Women’s Rights Activist Speaks Out On Being Forced to Flee for Breaking Saudi Driving Ban

Originally published in Women In The World, and The New York Times

In an Op-Ed for the New York Times, Manal al-Sharif recounts her heartbreaking tale of being forced to leave her young son and flee Saudi Arabia after publicly breaking the kingdom’s controversial ban on women driving.

In 2011, al- Sharif posted a YouTube video featuring herself operating a car despite the laws against female drivers.  The backlash she faced was swift and severe.

She was soon arrested and spent 9 days in prison, finding herself the target of public threats and calls for her to be lashed. She writes that she lost her job and was pushed out of her home, soon finding herself with no where safe to live and no means of working. It became clear that she could no longer stay in the only country she had ever known.

Al-Sharif fled to Dubai, however due to Saudi’s strict male guardianship rules she had to leave her 6 year old son Aboudi behind in the custody of her ex-husband. Whilst she was able to keep in contact with her son, her bi-weekly trips to visit him in Saudi presented her with serious difficulties. Many hotels do not rent rooms to lone women without the permission of a male guardian, forcing al-Sharif to stay with her ex mother in Law who ended upraising Aboudi  when al-Sherifs ex-husband re-married.    

Three years later al-Sharif re-married and gave birth to a second son. However, as Saudi refuses to issue her son a travel visa, the two brothers have never met. She writes:

“In Kingdoms of men, there are few- if any- choices for women. Or the choices are such that there is no greater pain than having to choose”