In Saudi Arabia, women are culturally forbidden to drive. However, there are no actual laws against them driving so when Manal Al-Sharif, a Saudi woman, decides to drive in May 2011 and post a video of herself doing so on YouTube, she is shocked by the responses. Here, Manal Al-Sharif is seen as a women's right activist but in Saudi Arabia, she is mostly seen as a traitor. She was sent to jail for eight days, her brother was arrested twice for giving her his car keys, her son was bullied at school, her father was humiliated, she was called a prostitute etc... She still went strong and fought for what she thinks is right and her campaign succeed.
Foreign Policy magazine named al-Sharif one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers of 2011, and she was listed in Forbes's list of Women Who (Briefly) Rocked in the same year.In 2012, al-Sharif was named one of the Fearless Women of the year by The daily Beast and Time magazine named her one of the 100 Most influencial people of 2012.
The al-Saud rulers, she says, are cracking down on dissidents out of fear that the Arab Spring's reverberations might spread to the kingdom. In early March, two founding members of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association received long jail sentences for, among other things, starting an unlicensed human-rights organization. The arrests, she says are meant "to shush the others, because they talk about the same things we talk about: constitutional monarchy, political parties, having political rights. So they take these people and make an example out of them."
The sentences were handed down less than a week after new Secretary of State John Kerry visited the kingdom. His visit was a disappointment for Ms. Sharif and others who share her outlook.
Recently however, 30 women were appointed to the unelected Shura Council of Saudi Arabia. Change is happening and Manal's movement is taking the country far.
No comments:
Post a Comment