Daring to Drive

Manal al-Sharif thought she’d won a battle in Saudi women’s quest to drive, but the secret police were fighting a war.

The door-shaking knocks came at 2 a.m. Secret policemen kept banging on the door of Manal al-Sharif’s house until her brother answered. They said they wanted al-Sharif to come with them to Dhahran police station. The previous day, they had detained al-Sharif for five hours for “driving while female.” Though it wasn’t a crime, a woman driving defied Saudi Arabian custom. 

After al-Sharif signed a paper attesting that she would never drive on Saudi land, she and her brother went home thinking they had won a small victory. Friends greeted them with the news that many people had seen her arrest on social media.

Then, the secret police came to al-Sharif’s home in the compound belonging to the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco), where she was the only woman working in the information security group. The compound was a Western oasis in the conservative kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The men at the door included an Aramco official who assured al-Sharif he would bring her back to her home...