DARING TO DRIVE

This is a candid account of growing up female in Saudi Arabia and the author’s transformation from a staunch conservative to a leading women’s rights activist in a male-dominated kingdom. Manal Al-Sharif's June 2013 TED talk received over 1.4 million views. Her Youtube video showing her driving a car brought her international exposure. She was named by Time Magazne as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Manal al-Sharif, one of the leaders of the movement to allow women to drive in Saudi Arabia, describes how even the smallest aspects of everyday life are influenced by the country’s male guardianship system. In 2011, she started a women’s right to drive campaign called Women2Drive in an effort to pressure the government into granting women the right to drive. She then openly defied the ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia and was imprisoned for nine days as a result. A YouTube video featuring Manal driving brought her international exposure.

She was then awarded the first Vaclav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent and named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World. Her TED talk “A Saudi Woman Who Dared to Drive” received 1,385,113 total views to date.

The book covers Manal’s arrest and imprisonment for driving as well as unknown details of her coming of age and her assessment of Saudi Arabia’s future.