The Jakarta Post, The Associated Press, Thu, 05/26/2011
A Saudi woman detained for defying the ultraconservative kingdom's ban on female drivers will be held in detention for at least 10 more days, a lawyer and rights activist said Thursday.
Manal al-Sherif, a 32-year-old IT expert, was arrested at dawn on Sunday and accused of "violating public order." She started a Facebook campaign urging Saudi women to get behind the wheel to protest the longtime driving ban and did so herself, posting the video on the Internet.
Having so far escaped the large-scale unrest sweeping the Arab world, Saudi rulers have cracked down harder than usual al-Sherif after seeing her case become a rallying call for youths anxious for change.
Her case has drawn criticism from international and local rights groups and has spurred more women to drive and post videos of themselves doing so.
On Thursday, the prosecutor general of the Eastern Province extended her detention for another 10 days while she is investigated, said lawyer Waleed Aboul Khair.
"This is a message that any woman who dares to drive her car will face the same destiny," Aboul Khair said.
Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that bans women - both Saudi and foreign - from driving. The prohibition forces families to hire live-in drivers, and those who cannot afford the $300 to $400 a month for a driver must rely on male relatives to drive them to work, school, shopping or the doctor.
Saudi clerics, from the hard-line Wahhabi school of Islam that is the official doctrine of the kingdom, insist the ban protects against the spread of vice and temptation because women drivers would be free to leave home alone and interact with male strangers. King Abdullah has promised reforms in the past and has taken some tentative steps to ease restrictions on women. But the Saudi monarchy relies on Wahhabi clerics to give religious legitimacy to its rule and is deeply reluctant to defy their entrenched power.
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