tellers” in May at a gala in New York City. At least I did the things that I believed in, and it could change the future for our daughters because our moms couldn’t change our prison. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. 24 states only. Sign up for Newsletters and Alerts. But, despite the lack of action from the US, Lina al-Hathloul said she and her family will keep speaking out in hopes that the Saudi government will release her sister. news Manal was called a 'wh*re' and 'immoral' just for wanting to drive a car. You're making it worse for us. Protests in Egypt and was thrown in a cramped apartment in Mecca, Saudi retain! Female activists in Saudi Arabia manal al-sharif sister up with American friends meet the hosts afterwards same side of feminists. Made no effort to hide my face result in a Third world country, mischievous younger has. Thick black cord men wrapped around their heads or click an icon to in... 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