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Saudi Women See a Brighter Road on Rights
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Many women complain that driving is a necessity and argue that not everyone can afford to hire foreign drivers, whose salaries range from $300 to $600 a month, plus room and board. Live-in chauffeurs, often from the Philippines or the Indian subcontinent, are considered unlikely to develop relationships with the women.
Several times a week, Haifa Osra, 31, one of the first members of the group, walks 10 minutes from her apartment to an Internet cafe to sort through the details of the women who have signed the latest petition.
This week, she approached four women at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf and asked them to add their names.
Haifa Khashoggi, 48, a homemaker, agreed that women should be allowed to drive, "but with conditions."
The other women concurred, saying that initially only women older than a certain age should drive, and not at all hours.
"It's safer and more Islamic for me to drive myself than to sit with an unrelated male driver," said Nadia Nusair, 45, a consultant on educational and family issues.
"It will be chaos at first," said Ibtisam al-Sharif, 47. "But pretty soon, driving will be accepted and everyone will find it normal."
