Saudi Arabia man arrested after threatening women drivers
A man has been arrested in Saudi Arabia for allegedly threatening to attack women drivers, after a royal decree calling for an end to the ban in the kingdom.
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Saudi women will be allowed to drive in the kingdom from June 2018 [Getty]
A Saudi man was arrested for allegedly threatening to attack women drivers, the Interior Ministry said on Friday, following a royal decree that ends a ban on women driving in the kingdom.
Many Saudis welcomed Tuesday's announcement by King Salman lifting the ban by next year, but some expressed confusion or outrage after the reversal of a policy that has been backed for decades by prominent clerics.
The ministry said on Twitter that police in the kingdom's Eastern Province had arrested the suspect, who was not identified, and referred him to the public prosecutor.
"I swear to God, any woman whose car breaks down - I will burn her and her car," said a man wearing a traditional white robe who appeared in a short video distributed online earlier in the week.
Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the video.
Saudi media, including the Arabic-language Okaz newspaper, quoted the Eastern Province's police spokesman as saying the man in custody was in his 20s and that the arrest had been ordered by its governor.
The driving ban is a conservative tradition that limits women's mobility and has been seen by rights activists as an emblem of their suppression. Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that still bans women from driving.
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