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Dubai: When Ebtihal Mubarak told her father of her efforts concerning gaining women's right to drive, he showed enthusiasm and support.
His support was somewhat unorthodox. "He told me to see if I could arrange for a group of women to ride to work on animals such as camels, horses and donkeys and to see who would stop us," she told Gulf News.
"I suggested it to my colleagues, and many liked the idea," said Ebtihal, a human rights reporter in Jeddah and one of four women who were the driving force behind a petition sent to the Saudi Monarch, King Abdullah, last month to allow women to drive.
"I thought about it thoroughly and of where I could get such an animal. Even if I found one, I was concerned I might be the only woman to do so. What if the rest of the women turned me down at the last moment," she said, laughing.
Ebtihal and three other women activists succeeded in collecting nearly 1,100 signatures online and at shopping centres for a petition sent by courier to the Royal Court on Saudi National Day on September 23. The list contains full names and job titles, as well as people's signatures.
"We haven't had an immediate reaction because these things take time," Ebtihal, who is in her in her twenties, told Gulf News in an interview during a recent visit to Dubai.
The petition received media attention a few days before it was sent and news of it "spread far and wide" said Ebtihal, resulting in a lot more signatures.
Positive feedback
The positive feedback made the four women agreed to "leave the petition open even after sending it either for several months or up to one year, after which we might write a second letter and send the new names. This issue [the next step] is not final yet."
"We'll it keep it going," Ebtihal said. "We will take it to the end".
In 1990, a group of prominent Saudi women seized on the presence of Western news media covering the Gulf War, boarded cars and drove down a Riyadh boulevard. Several of the women were jailed briefly, many lost high positions in schools and universities, and others were forced to leave the country for some time, reports said.
New calls for women to drive is the first effort by the newly-formed committee to defend Saudi women's rights. Other issues are expected to include domestic violence and problems of divorced women.
The four women activists initially faced criticism that it was "nonsense" to discuss such issues, as there were other priorities.
Ebtihal disagreed: "It is a vital and key issue. It is a symbol for all women's rights in Saudi Arabia.... when it is solved, other issues will also be solved like a domino effect."
The women have received scores of supportive e-mail messages from men and women alike. One of them was from a women living in Riyadh, who is an only child. Her father was in bad health and one day her driver had an accident when she had to go to the Traffic Department.
That woman wrote saying "who said when women can't drive our lives become easier? The most expensive thing I have in my life is a piece of metal and I give it to a complete stranger. I don't have a house, I pay rent, I don't have diamonds, I can't afford them."
The four women were accused of having a "Western agenda" and coming from privileged backgrounds. They categorically deny both accusations.
"The four of us come from middle-class backgrounds. I have spent my whole life in Saudi Arabia, and studied at college here," said Ebtihal
She and her compatriots stress that banning women from driving has no roots in religious law and that there is no clear teaching that enforces such a ban.
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