Lady drivers: Saudi women take the wheel.

• Author: Mangu-Ward, Katherine
• Position: Citings - Brief article

IN MAY, 32-year-old Manal al-Sharif spent 10 days in a Saudi jail after she posted a video on the Internet that showed her driving a car. In subsequent weeks, a growing number of women have followed her example, defying Saudi authorities by driving.

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Technically, there is no law in Saudi Arabia prohibiting women from driving. But religious rulings have kept ladies in the passenger seat--and subject to the whims and schedules of their male relatives--for decades. Those fatwas have often been enforced by the police.

As with other recent upheavals in the Middle East, social media have played a significant role in the driving rebellion, with women posting YouTube videos of themselves in the driver's seat--frequently filmed by sympathetic husbands--and tweeting...