Saudi Arabia arrests activists who challenged the driving ban imposed on women

Back in the Second World War, a group of mind-bogglingly brave Russian snipers- who happened to be women- fought off the Nazis and drove them away to despair in the legendary battle of Sevastapol. A lot behind Russia’s eventual usurping of tyrant Nazis was at the back of the effort of its brave women. In the period immediately after, exceptional women leaders like Golda Meir were instrumental in guiding embattled nations, in fact, unborn nations like Israel to take baby steps into the formation.

Elsewhere, Mother Teresa left everything that belonged to her including material possessions and moved to a distant part of India to dedicate her entire life toward the service of the poor, destitute and, downtrodden- call them what you may. In more recent times, the now highly-polarised Angela Merkel guided Germany to the height of its economic superiority during the 2000s and a punk-rock band comprising solely of women- titled Pussy Riot- took the fight against Vladimir Putin, singing songs flavoured with dissent and vitriol aimed directly at Putin. They didn’t regret that they were jailed. Even in Turkey that seems to have lost its charm and strength emanating from multiculturalism, exceptional writers like Elif Shafaq have changed the landscape of literature.

That is what women were doing in the wider world. What have Saudi Arabia’s women been doing apart from being forced to contribute to the extension of one’s family?

What has Saudi Arabia done for its women? What are its plans to ensure an equal and fair representation of women in the society?

It is repulsive that at a time where most countries in the wider world are working cohesively to take note of individual freedoms and liberties of their women, Saudi Arabia seems to be walking further from upholding women’s dignity.

We are surely in an age where women are doing more than substantially contributing toward home-spaces and professional endeavours of companies. It’s a time where entrepreneurship, literature, self-help groups and media continue to benefit from the

Just what is the issue with Saudi Arabia, a country that is as stubborn in preventing its women to live normally as is the Trump administration in its contempt for immigrants? In a rather brazen assault toward the dignity of women, two brave women activists who had expressed contempt to the rule toward banning women from driving, are said to have been arrested? Was that needed? What has happened? The detentions of women- Loujain al-Hathloul and Eman Al Nafijan- both of whom defied the driving ban on women in Saudi Arabia- speaks a lot about what’s wrong with the oil-rich nation.

It is believed that these detentions are part of a broader crackdown by the Saudi Leadership which is aimed at shaking violently the political activism which has emanated perhaps due to decades of suppression of women in the male-dominated society. In fact, things are so shocking back in the desert kingdom that recently when an auto show happened at a swanky, state of the art shopping mall, it was held separately for women so as to not allow men to interact with women even if in a socio-economic event.

Perceived opponents and dissidents of the existing regime don’t always have wide-grins on their face. What is more interesting is that even Muslim clerics have been held in the past few months without any charges, whatsoever? At all these times, there’s been no slowing down of a nation-wide crackdown against corruption that is believed to be rampant in Saudi Arabia. Sparing not even the princes from the sting of arrests, it wasn’t too long ago that many were holed up in opulent hotels so as to evade arrest orchestrated by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

But what will be the imminent future of the noted women’s rights activists? One’s not sure.