Saudi Arabian women were given the right to drive last week after nearly three decades of campaigning, but some activists say that breakthrough has come with a price: their silence.
While the royal decree ending the ban on women driving has been hailed as proof of a new progressive trend in the deeply conservative kingdom, some women say they have been cowed into not speaking about it — a charge the government denies.
Four women who previously participated in protests against the ban told Reuters they had received phone calls instructing them not to comment on the decree.
Two women said around 25 activists had received such calls.
As Saudi Arabia pushes through reforms over the objections of conservatives, the leadership is trying to modernise without losing the support of its traditional base.
Some clerics seen by the government as dabbling in politics have been detained after an apparent crackdown on potential opponents of the kingdom’s rulers last month which now appears to have paved the way for lifting the driving ban.
Activists and analysts say the government is also keen to avoid rewarding activism, which is forbidden in the absolute monarchy, and seems determined not to antagonise religious sensitivities.
But seemingly inviolable Saudi norms are being turned on their head, with some clerics who supported policies such as bans on women driving and gender mixing now apparently changing their minds.
The changes suggest a possible shift in the power balance towards the al-Saud ruling family away from the clerical establishment.
In the first protest against the driving ban, in 1990, 47 women drove around central Riyadh for nearly an hour until they were detained by the religious police, then fired from their jobs and barred from travelling.
One participant, a university professor now in her 60s, recalls that act of defiance which sparked a new era in the Saudi women’s rights movement.
“On the first loop, we were not caught. But the second time, we were caught. I think somebody called. I remember one man, he was in front of us in his car. He went like this,” she said, wagging her finger. “That meant he didn’t want us to drive.”
More protests followed, but the government has not acknowledged the activists’ efforts since ending the ban.Activists who said they had received phone calls ordering them to remain silent spoke on the condition of anonymity, fearing reprisals.
“He was very straightforward. He said you are ordered not to comment on the women driving issue or procedures will be taken against you. You are held accountable for anything posted after this call,” one of the callers said.
Related Story