A memoir by a Saudi Arabian woman who became the unexpected leader of a movement to support women's rights describes how fundamentalism influenced her radical religious beliefs until her education, a job, and legal contradictions changed her perspectives.
This memoir explores the reasoning behind and the effects of Saudi Arabia's ban on female drivers. It also looks at the many ways restricting women in Saudi society hurts everyone. Women left to die because firefighters are not allowed to enter burning buildings containing unveiled women; men who worry about traveling for work knowing that their wives and children are unable to leave the house until they return; women unable to take jobs that require them to live away from family because they are unable to rent apartments.
Manal al-Sharif lived in a company town that did not ban female drivers. She had driven when living in the United States. She owned a car but had to hire a driver to go outside the town. She wasn't allowed to use some public transportation. She decided to create a day when women would post video of themselves driving to social media. On a test-run a few days before she was arrested and sent to prison for driving, even though there is no actual law against it.
This was a frustrating book to read because of the irrational unfairness of life for women in Saudi Arabia.
