\nSaudi authorities have detained a columnist who supported ending his country’s ban on women driving, activists said.<\/p>\n
The activists, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, told the Associated Press news agency that Tariq al-Mubarak was called by investigators in the capital, Riyadh, over the weekend concerning a stolen car.<\/p>\n
When he arrived at the Interior Ministry’s Criminal Investigation Department on Sunday, he was interrogated instead about his role in a campaign launched by reformers seeking the right of women to drive in the kingdom.<\/p>\n
When his friends were informed they could pick him up at the investigator’s office, they too were detained for several hours and questioned over the campaign’s activities, activists said.<\/p>\n
Human Rights Watch and activists who know al-Mubarak say he remains in detention with no access to a lawyer.<\/p>\n
The New York-based organisation called for al-Mubarak’s immediate release and on authorities \u201cto stop harassing and trying to intimidate activists and women who defied the driving ban\u201d.<\/p>\n
The spokesman for the Interior Ministry, Mansour al-Turki, could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n
In a column published in the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat the day of his arrest, al-Mubarak said extremists are intimidating people to top them exercising their rights.<\/p>\n
He said the courts in Saudi Arabia do not have sufficient provisions to deter those who threaten and terrorise others from exercising their freedoms because \u201crights and freedoms … are not instilled in our culture, nor our interpretation of religion\u201d.<\/p>\n
Al-Mubarak, who also works as a schoolteacher, was among a core group of active young Saudis calling for women’s right to drive.<\/p>\n
About 60 women claimed they got behind the wheel on Saturday to oppose the ban. The campaign sparked protest by the kingdom’s ultraconservative religious establishment.<\/p>\n
The reformers behind the October 26 driving campaign say their efforts are ongoing and that they continue to receive videos by women filming themselves flouting the driving ban.<\/p>\n
The activists told the Associated Press that they have been followed for the past several days and are anticipating arrest.<\/p>\n
They have put in place contingency plans and emergency numbers for journalists and rights organisations to call in case they were detained.<\/p>\n
At least two women have been fined recently by police for driving, the activists said. Samia El-Moslimany said she was given a nearly $135 fine for driving in the kingdom, though she has a US driver’s license<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Saudi authorities have detained a columnist who supported ending his country’s ban on women driving, activists said. The activists, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, told the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n