Baby, You Can Drive My Car?

by Jen Nedeau · 2009-05-08 20:45:00 UTC
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It's time to put women in the driver's seat. Particularly when it comes to the Middle East. That's why We the Woman, a new public service campaign which promotes a woman's right to drive in Saudi Arabia is totally necessary. It was created by Saudi native, Areej Khan, 24, for her thesis project at the School of Visual Arts (SVA). With her art background, Khan was able to create a social justice campaign that also gave women a place to speak about their desire to drive and express themselves in a society that so often mutes the female voice.

This recent article in Arab News describes the project well:

The project is called "N7nu - We the Woman" because it relies on women's voices and opinions. "In the end, the main message behind the campaign isn't coming from me or from an unknown higher voice ... it's coming from the people themselves. This project is not mine ... it's everyone's," Areej said.

The website is more of an online forum for dialogue and exchanging opinions. "Within a few days, the website has succeeded in attracting people from all over to express their views in Arabic and English," she said.

"The issue or the idea of women not being able to drive in Saudi Arabia is something that people don't talk about, although it is a pretty big deal," she said. "We have a very complicated culture. It has become pretty big since I started the website; it's grown fast.

"In the beginning, when I decided to adopt this as the subject of my thesis, I had to explain the idea for over five minutes to my colleagues (in the US). There is a lot of gap in our cultures and it was difficult to make people understand why the subject was such a big deal," Areej added.

It's almost surprising that women are still trying to get basic access to things such as a license to drive an automobile. But stories like this really make one realize that there is a long way to go before equality of the sexes is ever achieved on a global scale. I'm glad that women are finding a way to express their opinions and raise political and social concerns through art and civil protest.

Jen Nedeau Jen Nedeau is a media relations professional and a writer based in New York City.
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