Interior Ministry warns driving rights campaigners

The Ministry of Interior on Wednesday warned organizers of the Oct. 26 women driving campaign that group gatherings and marches are illegal.
The warning also applies to organized attempts on social media sites to stop women from driving.
Saudi women organized the campaign for Saturday in an effort to gain the right to drive automobiles on Saudi roads.
A ministry spokesman said in a statement to the press Wednesday that “regulations in Saudi Arabia prohibit any action that disturbs social peace and opens the door for sedition and responds to the illusions of prejudiced intruders with sick dreams.”
He said the ministry assures everybody that competent authorities “will implement regulations against all violators strictly.” He said the ministry “appreciates the concerns expressed by many citizens on the importance of preserving security and stability and avoiding whatever calls for society division and classification.”
Some Saudi women posted online photographs and video clips of themselves defying the ban this month after some members of the Shoura Council called for an end to the prohibition.
The “October 26 Driving” campaign has asked Saudis to put its logo on their cars and called upon women with international driving licenses to get behind the wheel that day, while urging other women to learn to drive.
Conservative supporters of the ban have said allowing women to drive will encourage the sexes to mix freely in public and thus threaten public morality.
On Tuesday, Sabq reported that 200 clerics had visited the royal court in Jeddah to make a case against women driving.
“We came to the guardian (King Abdullah) to clarify the seriousness of this period,” Sabq quoted Sheikh Nasser bin Salman Al-Omar, secretary-general of the League of Muslim Scholars, as saying.
“If those behind the conspiracy of women driving approach the house from the back, the sheikhs wanted to come through the front doors,” he added.