I can’t remember where I first saw Daring to Drive (2017) by Manal al-Sharif, but I knew women had just been allowed the basic right to drive in Saudi Arabia. I was both horrified and fascinated that women wouldn’t be allowed to drive in this day and age, and I wanted to know more. Al-Sharif was jailed for eleven days in 2011 for daring to drive her brother’s car in opposition to the ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia. However, this story is much more than […]
We take so much for granted
Manal al-Sharif grew up in Mecca, and through a combination of her family’s teachings and her time at school, spent most of her childhood and teen years as a religious fanatic. Then, in her 20s, she became a computer security engineer, working with a variety of people, and realized just how wrong the situation in her country really was. She began to rebel against the government by doing something that most of us bitch and moan about doing every day: daring to drive. Manal tells […]