A Saudi Arabian woman will be tried for driving during what she said was a medical emergency, according to reports released Wednesday. The kingdom, currently home to the social media-driven Women2Drive campaign, is the only country in the world that bans women from driving.

According to the AFP, Saudi daily newspaper Okaz reported that an unnamed 35-year-old woman was arrested in the city of Jeddah before eventually being released with her father acting as her guarantor. Okaz says the woman said she had been suffering from a hemorrhage, and chose to drive due to a lack of public transportation and due to having no personal driver to take her to the hospital.

Though Saudi Arabia has no written law preventing women from driving, religious edicts enforced by religious police have kept them from driving within the kingdom. Women typically rely on male family members or hired chauffeurs for transportation. As a result, the Women2Drive movement — which spread the word via sites like Facebook and Twitter — was born, asking Saudi to drive their own cars on June 17. While a number of women drove on that specific date, a few have continued driving since then, with many using the #Women2Drive hashtag on Twitter and posting YouTube videos to document their experiences.

Most women participating in the campaign have reported little to no trouble with the law — since key organizer Manal al-Sherif was arrested in May — though five women were arrested in Jeddah at the end of June. On Sunday, Saudi media reported that two women with Omani licenses were arrested for driving. The women had been traveling with their families on the road between capital Riyadh and the city of Taef. According to newspaper Al-Hayat, the women were required to sign agreements not to commit the offense again.

The news about the female driver facing trial comes the same day the Saudi Women for Driving, an activist group, received a letter of support from one of the European Union's top diplomats. In the letter dated July 6, Catherine Ashton — high representative and European Commission vice president — calls on Saudi Arabia to implement the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

"I assure you that the EU will continue to raise human rights and fundamental freedoms in its contacts with Saudi Arabia," the letter concludes. "I thank you for your commitment to this particular issue and hope you will continue to speak out on human rights."

Ashton first issued a public statement of support via a representative last month, after more than 7,000 people signed a petition asking for her support on online activism platform Change.org. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also publicly backed the driving movement after a Change.org petition hit the web. The Saudi women pushing for the right to drive have even received support from Saudi Princess Ameerah Al-Taweel.

While there have been fewer reports of women driving in recent weeks, the #Women2Drive hashtag is continuing to see use on Twitter, with both men and women using it to spread related news and explain why they endorse the movement.







Image courtesy of yfrog/Mai AL-Shareef

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