you know that all over the world people fight for their freedom fight for their rights some battle oppressive governments others battle oppressive societies which battle do you think is harder
he wouldn 't tell me what happened
you see i 'm a saudi woman who had been put in jail for driving a car in a country where women are not supposed to drive cars just for giving me his car keys my own brother
was detained twice and he was harassed to the point he had to quit his job as a geologist leave the country with his wife and two year old son
my father had to sit in a friday sermon listening to the imam condemning women drivers and calling them prostitutes amongst tons of worshippers some of them our friends and family of my own father
it all hit me
it came into focus that those kids did not mean to be rude to my son they were just influenced by the adults around them
and it wasn 't about me and it wasn 't a punishment for taking the wheel and driving a few miles it was a punishment for daring to challenge the society 's rules
but my story goes beyond this moment of truth of mine allow me to give you a briefing about my story
but it 's been twenty years since anyone tried to do anything about it a whole generation ago he broke the good bad news in my face
but there is no law banning you from driving
it was a few weeks later we started receiving all these man wolves will rape you if you go and drive a courageous woman her name is najla hariri she 's a saudi woman in the city of jeddah she drove a car and she announced but she didn 't record a video we needed proof
the saudi authorities remained very quiet that really creeped us out i was in the campaign with other saudi women and even men activists
we wanted to know how the authorities would respond on the actual day june seventeen when women go out and drive so this time i asked my brother to come with me and drive by a police car it went fast
released arrested again he was sent to detention for one day and i was sent to jail
and i kept my abaya it 's a black cloak we wear in saudi arabia before we leave the house
outside the jail the whole country went into a frenzy some attacking me badly and others supportive and even collecting signatures in a petition to be sent to the king to release me
the
so i think by now everyone knows that we can 't drive or women are not allowed to drive in saudi arabia but maybe few know why allow me to help you answer this question
so they need to take permission from this guardian whether verbal or written all their lives we are minors until the day we die
what 's worst when they become codified as laws in the system and when women themselves believe in their inferiority and they even fight those who try
to question these rules so for me it wasn 't only about these attacks i had to face it was about living two totally different perceptions of my personality of my person the villain back in my home country and the hero outside
during these nine days i was in jail but in my home country it was a totally different picture it was more like this manal al sharif faces charges of disturbing public order and
inciting women to drive i know manal al sharif withdraws from the campaign ah it 's okay this is my favorite manal al sharif breaks down and confesses foreign forces incited me
while the opposite hashtag oslohero there was like a handful of tweets written they even started a poll
more than thirteen thousand voters answered this poll whether they considered me a traitor or not after that speech ninety percent said yes she 's a traitor
but you learn lessons from these things that happen to you i learned to be always there the first thing i got out of jail
of course after i took a shower i went online
and i 've been always very respectful to those people who are opining to me i would listen to what they say and i would never defend myself with words only i would use actions when they said i should withdraw from the campaign i filed the first lawsuit against the general directorate of traffic police for not issuing me a driver 's license
there are a lot of people also very big support like those three thousand people who signed the petition to release me
the same time finally that council after rejecting our petition four times for women driving they finally accepted it last february
so
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