Saudi Aramco tips difficult 2020 as virus hits quarterly profit

Yahoo – AFP, May 12, 2020

Aramco was listed on the Saudi stock market in December following the world's
largest initial public offering but has since been hit by a slump in world oil prices
as the coronavirus pandemic has sent the world into recession (AFP Photo/
Fayez Nureldine)

Riyadh (AFP) - Energy giant Saudi Aramco on Tuesday posted a 25 percent slump in first-quarter profit and said the coronavirus crisis which triggered a crash in oil prices would weigh heavily on demand in the year ahead.

Aramco was listed on the Saudi stock market in December following a historic $29.4 billion initial public offering -- the world's largest -- but since then has faced a torrid environment.

Oil prices slumped to nearly two-decade lows in March, losing almost two-thirds of their value as the coronavirus pandemic sent the world into recession.

Prices plummeted further in April amid a price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia as the major producers scrambled to secure market share.

"The COVID-19 crisis is unlike anything the world has experienced in recent history and we are adapting to a highly complex and rapidly changing business environment," CEO Amin Nasser said in a statement.

Aramco said that a steep decline in global demand for energy and prices caused by the pandemic would undermine its full-year results.

"Longer term we remain confident that demand for energy will rebound as global economies recover," Nasser said.

The world's largest listed firm posted a net profit of 62.5 billion riyals ($16.66 billion) in the three months to March, compared to $22.2 billion a year earlier.

The company said the drop in earnings mostly reflected a decline in crude oil prices, as well as shrinking margins in the refining and chemicals businesses.

Price war truce

During the price war in April, Saudi oil production soared to a record 12.3 million barrels per day, pushing stockpiles to unsustainably high levels and causing chaos on global oil markets.

However, top producers agreed last month to slash output by 9.7 million bpd to try to arrest the freefall.

During the crisis, prices for benchmark West Texas Intermediate dipped below zero for the first time ever as abundant supplies wiped out storage capacity in the United States.

The coronavirus lockdowns, which have kept billions of people in their homes in order to contain the pandemic, have sapped global demand by more than 20 million bpd.

On Monday, Riyadh announced it would cut output by more than it had pledged -- shaving an additional 1.0 million bpd -- providing markets with a much-needed boost as the world economy cautiously emerges from the shutdown.

The move means that in June, Aramco production will drop to 7.5 million bpd -- its lowest level since mid-2002, according to analysts.

Aramco said Tuesday that its first quarter revenues were calculated on the basis of an average production of 9.8 million barrels per day and an average oil price of $51.8 a barrel.

However, factoring in the cuts in May and June, profits in the coming quarters are likely to plummet, meaning that Saudi state revenues, which heavily rely on Aramco results, will take a substantial hit.

The kingdom, which has posted a budget deficit since 2014, resorted to austerity measures on Monday, tripling value-added tax to 15 percent, delaying or cancelling projects and abolishing citizens' cost-of-living allowance.

The cuts risk stoking public resentment over an already high cost of living and demands for greater scrutiny of major projects such as the proposed purchase of English Premer League football club Newcastle United.

Industry reeling

Almost all global energy giants, including Exxon Mobil, Chevron and BP, have reported huge losses in the first quarter.

Aramco, which is responsible for the stewardship of Saudi's huge energy reserves, has relied on its extremely low production costs to remain profitable.

The company said however that capital spending will be trimmed this year, in a range between $25 billion and $30 billion, down from $32.8 billion in 2019.

Investors brushed off the drop in profits as Aramco's share price closed the day up 1.3 percent at 31.30 riyals.

Since the start of the year, Aramco shares have lost 11.2 percent and its current market value stands at $1.67 trillion, way down from levels of just over $2 trillion that it hit soon after listing.

Aramco, which is headquartered in the eastern city of Dhahran, last year posted a 20.6 percent decline in its annual net profit to $88.2 billion due to chronically low oil prices and production levels.

Riyadh-based airline to recruit Saudi women as co-pilots

Yahoo – AFP, September 13, 2018

Women are not legally barred from working in Saudi Arabia's aviation sector, but
until now they have never served as co-pilots and jobs as flight attendants have
largely been held by female foreign workers (AFP Photo/FAYEZ NURELDINE)

Riyadh (AFP) - Riyadh-based carrier Flynas has announced plans to recruit Saudi women to work as co-pilots and flight attendants for the first time, just months after the kingdom lifted a decades-long ban on female motorists.

Saudi Arabia in June ended a longstanding ban on women driving cars as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman seeks to improve women's participation in the workforce.

Women are not legally barred from working in the aviation sector, but jobs as flight attendants with Saudi carriers have largely been held by female foreign workers from countries such as the Philippines.

Nearly 1,000 Saudi women have applied for co-pilot positions with Flynas in the past 24 hours, a spokesman for the airline told AFP on Thursday, as the ultra-conservative Islamic kingdom relaxes gender restrictions amid the far-reaching liberalisation drive.

"Flynas is keen to empower Saudi women to play an important role in the kingdom's transformation," the low-cost carrier said Wednesday in its call for applications.

"Women... are an essential part of the airline's success."

The recruitment drive comes just days after Flyadeal, another low-cost Saudi carrier, began posting jobs for Saudi women to work as flight attendants.

Despite being allowed to drive cars, women still require permission from their fathers, husbands or other male relatives to travel and to get married under the kingdom's strict guardianship system.

First Saudi women get First Saudi women get driving licences

Yahoo – AFP, June 4, 2018

A Saudi woman test-drives a car during an automotive exhibition for women in
the capital Riyadh on May 13, 2018 (AFP Photo/FAYEZ NURELDINE)

Riyadh (AFP) - Saudi Arabia on Monday began issuing its first driving licences to women in decades, state media reported.

"The first group of women today received their Saudi driving licences," the official Saudi Press Agency said.

"The general directorate of traffic started replacing international driving licences recognised in the kingdom with Saudi licences," it added.

The move comes as Saudi Arabia, the only country in the world where women are not allowed drive, prepares to lift its decades-long ban on female drivers on June 24.

SPA said authorities started swapping international licences for Saudi ones in multiple locations across the kingdom, with women applicants made to undergo a "practical test".

It did not specify the number of licences issued.

The move is part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's far-reaching liberalisation drive as he seeks to modernise the conservative petro-state.

The self-styled reformer, who recently undertook a global tour aimed at reshaping his kingdom's austere image, has sought to break with long-held restrictions on women and the mixing of the genders.

But casting a shadow on the reforms, Saudi Arabia last week said it detained 17 people for "undermining" the kingdom's security, in what campaigners have dubbed a sweeping crackdown against activists.

Rights groups have identified many of the detainees as women campaigners for the right to drive and to end the conservative Islamic country's male guardianship system.

Authorities said eight of the detainees had been "temporarily released" until their investigation is completed.

Nine suspects, including four women, remain in custody after they "confessed" to a slew of charges such as suspicious contact with "hostile" organisations and recruiting people in sensitive government positions, according to SPA.

Authorities accused the detainees of "coordinated activity undermining the security and stability of the kingdom".

Previous reports in state-backed media branded some of the detainees traitors and "agents of embassies".

Campaigners have dismissed the reports as a "smear" campaign. The crackdown has also sparked a torrent of global criticism.

#UPDATE Saudi Arabia has begun issuing its first driving licences to women in decades, state media reports say https://t.co/s9KFH59Rt0 pic.twitter.com/nKUJ0eJYsr

— AFP news agency (@AFP) June 4, 2018

First women-only car showroom opens in Saudi

Yahoo – AFP, January 11, 2018

A Saudi woman drives her car along a street in the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah,
on September 27, 2017 (AFP Photo/REEM BAESHEN)

Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) (AFP) - A Saudi private company on Thursday opened the first car showroom for women only just five months before a decision allowing females to drive takes effect.

The showroom was opened in a shopping mall in the western Red Sea port city of Jeddah to allow women the freedom to choose their own cars before they hit the road.

In a historic decision late last year, King Salman gave Saudi women the right to drive, abolishing an almost three-decade ban based on religious reasons.

The showroom offers a wide selection of vehicles from various makes and is staffed by women only.

It also provides women with solutions to finance their purchase provided by leading banks and financial companies.

The company plans to open more automobiles showrooms for women in the oil-rich kingdom.

A Saudi private company opens the first women-only car showroom in Jeddah pic.twitter.com/g1cQdqGX5Q

— AFP news agency (@AFP) January 12, 2018

Saudi university to open driving school for women

Yahoo – AFP, October 1, 2017

A Saudi woman drives her car along a street in the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah,
 on September 27, 2017 (AFP Photo/Reem BAESHEN)

Riyadh (AFP) - A university in Saudi Arabia has said it will open a driving school for women, in a first for the ultra-conservative country after a ban on women driving was lifted.

"Princess Nourah University is preparing to set up a driving school in cooperation with the relevant authorities," the women's university said on Saturday.

"This is the first such announcement following this week's order by King Salman to allow women to drive," it said.

Saudi Arabia on Tuesday said it would allow driving permits for women under a royal decree to take effect in June, sparking euphoria and disbelief among activists who long fought the ban.

The Gulf kingdom was the only country in the world to ban women from taking the wheel, and it was seen globally as a symbol of repression in the Gulf kingdom.

Princess Nourah University says it has more than 60,000 female students in Riyadh and other cities.

Tuesday's decision is expected to push women into the workforce and boost car sales, especially in the coming months before a scheduled imposition of a government value-added tax in January 2018.

Car makers including Nissan, Chevrolet and Ford have rushed to congratulate Saudi women, as millions of women are expected to hit the road in the kingdom in coming years.

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"Listening to the Voice of Spirit" (2) - Feb 20, 2016 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (DNA Efficiency is on average at 35 percent now) - (Text version)

“… With free choice, the percentage of DNA efficiently started to go down as humanity grew. As soon as the DNA started to lose percentage, the gender balance was dysfunctional. If you want to have a test of any society, anywhere on the planet, and you want to know the DNA percentage number [consciousness quota] as a society, there's an easy test: How do they perceive and treat their women? The higher the DNA functionality, the more the feminine divine is honored. This is the test! Different cultures create different DNA consciousness, even at the same time on the planet. So you can have a culture on Earth at 25 percent and one at 37 - and if you did, they would indeed clash. …”

“… You're at 35. There's an equality here, you're starting to see the dark and light, and it's changing everything. You take a look at history and you've come a long way, but it took a long time to get here. Dear ones, we've seen this process before and the snowball is rolling. There isn't anything in the way that's going to stop it. In the path of this snowball of higher consciousness are all kinds of things that will be run over and perish. Part of this is what you call "the establishment". Watch for some very big established things to fall over! The snowball will simply knock them down. …”

Saudi Arabia gives top prize to cleric who blames George Bush for 9/11

Controversial Indian preacher Zakir Naik awarded the King Faisal international prize for promoting Islam through his hugely popular Peace TV channel

The Guardian - AFP, 1 March 2015

Zakir Naik siad ‘even a fool will know’ that the 9/11 attacks were an
‘inside job’. Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

An Indian television preacher who has called the 9/11 attacks an “inside job” received one of Saudi Arabia’s most prestigious prizes on Sunday, for “service to Islam”.

Zakir Naik, president of the Islamic Research Foundation in India, was one of five recipients of the King Faisal international prize from Saudi Arabia’s King Salman during a ceremony at a luxury Riyadh hotel.

The annual prizes are a project of the King Faisal Foundation, established in 1976 by the children of King Faisal bin Abdul Aziz who died in 1975.

Naik was honoured for being one of the most renowned non-Arabic speaking promoters of Islam. He founded the Peace TV channel, billed as the world’s only channel specialising in comparative religion.

It has an estimated English-language audience exceeding 100 million, according to his award citation.

“Islam is the only religion that can bring peace to the whole of humanity,” he said in a video biography aired at the ceremony.

In a July 2008 Peace TV broadcast, Naik suggested that al-Qaida was not responsible for flying hijacked airliners into New York’s World Trade Center on 11 September 2001, killing almost 3,000 people.

“Even a fool will know that this was an inside job,” he said in the video, claiming then-president George W Bush was behind the attacks.

In 2010 Naik was reportedly barred from entering Britain for “numerous comments” which showed his “unacceptable behaviour”.

Naik said on Sunday that he would donate all of his $200,000 prize money to Peace TV.

The other prizewinners were:

In Islamic studies, Saudi Arabia’s Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman Kaki for his research on the cultural heritage of the Muslim holy city of Medina

In medicine, Jeffrey Ivan Gordon of the United States, whose research has enhanced understanding of diseases such as obesity, which is a growing problem in Saudi Arabia

Michael Gratzel of Switzerland for his development of solar cells, and co-winner Omar Mwannes Yaghi of the United States for his work in the new field of metal organic frameworks

Related Articles:

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What Really Happened on 9/11? (Matthew’s Message, April 26, 2005)

Kryon Q&A

Question (2002): Dear Kryon, A friend and I are meditating on the recent shark attacks and feel that it has to do with the planetary changes. We just can’t understand why they have become aggressive. What is the message the sharks are bringing? Why is this happening?

—Thank you,

Maryann

Answer: Indeed there are changes with the environment and also with biology regarding the 12-year grid change. I will first give you what was happening in general: What you are seeing are mammals, amphibians, insects, and even fish that are in areas that are new to them. Every life-form that migrates is effected by magnetics. All life forms that follows certain feeding scenarios and are “following the food” have the potential to be affected. This is due to the changing of the magnetic ley lines of the earth as we have stated before.

The areas where you can see in the ocean most clearly are within those migration patterns closest to the land. Where the ocean interfaces with the land, there are challenges for all these creatures for at least one of their generations. Whales will beach themselves by following old magnetics headings that now “drive” them into peninsula’s and other land areas that were marginally on the edge of their old paths. Birds, amphibians, and insects will be seen to do odd things for awhile.

So these shark fish may be in greater numbers in these coastal areas than in the past, but the increased aggressive behavior was actually something else: There was a tremendous “release” of energy due to the Sept. 11 event. Much like the energy of earthquakes and other earth movement, much of the environment “feels it” coming. We have spoken about how the Sept. 11 event was not a surprise to the earth. [See Lee’s article “Did Kryon give us hints”] So, some of the new actions of these fish were due to an actual energy buildup of coming events... of which you now understand.

If you are paying attention, therefore, you might ask, “Does this mean that Human consciousness issues affect the actual earth?” Yes they do! Finally you may begin to see how global consciousness is tied into the environment, and even to basic physics and reality. They are not separate, and never were. The indigenous knew it, and now the “modern” world is beginning to wonder.

Blessed is the Human Being who understands that what they think, do, and intend, actually drives the reality of the dirt of the planet!

Saudi women's driving campaign a 'success'

Yahoo – AFP, 26 Oct 2014

A Saudi woman gets into a taxi in the city of Riyadh on October 26, 2014, as a online

 campaign continues to call for an end to the driving ban for women in the country (AFP

Photo/Fayez Nureldine)

Riyadh (AFP) - Activists pushing for women's right-to-drive in Saudi Arabia declared their online campaign a success Sunday, in the world's only country where women are not allowed to operate cars.

The campaign that began last year and revved up again since the beginning of the month encouraged women to post online images of themselves driving.

Dozens of women have driven and posted during the latest campaign, one activist said, although she knew of only two who hit the streets Saturday and Sunday as the campaign peaked.

Saudi activist Manal Al Sharif drives her

 car in Dubai on October 22, 2013, as she

 campaigns for women's rights to drive in

the country (AFP Photo/Marwan Naamani)

"A day hasn't gone by without receiving one or two videos" of women driving, said the activist.

Men and women have also posted messages of support.

More than 2,800 people have signed an online petition at www.oct26driving.com asking authorities to lift the ban on women driving.

The activist said she did not want to be named because the interior ministry has threatened her with arrest if she speaks publicly about the campaign.

Last year, activists also focused their demands on October 26, when at least four driving videos were posted on YouTube.

Sixteen or more women were fined for taking the wheel on that day.

There is a "huge risk" for female drivers, the activist said when asked why more had not posted images of themselves this year.

Women have previously been arrested, cars have been confiscated, and one received 100 lashes, she alleged.

"So, women are afraid," the activist said.

She added that, apart from driving, the campaign is also about "creating a storm" over the issue.

On Thursday the interior ministry issued a warning to would-be female drivers and their supporters.

The ministry said it would "strictly implement" measures against anyone who "contributes in any manner or by any acts, towards providing violators with the opportunity to undermine the social cohesion".

That means the campaign has had an impact, the activist said.

"I think it's pretty successful. If we're getting a reaction, that means we're effective."

'Half a citizen'

Sahar Nasief defied the warnings and got behind the wheel anyway on Sunday.

"The roads were full of police cars... everybody was on alert," she told AFP from the Red Sea city of Jeddah after running a 15-minute errand in her car because her driver wasn't available.

The authorities' response shows the driving campaign has been "very successful," she agreed.

"Its sad that you live in a country where you feel like half a citizen, that you are a threat to national security," another driver said in a YouTube video posted on Saturday.

Dressed in black with only her eyes exposed, she said she was driving in Riyadh on the weekend.

Saudi women are required to dress in black from head to toe and still need permission from a male guardian to work and marry.

Activists say women's driving is not against the law.

Tradition and custom are behind the prohibition, which is not backed up by an Islamic text or judicial ruling, the online petition states.

But activists said they feel the conservative society is becoming more accepting of women motorists.

"A lot of people now are for the campaign," Nasief said.

Another activist, Aziza al-Yussef, said people notice that she is a woman driver and don't seem to care.

"We are just waiting for a decree from the king to allow it," she said, optimistic that a change is coming.

Hardline clerics protested when King Abdullah, in January last year, decided to give women a 20 percent quota in the previously all-male Shura Council, an advisory body.

The unnamed activist said "it's hard to say" if women are closer to the right to drive.

In the meantime activists say they will keep raising their voices, and getting behind the wheel.

GOP lawmaker: You will ‘rethink everything’ when full 9/11 report is released

The Raw Story, Travis Gettys, Thursday, July 31, 2014

A Republican lawmaker renewed his call for the release of 28 redacted pages from the investigative report into the 9/11 terrorist attacks — which a left-wing fringe group claims implicates the British monarchy.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) appeared Wednesday on the Glenn Beck Program to discuss the excerpt, which he and two other current lawmakers and one former lawmaker were permitted to read earlier this year.

The Tea Party-backed freshman lawmaker, who was one of five House Republicans who voted against authorizing Speaker John Boehner to sue President Barack Obama, posted video earlier this month from a news conference on those classified portions of the “Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001.” 

“It is sort of shocking when you read it,” Massie told reporters. “As I read it, we all had our own experience, I had to stop every couple of pages and absorb and try to rearrange my understanding of history for the past 13 years and the years leading up to that. It challenges you to rethink everything.”

Massie appeared alongside Reps. Walter Jones (R-NC) and Stephen Lynch (D-MA), who cosponsored legislation to release the classified pages after being allowed to read them – but not to publicly discuss their contents.

Although the news conference was held in March, the newly posted video prompted renewed online coverage – and an invitation to appear on Beck’s syndicated radio program.

Massie told Beck the revelations would not “tear our country apart,” although he said there would be “anger, frustration, and embarrassment when these 28 pages finally come out.”

“If we’re going to use 9/11 as a motivation to get involved in these civil wars in the Middle East, (lawmakers and the public) need to read these pages and understand what truly caused 9/11 and who our friends are and who our enemies are,” Massie said.

According to Jones’ friends in the Lyndon LaRouche movement, which has claimed knowledge of some contents of those 28 pages since at least 2009, those duplicitous friends are Great Britain and Saudi Arabia.

“We know exactly who did it: It was done by the British monarchy,” said LaRouche, the conspiracy theorist and perennial candidate for president. “The British monarchy set the whole thing up. That’s the guilty party, and that’s what the cover-up is all about.”

LaRouche has suggested for years that Britain controls the world’s political economy and international drug trade using strategies – such as funding terrorists to destabilize nation-states – developed by medieval Venice.

Jones and Lynch pressed for months to gain access to the redacted documents – which are left blank in the published report.

Jones has appeared on the LaRouche PAC’s radio program and has addressed the LaRouche movement’s Schiller Institute.

LaRouche’s website contains a number of links to documents suggesting 9/11 – as well as the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya – was funded as part of the ongoing Al Yamamah weapons-for-oil deal set up by the British aerospace company BAE Systems and the Saudi government.

LaRouche’s “Executive Intelligence Review” publication claims to have evidence about the findings provided by former Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL), who has seen the 28 redacted pages and has called for additional investigation into the Saudis’ role in 9/11.

“Despite the carefully orchestrated campaign to protect our Saudi ‘friends,’ ample evidence of Saudi Arabia’s intimate ties to al-Qaeda and the 9/11 attacks has come to light,” Graham said.

Bob Kerrey, a former U.S. senator who served on the 9/11 Commission, has also suggested the role of Saudi Arabia needs to be further investigated. A U.S. counter-terrorism report released in 2008 concluded Saudi Arabia was the leading source of money for Al Qaeda.

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"Revelations of Darkness" - Oct 1, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“ .. The Role of Gaia in Human Consciousness

One of those times might be frightening for you to know about, since it was a full cooperation with Gaia for your termination, and a pandemic almost wiped humanity off the map. A pandemic! Now, you say, "What has that got to do with Human consciousness, Kryon?" Pay attention, dear ones, because this is the day where the teaching was given by my partner, and he put together the Nine Human Attributes. One of the attribute sets included three Gaia attributes and one of them was the consciousness of the planet. Gaia is related to Human consciousness!

Are you starting to connect the dots? You are connected to this planet in a profound and spiritual way. As goes humanity goes the planet's consciousness. Gaia, Mother Nature, whatever you want to call it, cooperates with Human consciousness. If you spend 1,000 years killing each other, then Gaia will do its best to cooperate with your desires! Gaia will look at Human consciousness and try to help with what you have shown you like to do! Did you know this role of Gaia with you? It's a partner with you, fast tracking what you give to it. You may wish to review what the indigenous of the planet still understand. Gaia is a partner!

Pandemic: Don't you find it odd that in the last 50 years, when you have a population of seven billion Human Beings, with up to 2,000 airplanes in the air at any given moment, going between almost every conceivable place, that there has not been a pandemic in your lifetime? There have been five starts of potential pandemics over the last 20 years, yet none became serious. Did any of you put this together? Dear ones, when the world was far less populated a few hundred years ago, with no mass travel to spread a virus, there were still millions wiped out by a pandemic. With the increased population and mass travel, there is far more danger today than before. It doesn't make sense, does it? What happened to stop it?

When you know humanity's relationship to Gaia, it makes sense. Gaia is a life-force that is your partner, watching you change the balance of light and dark and reflecting what Humans want. It has polarity, too! Perhaps it's time to start your meditations with thanking your planet Earth for supporting you in the spirituality of your Akash, for always being with you, a life-force that is always present. The ancients started their ceremonies in that way. Have you forgotten?

Ebola

Now, I've just set the stage for the next subject, haven't I? Ebola. Are you afraid yet? Gaia is a life-force that is a part of Human consciousness. My partner put it on the screen today so you could see the connections [during the lecture series]. Now it's time to connect the dots. Dear one, Gaia is in the battle, too, for here comes something scary that you haven't had in your lifetime and you're afraid of it - the potential of a pandemic on the planet.

There's a very famous film that has some dialogue that my partner will quote. Some of you will know it and some of you won't, but here it is: "Have a little fire, scarecrow?" What are you afraid of? Darkness? Gaia is in the battle with you and is actively pursuing solutions through light. The energy of the planet is with you in this fight! The ebola virus is a shock and a surprise. It is propelled by ignorance and fear, so it can flourish. Look at where it started and look at how it gets its ability to continue. It expands its fear and power easily with those who believe it's a curse instead of those who understand the science.

Villages are filled with those who refuse to leave their family members because they believe the disease is a curse! FEAR! Instead of understanding that they should be in isolation from the virus, the family dies together through ignorance and fear. This represents how darkness works. Are you going to become afraid also? Dear ones, ebola will be conquered. Know this and be at peace. Pray for light for those in the villages who are afraid, that they can know more about how to keep the spread of this disease and live to see their families. .”

Saudi women inching closer ever to the wheel

Google – AFP, Acil Tabbara (AFP), 23 October 2013

Saudi activist Manal Al Sharif, who now lives in Dubai, drives her car in the Gulf 

Emirate city on October 22, 2013, as she campagins in solidarity with Saudi women

 preparing to take to the wheel on October 26, defying the Saudi authorities (AFP/File,

Marwan Naamani)

Dubai — Saudi female activists are gearing up to test a long-standing driving ban, with more defiant women already getting behind the wheel as the authorities seem to be taking a more lenient approach.

Under the slogan "women's driving is a choice," they have called on social networks for a turn-out on Saturday in a campaign in the world's only country that bans women from driving.

"October 26 is a day on which women in Saudi Arabia will say they are serious about driving and that this matter must be resolved," said Manal al-Sharif, who was arrested and held for nine days in May 2011 for posting online a video of herself behind the wheel.

In a protest she led the following month, a number of women were stopped by police and forced to sign a pledge not to drive again.

The 34-year-old computer engineer who now lives in Dubai told AFP women have already begun responding to the call, and "more than 50 videos showing women currently driving" have been posted online during the past two weeks.

Saudi activist Manal Al Sharif, who now lives in Dubai, drives
her car in the Gulf Emirate city on October 22, 2013, as she
campagins in solidarity with Saudi women preparing to take
to the wheel on October 26 (AFP, Marwan Naamani)

With the exception of two women who were briefly stopped by police, authorities have so far not intervened to halt any of the female motorists.

This, combined with what seems to be more social acceptance to the new phenomenon is encouraging more women to get behind the wheel along major roads across the kingdom.

A video posted on social networks this month shows a fully veiled woman driving in Riyadh as male motorists and families give her the "thumbs up" in support.

"There will be a November 26, December 26, a January 26, until authorities issue the first driving permit to a Saudi woman," said Sharif.

To reduce the risk of accidents, only women who have driving licences issued abroad are being invited to participate in the campaign. Obviously, none are issued in Saudi Arabia.

Dangerous for the ovaries?

But conservative religious figures are still opposed to women driving.

A Saudi cleric's warning last month that driving was dangerous to the health of women and of their children sparked an online wave of mockery.

"Physiological science" has found that driving "automatically affects the ovaries and pushes up the pelvis," Sheikh Saleh al-Luhaydan warned in remarks to news website Sabq.org.

"This is why we find that children born to most women who continuously drive suffer from clinical disorders of varying degrees," he said.

One female tweeter retorted: "When idiocy marries dogma in the chapel of medieval traditions, this is their prodigal child."

"What a mentality we have. People went to space and you still ban women from driving. Idiots," said another comment.

Women who have been calling for three decades for the right to drive in the ultra-conservative kingdom have learned that public gatherings can get them in trouble in the absolute monarchy where any protests are officially banned.

In 1990, 47 women were arrested and punished after demonstrating in cars. The minister of interior subsequently banned women from driving but no law was ever promulgated.

This time, "there will be no demonstrations or rallying points," activist Aziza al-Youssef told AFP.

Youssef spoke of "positive indications" from authorities. In particular, she cited the chief of the notorious religious police, Sheikh Abdullatif al-Sheikh, and Justice Minister Mohammed al-Issa affirming this year that no religious text bans women from driving.

Even so, Saudi Arabia's appointed advisory Shura Consultative Council rejected on October 10 a move by three female members to put the ban up for discussion.

Activists argue that driving does not violate Islamic law (sharia) as claimed by conservatives who support the ban.

"Just as wives of the (Muslim) Prophet (Mohammed's) companions travelled on camel and horseback, it is our right to drive using the transportation means available during our modern era," activists said in an online petition linked to Saturday's campaign.

The petition has amassed more than 16,000 signatures since September, despite being blocked only two weeks after its launch.

In another argument, activists point to the kingdom's underdeveloped public transport system and say many families cannot afford to hire drivers.

"My salary is 3,500 riyals (around $941/682 euros) and a driver costs me 1,200 riyals," a divorced mother wrote on the campaign website.

Women's rights have always sparked controversy in the kingdom.

King Abdullah's appointment of 30 women to the 150-member Shura Council in January drew protests from radical clerics in the kingdom.

His predecessor, king Saud, had to dispatch troops to protect the first girls' school in the 1960s.

For Sharif the campaign aims to push women in the kingdom to demand "rights which are even more significant than the right to drive."

Diplomats at a UN review of Saudi Arabia's human rights record on Monday condemned the kingdom's failure to abolish a system requiring women to seek permission from male relatives to do basic things such as leave the country, and criticised the ban on driving.

Saudi women, forced to cover from head to toe, still need permission from a male guardian to travel, work and marry.