Mulheres fazem campanha por direitouol betdirigir na Arábia Saudita:uol bet

uol bet Saudi women activists have launched a new campaign for the right to drive. Women aren't allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, although there's no formal law banning them.

uol bet Reportagem: Sebastian Usher

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In a sign of how uol bet pervasive online social networks have become in Saudi Arabia, the new campaign has been started on Twitter. It's the idea of the uol bet activist, Eman al Nafjan, who's uol bet set things in motion with a simple message saying that Saudi women will express their feelings about driving on October the 26th.

She's told the BBC the hope is that women will come out uol bet en masse to drive on that day. She says the campaign's meant to be a uol bet grassroots movement open to all Saudis - men as well as women - to show their support. Hundreds of messages uol bet backing the campaign have already been posted. Well-known Saudis are due to give their public backing, while videos of women driving will be posted when they emerge.

Women activists say the issue of being allowed to drive is key to their gaining other rights, such as freedom from what many see as uol bet oppressive male uol bet guardianship. They argue that there's an uol bet irony in the ban on driving as it means that women must rely on male drivers, thereby spending large amounts of time with a man outside their family. In other circumstances, this would be condemned as a serious uol bet transgression of the country's deeply conservative interpretation of Islam.

Those who oppose women driving do so on the grounds that it would uol bet violate that deeply traditional code. In public, there've been some signs that Saudi officials may be softening their line on women driving. That's a change from several years ago when women were arrested or lost their jobs for uol bet taking to the wheel as part of similar campaigns. But Eman al Nafjan says persistent rumours that the ban might be lifted soon are so far nothing more than that.

<link type="page"><caption> </caption><url href="http://http-ws.bbc.co.uk.edgesuite.net/mp3/learningenglish/2013/09/4bfba8fe_130913_witn_vocab_130913_witn_voyager_words_au_bb.mp3" platform="highweb"/></link><link type="page"><caption> </caption><url href="http://http-ws.bbc.co.uk.edgesuite.net/mp3/learningenglish/2013/09/130920_witn_saudi_women_report_130920_witn_saudi_women_report_au_bb.mp3" platform="highweb"/></link><link type="page"><caption> Clique aqui para ouvir as palavras</caption><url href="http://http-ws.bbc.co.uk.edgesuite.net/mp3/learningenglish/2013/09/9de0d1c8_130920_witn_vocab_130920_witn_saudi_women_words_au_bb.mp3" platform="highweb"/></link>

uol bet pervasive noticeable everywhere; becoming widespread

uol bet activist person who takes part in activities that hope to achieve political or social change

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uol bet grassroots ordinary people in a group or country, not its leaders

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uol bet transgression breaking of the law or moral rules

uol bet violate break or go against (a law or tradition)

uol bet taking to the wheel driving a car