The right to drive in Saudi Arabia

The History Hour

BBC

History, Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4 • 879 Ratings

🗓️ 25 December 2021

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the History Hour podcast from the BBC World Service with me Max Pearson.
0:04.8	As ever we're uncovering stories from the past in the company of those who were there.
0:09.3	This week marking 10 years on from the Arab Spring, we recall protests in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
0:15.6	I saw people kissing the ground and they were crying and crying and crying.
0:20.6	It's like someone who was smelling the smell of freedom for the first time.
0:27.0	Also the man who overcame shocking discrimination against albinos in Tanzania.
0:31.0	Many had never seen someone like me become a leader, let alone speak up against the killing.
0:37.0	There was a lot of fear during that time.
0:39.0	Amaroff to Lapland to visit Santa and his band of Mary Elves. There are so many different elves. to
0:43.0	Lappland to visit Santa and his band of Mary Elves. There's so many different elves.
0:44.0	Most love his elves,
0:45.0	professor elves, gift for being elves and so on.
0:48.0	That's all coming up, but we're going to start
0:50.0	far away from the frozen north
0:52.0	with a couple of stories from the recent history of the Arab world.
0:55.0	As I said, it's ten years since the Arab Spring, during which a series of anti-government protest movements spread across the Middle East and North Africa, deposing several leaders and
1:04.3	resulting in the ongoing conflict in Syria.
1:07.1	In a moment we're going to hear from one of those flash points in the Gulf region, Bahrain,
1:11.9	but first a story from that same turbulent year in
1:14.5	neighbouring Saudi Arabia. Inspired in part by the Arab Spring Movement, a group of
1:19.1	women in Saudi Arabia were galvanized to protest for their right to drive.
1:24.0	Petra Jivich has been speaking to one of them and she joins us now, Petra.
	...

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