Two women arrested for driving in Saudi

Published: 11/7/2009 8:59:29 AM

By Maktoob Business

DUBAI - Police have arrested two female professors in Jeddah for violating Saudi Arabia’s strict ban on women driving, the daily Saudi Gazette reported on Saturday.

The women, whose nationalities have not been released, were on their way to a shopping mall when they were stopped by police, the newspaper reported.

The arrests come amid increasing reports of women driving - considered by clerics as un-Islamic.

Women's rights campaigners last year petitioned King Abdullah urging him to lift the ban.

Women in the conservative Muslim kingdom are legally obliged to cover up from head to toe in public, and cannot travel without written permission from a male guardian.

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