18-09-2007 13:00
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah is to be presented with a petition from a group of women demanding the right to drive.
The Committee of Demanders of Women's Right to Drive Car - set up to lobby for the abolition of the law banning female drivers - plan to deliver their petition to the king by Sunday (23.09.07), Saudi Arabia's national day.
Fowziyyah al Oyouni, a founding member of the committee, said: "We would like to remind officials that this is, as many have said, a social and not religious or political issue. And since it is a social issue, we have the right to lobby for it."
Although the government is not likely to change its mind on the highly-sensitive issue, al Oyouni said the petition will highlight what many Saudi men and women consider a "stolen right".
Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that imposes the female driving ban.
The law applies to all women, Saudi and foreign, and forces families to hire live-in drivers.
Women whose families cannot afford £200 a month for a driver rely on male relatives to drive them to work, school, shopping or the doctor.
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