'Saudi women, start your engines:'

[n2doc]

Semi naked activists from the Ukrainian female rights group Femen protest in front of the Saudi Arabian embassy against a ban on driving cars for women in Kiev, Ukraine, Thursday, June 16, 2011. (AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov) (Sergei Chuzavkov, AP / June 16, 2011)

BRIAN MURPHY
Associated Press
11:56 a.m. CDT, June 17, 2011

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Several Saudi women boldly got behind the wheel Friday, including one who managed a 45-minute trip through the nation's capital, seeking to ignite a road rebellion against the male-only driving rules in the ultraconservative kingdom.

Activists — inspired in part by the uprisings around the Arab world — have not appealed for mass protests in any specific sites. But they urged Saudi women to begin a mutiny against the driving restrictions that are supported by clerics backing austere interpretations of Islam and enforced by powerful morality squads.


Encouragement poured in via the Internet. "Take the wheel. Foot on the gas," said one Twitter message on the main site women2Drive. Another urged: "Saudi women, start your engines!"

more

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-ml-saudi-women-drivers,0,3049664.story