JOHN YANG: But first: Saudi Arabia is the
only country in the world that forbids women
from driving.
But this Sunday marks a milestone, when that
prohibition ends.
Nick Schifrin looks at the state of women's
rights in the kingdom and the long and winding
road to allow females behind the wheel.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Whenever Manal Al-Sharif drives,
she feels free.
But in her home in Saudi Arabia, what looks
routine has represented resistance.
MANAL AL-SHARIF, Author, "Daring to Drive"
(through translator): You will find a woman
with a Ph.D., a professor at a college, and
she doesn't know how to drive.
We want change in this country.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Since the 1950s, Saudi Arabia
has banned women from driving.
Activists broke barriers and religious custom
posting driving videos to YouTube.
For women, driving is dignity, Al-Sharif told
Jeffrey Brown last year.
MANAL AL-SHARIF: It gives them sense of liberty
and freedom.
And that breaks all the things that have been
learned and brainwashed with, that we are
-- have to be obedient to these unjust laws,
and we're weak.
NICK SCHIFRIN: The protest movement started
in the early 1990s.
MAN (singing): No woman, no drive.
No woman, no drive.
NICK SCHIFRIN: And even included male comedians
spoofing Bob Marley on women needing drivers.
MAN (singing): I remember when you used to
sit in the family car, but backseat.
NICK SCHIFRIN: But it's backseat no longer.
This month, Saudi women learned the rules
of the road from a former race car driver.
And a small number of women have already received
driver's licenses, as seen in this government-produced
video.
Female drivers means more female workers,
says Saudi embassy spokesperson Fatimah Baeshen.
FATIMA BAESHEN, Spokesperson, Embassy of Saudi
Arabia: Driving was a very tangible barrier
for women entering the work force.
And so allowing women to drive is really a
green light, pun intended, for women to kind
of come into the work force and commercially
and economically contribute.
NICK SCHIFRIN: The effort's spearheaded by
32-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
In the last few years, women have earned the
right to vote and run for office in local
elections and attend moves and sports games,
part of a larger Vision 2030 plan.
FATIMAH BAESHEN: When we talk about Vision
2030 and transforming the economy and developing
the society in a way that really pivots the
country's trajectory, it allows kind of normalizing
women entering into the public space.
NICK SCHIFRIN: But critics say this seemingly
modern U.S. ally is stuck in the past, and
using women drivers is a Mohammed bin Salman
P.R. stunt to get Western attention and investment,
says London School of Economics Professor
Madawi Al-Rasheed.
MADAWI AL-RASHEED, London School of Economics:
He needs Western capital and Western expertise.
And, therefore, putting a soft, beautiful
face behind the wheel may just do it for him.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Last month, many of the very
women whose activism made the change possible
were arrested and accused of undermining Saudi
security, part of a larger crackdown on Mohammed
bin Salman's critics.
MADAWI AL-RASHEED: Poets, journalists, intellectuals,
lawyers, professionals, almost, and even his
own cousins and his own relatives, they had
a taste of his repression.
NICK SCHIFRIN: And what's not changing this
weekend: Saudi women still need a male guardian's
permission to travel, get married, even open
a bank account.
This society is still restrictive and still
has no representative government.
MADAWI AL-RASHEED: To think that Saudi Arabia
is going to be reformed without political
change is actually a myth.
It's not going to happen.
Women's rights are part of a bundle of rights,
and these rights are political rights.
NICK SCHIFRIN: In response for her activism,
Manal Al-Sharif was jailed and labeled a prostitute.
But she's still working to change Saudi society.
MANAL AL-SHARIF: Speaking up, I have never
regretted that, because if I didn't speak
up, I would lose myself.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Lifting the driving ban will
provide Saudi women unprecedented autonomy,
but activists say the road to freedom is still
blocked.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Nick Schifrin.
