Video: Saudi business woman drives car to mark Women's Day

A well-known Saudi business woman marked the international women’s day by defying a ban on driving cars by women in the conservative Gulf Kingdom.

A YouTube film published in Saudi newspapers showed Aisha Al Manei driving her car on the seaside road in the eastern port of Khobar.

Al Manei said in the film that she wanted to celebrate the women’s day by driving her car and to rebuff claims that women who drive are harassed by men on roads.

“Allowing women to drive cars in Saudi Arabia will enable them to go out without the need to hire foreign drivers,” she said. 

Saudi jailed 8 years for Twitter protest call

A Saudi court sentenced a local man to eight years in jail on charges of using his Twitter page to incite protests in the Gulf Kingdom.

The court in Riyadh said it issued the sentence, the first of its kind in the country of 30 million people, after it found the defendant guilty of instigating protests and inciting relatives of those jailed on security charges to take to the streets for demonstrations.

“The judge said he issued the tough sentence after the defendant continued to incite protests following his release from jail,” Al Arabiya news network said.

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