A Sydney-based Saudi rights activist who led a campaign for women to drive in the conservative kingdom on Thursday vowed to return from Australia and become one of the first to legally get behind the wheel.
Manal al-Sharif was imprisoned for nine days after posting a video of herself on YouTube and Facebook driving her car around the eastern city of Khobar in 2011 at the height of the “Women2Drive” protest movement.
She said King Salman’s historic decree this week allowing women to drive from next June brought her to tears.
“I’m going back, I’m going to drive — legally!” said al-Sharif to The Australian newspaper. Ms. Sharif, came to Australia after she was released from jail for the crime of “driving while female”.
“My car is still there, the one I drove. I refused to give it up. My family kept it for me. But I will drive legally this time.:
Ms. Sharif, 38, has long campaigned for women’s rights in Saudi Arabia and this year published a memoir Daring To Drive , which became a worldwide bestseller. In an opinion piece for The New York Times in June, she recounted how she narrowly avoided a public whipping for her driving exploits.
