Manal al-Sharif, a 32-year-old Saudi activist campaigning for women's right to drive, was detained by traffic police and the religious police on Saturday after being spotted driving in Khobar. She was released after six hours but there were reports early on Sunday that she had been arrested again, along with her brother, when police arrived at their home.

Sharif is one of the founders of a group called Women2Drive which has more than 12,000 supporters on Facebook and more than 6,000 followers on Twitter.

The group's YouTube page says:

"On June 17th, 2011 ... We women in Saudi Arabia, from all nationalities, will start driving our cars by ourselves. 

"We are not here to break the law or demonstrate or challenge the authorities, we are here to claim one of our simplest rights.

"We have driver's licence and we will abide by the traffic laws.

"We started teaching ladies how to drive, and we'll help them get international driver's licence until we are able to get Saudi driver's licence.

"We are collecting signatures from both genders to inform King Abdullah of this initiative.

"Enough with the talk ... we are here to walk the talk and just do it ... it's about time!"

There is no law against women driving in Saudi Arabia. Some women do drive in rural areas but it is almost impossible for women to obtain a licence in the kingdom – hence the plan to use international licences.

The Saudi authorities generally say that women's driving is 
a social issue rather than a political or religious one, since the objections come mainly from male traditionalists.

For more discussion, see Saudiwoman's Weblog.

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 22 May 2011