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The History Hour: The right to drive in Saudi Arabia

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manal cropped.jpg

25/12/2021 GMT

The right to drive in Saudi Arabia

BBC World Service - The History Hour, The right to drive in Saudi Arabia

The Saudi women who used social media to campaign against being banned from the roads.

The campaigners jailed for defying Saudi Arabia's ban on women driving, plus how a famous Soviet ballet dancer's defection to the West stunned the world in 1961.

In 2011, cybersecurity expert Manal Al-Sharif helped found the Women2Drive movement. It was designed to force the Saudi Arabian government to overturn its ban on women driving cars - one of the many restrictions on women in the Kingdom. Inspired by the mood of the Arab Spring, Saudi women got behind the wheel and then posted videos of themselves all over social media. The movement attracted international attention and the ban on women drivers was eventually lifted. Saudi journalist Safa Al-Ahmad describes how the lifting of the ban was a radical change to Saudi society, but women in the country still face many severe restrictions. Plus, how in 2010 a Tanzanian man with albinism braved threats and discrimination to become the country's first albino elected politician. Also, the dramatic story of how the great Russian ballet dancer, Rudolf Nureyev, defected from the Soviet Union in 1961. Finally, the festive history of how a town in Finnish Lapland, eviscerated during WWII, rose from the ashes to become the unofficial home of Santa Claus. Presented by Max Pearson.

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