Wüstenschiff

Es klingt wie eine Revolution: Erstmals will das Königreich Saudi-Arabien in diesem Jahr Frauen zu den Olympischen Spielen schicken. Das saudi-arabische Olympische Komitee werde Sportlerinnen entsenden, die sich für eine Teilnahme an den Spielen in London in diesem Sommer qualifizierten, hieß es in einer Erklärung der saudi-arabischen Botschaft in London. Wahrscheinlich trifft dies aber nur auf eine einzige Frau zu - und zwar die Reiterin Dalma Malhas.

Die bolivianisch-deutsche Journalistin Gabriela Keseberg Dávalos berichtet von ihrer Reise ins abgeschottete und patriarchalische Saudi-Arabien, wo eine neue Generation von selbstbewussten Frauen heranwächst und eine andere Form von Umbruch möglich scheint.

She's young, beautiful and feisty, and she is the founder of the Saudi Women To Drive campaign, which is part of a larger action called My Right To Dignity: her name is Manal Al Sharif, and ANSAmed interviewed her in Italy, where she attended the International magazine journalism festival in Ferrara. She reached the festival at the wheel of a car, from the UN High Commission for Human Rights in Geneva, for the right to drive in her home country of Saudi Arabia is symbolic of the larger issue of full citizenhood. ''In my country, a man comes of age at 18, a woman never: she needs permission from a male guardian for every life choice, from studying abroad to looking for a job,'' Sharif told ANSAmed. And, while no law expressly forbids Saudi women to drive, they are de facto banned from getting behind the wheel.

Kuno hat geschrieben:da spricht das Mittelalter aus seiner dunkelsten Ecke!

A leading Saudi campaigner for giving women the right to drive has been stopped by police as she was driving through the capital, Riyadh. Photos of Aziza al Yousef were posted on Friday morning as she was seen at the wheel. Her fellow activist, Eman al Nafjan, took the pictures. On her Twitter page, Ms Nafjan provided a running account of their drive, saying they bought a bunch of bananas without anyone batting an eyelid. She posted a photo of them filling up at a petrol station and expressed her satisfaction that this all seemed to be treated as an everyday occurrence. But then they were spotted and reported to the police, who stopped them.