AP Was There: Saudi women protest driving ban in 1990 скачать в хорошем качестве

AP Was There: Saudi women protest driving ban in 1990

1990 DONNA FENN HEINTZEN, ASSOCIATED PRESSSeptember 27, 2017 Updated: September 27, 2017 2:06am 0 FILE- In this Saturday, Sept. 16, 1990 file photo, two traditionally dressed Saudi women buy a Pepsi from a vending machine in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. Saudi King Salman has announced women in the ultraconservative kingdom will be able to drive for the first time next summer. The decision comes after decades of female drivers facing arrest and harassment. In 1990, a major protest saw 50 female drivers ply the streets of Riyadh, the country’s capital. They later were arrested for driving and lost their passports and their jobs. More than 20 years later, a woman was sentenced in 2011 to 10 lashes for driving, though the late King Abdullah overturned the sentence. Photo: AP / Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Photo: AP IMAGE 1 OF 3 FILE- In this Saturday, Sept. 16, 1990 file photo, two traditionally dressed Saudi women buy a Pepsi from a vending machine in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. Saudi King Salman has announced women in the ... more RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — EDITOR'S NOTE — Saudi King Salman has announced women in the ultraconservative kingdom will be able to drive for the first time next summer. The decision comes after decades of female drivers facing arrest and harassment. In 1990, a major protest saw 50 female drivers ply the streets of Riyadh, the country's capital. They later were arrested for driving and lost their passports and their jobs. More than 20 years later, a woman was sentenced in 2011 to 10 lashes for driving, though the late King Abdullah overturned the sentence. The Associated Press is making available its story by correspondent Donna Fenn Heintzen of the Nov. 6, 1990 protest as part of its coverage of King Salman's royal decree. ___ About 50 Saudi women, saying the kingdom's ban on female drivers would leave them helpless in the event of war, took to the streets for an unprecedented protest Tuesday - behind the wheel. The women, many of them completely veiled except for their eyes, piled into 15 cars and took a drive through the capital. For them, it was a daring act of protest. "This has nothing whatsoever to do with politics," one woman explained. "If a crisis erupts, we must drive for the sake of our families. We cannot stay immobile like sitting ducks." All the women taking part in the protest were experienced drivers, having learned the skill outside of Saudi Arabia. But they were unfamiliar with their own cars. One woman turned on her headlights and windshield wipers while trying to roll down her electronic window to speak with a reporter. She laughed good-naturedly: "I don't even know how to open the window." Most of the women had only ridden in the back seats of their luxury sedans driven by foreign chauffeurs.