Victory! EU’s Top Diplomat Praises “Courageous” Saudi Women's Right to Drive Campaigns

Top EU diplomat responds to Saudi women’s Change.org campaigns asking her to publicly declare support for Saudi women’s right to drive.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton publicly declared her support for Saudi women’s right to drive campaigns late Wednesday after more than 7,000 people in all EU states joined a Change.org campaign calling on her to stand with the Saudi women.

In a statement released by a spokesperson for the High Representative and European Commission Vice President, HRVP Ashton described the Saudi women fighting for the right to drive as “courageous.”

“The EU supports people who stand up for their right to equal treatment, wherever they are. The Saudi women who are taking to the road are exercising their right to demand that equality. They are courageous and have the High Representative's support.”

The statement came one day after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton publicly praised the Saudi women’s right to drive campaigns:

"What these women are doing is brave, and what they are seeking is right... I'm moved by it [the campaign] and I support them."

Ashton’s support concludes a month of campaigning by Saudi Women for Driving, a coalition of leading Saudi women’s rights activists, bloggers and academics, which directly called on both HRVP Ashton and Clinton to make a public statement in support of Saudi women’s right to drive on Change.org, the world’s fastest-growing platform for social change.

On Monday U.S. State spokesperson Victoria Nuland responded to the Saudi women’s calls by saying Clinton was engaged in “quiet diplomacy” and had raised the issue privately with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal.

Saudi Women for Driving pushed back on that approach, telling Clinton that “quiet diplomacy is not what we need right now.”

“For the United States’ top diplomat to make no public statement about such developments sends exactly the wrong message to the Saudi government and, more importantly, to the women of Saudi Arabia,” the women wrote in a letter released early this morning and send to 17 of Clinton’s top aides.

At a press conference two hours later, Clinton praised the Saudi women’s efforts at a widely publicized press conference.

Saudi Women for Driving is an informal consortium of Saudi women’s rights activists pulled together after the arrest of Manal al-Sharif, a Saudi mother jailed for driving her car. The group seeks to use online campaigning to build international support for Saudi women’s right to drive. More than 100,000 people in 156 countries have joined Saudi Women for Driving campaigns on Change.org. The latest campaign, launched Tuesday, calls on car manufacturer Subaru to pull out of Saudi Arabia until women are given the right to drive.

“To see a grassroots movement of Saudi women’s rights activists use our platform to successfully lobby the EU’s most powerful diplomat has been truly heartening,” said Change.org founder Ben Rattray. “Inspired by the Arab Spring, these women have launched the largest women’s rights protest movement in Saudi history, and recruited more than 100,000 supporters in more than 150 countries to their various campaigns. Change.org is about empowering anyone, anywhere to demand action on the issues that matter to them, and it is an honor to provide a platform for these Saudi women.”

Photo: Europa Pont