RIYADH: Police arrested four women for driving in the north Riyadh district of Huttain Thursday afternoon, several newspapers reported Friday. The women were taken to a nearby police station where they were asked to sign written pledges not to repeat their actions. Al-Hayat Arabic daily reported sources close to the women as saying they were driven in three cars by their male drivers to a vacant area of land where the women then got behind the drivers' seats to practice. “They were learning to drive in case of emergencies, they weren't doing it to challenge society or in response to any calls for such a thing,” the sources said. One of the detained women drivers later wrote on Twitter that she and her friends were driving three cars on vacant land well away from any main road when six police cars arrived and took them to the station. Riyadh Police spokesman Nasser Al-Qahtani told Al-Hayat that four women were apprehended in a “desert area outside the urban zone”. “The security authorities will carry out regulatory measures,” he said. “Their legal male guardians were summoned,” Al-Qahtani was quoted by Al-Hayat as saying. However, other sources said in all six women were arrested for driving their cars. No Ministry of Interior official was available to confirm the exact details. Saudi Arabia has no formal ban on women driving. But as citizens must use only Saudi-issued licences in the country, and as these are issued only to men, women drivers are anathema. Authorities last month arrested Manal Al-Sharief, who posted a YouTube video of herself driving in Al-Khobar and calling on other women to do the same. Al-Sharief has been released but faces charges of “besmirching the Kingdom's reputation abroad and stirring up public opinion”. Another woman, Shaima Osama, was also arrested for driving last month in Jeddah. She too was later released. Thousands of Saudi men and women have joined Facebook groups calling for Saudi driving rights to be extended to women.
