Daring to Drive: A Saudi Woman’s Awakening

This is a wonderful book that introduced me to the author’s direct experience of living and working in Saudi Arabia. Although I was aware that women driving was considered haram or forbidden, the author’s experiences of living in that country makes this oppression very personal. The book is well written. Her day-to-day frustrations with even the simplest liberty is compelling. Renting an apartment, driving a car, or getting to work become monumental tasks, some of which cannot be surmounted. Slavery was not banned until 1962. Since 1980, the days of Juhayman have imposed strict religious rules on the country; women being among the most oppressed. Nevertheless, Al-Sharif, a single mother and a career woman for most of the book’s narrative, managed to inspire women through her act of civil disobedience for which she was imprisoned. Her crime was that she was filmed driving and posted the video to inspire other women to disobey that edict. Imagine hiring a driver to grocery shop or get to work. The laws effectively confine women to their homes and out of sight and bar them from civic engagement. Al-Sharif is a brave woman and a true inspiration.