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Daring to Drive
Book

Daring to Drive

A Saudi Woman’s Awakening

Manal al-Sharif
Simon & Schuster, 2017

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Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Insider's Take
  • Inspiring

Recommendation

As a devout Saudi girl, Manal al-Sharif gladly adhered to the strictures of her culture. Her mother, who believed in education, guided al-Sharif to go to college and become a computer scientist. Sharing warm scenes of family life, the author also discusses ways she challenged traditional boundaries. Working for Aramco as the only woman in IT security, she found that a lone woman couldn’t rent an apartment. After a divorce and a year-long US exchange program, she joined a social media group calling for Saudi women to drive. When she drove, the government jailed her. As she recounts in this inspiring saga, other Saudi Arabian women also defied the ban, and they won the right to drive in 2018. 

Take-Aways

  • Manal al-Sharif thought she’d won a battle in Saudi women’s quest to drive, but the secret police were fighting a war.
  • Saudi authorities interrogated, intimidated and imprisoned al-Sharif for driving.
  • Growing up in a family that followed a strict Islamic creed, al-Sharif gained a college degree and a job, and became an activist.

About the Author

Women’s rights activist Manal al-Sharif became Saudi Arabia’s first woman computer security specialist and went to jail for driving a car while female.

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