Information from Middle East Transparent and All Headline News.
On November 6, 2009, Saudi women launched the Black Ribbon Campaign, an international campaign against the Saudi male guardianship system. Some women protested by driving their cars through Riyadh, an action which is still illegal for Saudi women.
Led by Wahija Al-Huwaidar, and marking the anniversary of a famous protest in 1990 when 47 Saudi women drove cars through the capital calling for the right to drive, the Black Ribbon Campaign demands that:
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A) the Saudi woman be treated as a citizen just like her male counterpart;
B) the Saudi woman enjoy her rights to marry, divorce, inherit, gain custody of children, travel, work, study, drive cars and live on an equal footing with man;
C) the Saudi woman gain the legal capacity to represent herself in official and government agencies without the need of a male guardian.
The campaign calls on women around the world to tie black ribbons on their wrists in peaceful support of the campaign’s motto: “We will not untie our ribbon until Saudi women enjoy their rights as adult citizens.”
Blog post by SIGI Board Member, Jane Fonda.
Read more about Campaign founder, Wajeha Al-Huwaider.
Video of Wajeha Al-Huwaider calling for women’s right to drive on International Women’s Day, 2008:
Tags: campaign, human rights, Saudi Arabia
Your sisters all over the world are watching you and praying for you that Allah swt gives you strength in your campaign to take back the rights that have been stolen from you falsely in the name of Islam. Please tell us what we can do to help end gender apartheid in Saudi Arabia. Thank you for your fight. What you do in Saudi Arabia is felt by the entire Muslim world.
To everyone who reads this – here in Canada we are worried about our fellow citizen, Nazia Quazi, an innocent 24 yr old woman, stranded in Riyadh, unable to leave without her father’s permission. Please see our website at http://www.mpvottawa.com and write to our Minister of Foreign Affairs to demand his help. Thank you.
My human rights organization at my university in Texas also supports this. The women of the group have put black magnetic ribbons on our cars. Thank you for being a pioneer and for speaking out when many have no voice.
[...] latest I can see is the Black Ribbon Campaign launched in November 2009, demanding that: A) the Saudi woman be treated as a citizen just like [...]