Saudi women defy drive ban

Saudi women defy drive ban

          Saudi women drove cars on Friday in response to calls for nationwide action to break a traditional ban, unique to the ultra-conservative kingdom, according to reports on social networks.

          The call to defy the ban that spread through Face book and Twitter is the largest en masse action since November 1990.

          Police patrols were at normal levels on the sleepy streets of Riyadh on the first day of the weekend.

          Many Saudi women had pledged on Face book and Twitter to answer the call to defy the deeply entrenched ban.

          But instead of staging demonstrations, which are strictly banned in the absolute monarchy, women with driving licenses obtained abroad were encouraged to take individual action.

The response however appeared to be shy.

          "I do not expect something big as people abroad imagine," she said, adding that jailing activist Manal al-Sherif and others has scared some women off.

          There is no law banning women from driving in the oil-rich kingdom, but the interior ministry imposes regulations based on a fatwa, or religious edict, stipulating women should not be permitted to drive.

A counter Face book group was created urging men to beat every woman they spot behind the wheel.