Until June 2018, Saudi Arabia was the only country in the world in which women were forbidden from driving motor vehicles.

[1] The Women to Drive Movement (Arabic: قيادة المرأة في السعودية, romanized: qiadat almar'at fi alsueudia, lit.

[15] On 26 September 2017, King Salman finally issued an order to allow women to drive, with new guidelines to be created and implemented by June 2018.

[16] Women to drive campaigners were ordered not to contact media and in May 2018, several, including Loujain al-Hathloul, Eman al-Nafjan, Aisha Al-Mana, Aziza al-Yousef and Madeha al-Ajroush, were detained.

[2] In 2002, The Economist magazine estimated that the salaries of the approximately 500,000 chauffeurs driving women in Saudi Arabia accounted for 1% of the national income.

[30] A woman from Jeddah, Najla Hariri, started driving in the second week of May 2011, stating "Before in Saudi, you never heard about protests.

[But] after what has happened in the Middle East, we started to accept a group of people going outside and saying what they want in a loud voice, and this has had an impact on me.

[29] On 30 May, al-Sharif was released on bail,[34] on the conditions of returning for questioning if requested, not driving and not talking to the media.

She drove with two women passengers in Ar Rass and was detained by traffic police in the presence of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (CPVPV).

[37] In reaction to al-Sharif's arrest, several more Saudi women published videos of themselves driving during the following days.

[36] Wajnat Rahbini, a Saudi actress famous in the Arab world for playing in the satirical comedy Tash ma Tash, broadcast annually during Ramadan, drove her car "in defiance of a long-standing ban on female driving"[38] on 4 June in Jeddah.

"[10] In July, Princess al-Taweel, niece-in-law of Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, spoke about her opposition to the women driving ban on the United States (US) radio station NPR and called for women to have equal rights in the workforce, in the legal system, and in education.

[12][13] On 15 November 2011, Manal al-Sharif filed charges in the Grievances Board, a non-Sharia specialized court,[43] against the General Directorate of Traffic for the rejection of her application for a driver's licence.

The head of the Assembly told women campaigners that he was "still open to hearing the case for lifting the ban".

[47] On 4 February,[48] Samar Badawi, a human rights activist[45] who had driven regularly since June 2011 and helped other women drivers with police and court procedures,[49] filed similar charges to those of Manal al-Sharif, objecting to the rejection of her own driving licence application.

She filmed her experience of driving from the United Arab of Emirates with the intention of crossing the border back to Saudi Arabia.

"[53] Loujain Al-Hathloul was arrested after she filmed her attempt to defy the ban of driving for Saudis Women.

[57] On 26 September 2017, King Salman issued a statement recognizing the right of Saudi women to drive in keeping with Sharia.

[20] In late November 2018, the Women to Drive campaigners detained in Dhahban Central Prison were tortured.

[61] As of 20 November 2018[update], according to the Saudi newspaper Okaz, the women were to be tried at the Specialized Criminal Court, with prosecutors calling for prison terms of up to 20 years.

[62] In late March 2019, the women presented their defence and described physical and sexual abuse they had endured in captivity.

for "pushing boundaries" to get the world to pay attention to women's right to drive in the kingdom, and for being a female artist who "finally" did something different.