Saudi women driving: Dad summoned by police

Saudi police summoned the father of a female activist who called for Saturday’s campaign to have a ban on female driving lifted while a woman was arrested while driving with her husband in the conservative Gulf Kingdom.

Police denied local reports that the activist, Lujein Al Hadloul, had been arrested for instigating protests and driving a car upon her return home from the United States on Tuesday, saying they only summoned her father.

“We did not arrest Lujein.

“We summoned her father to give us a written statement pledging to respect rules. He showed understanding for this,” a police spokesman said, quoted by the Saudi satellite TV news channel Al Arabiya.

Newspapers in the Kingdom said police arrested a 48-year-old Saudi woman caught driving a car while her husband was sat next to her.

They said the husband told police he was teaching his daughter how to drive in anticipation of any decision to lift the ban on female driving.

The papers said the woman and her husband were seized in the southern town of Baha.

Saudi woman were expected to take to the streets on Saturday and drive cars in response to calls by Al Hadloul and other female activists.

The Interior Ministry has warned it would take stern measures against any woman caught driving while newspapers on Saturday reported some women had dropped plans to join Saturday’s campaign, the second by Saudi women in two years.

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