Saudi Government warns women over driving protest:

If you asked Rotana Tarabzouni in 2011 about the protest to end Saudi Arabia’s ban on female drivers, she would have cynically called the cause hopeless.

The authorities in Saudi Arabia have stepped up warnings to women not to defy a ban on female drivers by taking part in a mass driving protest.

The warning came on the eve of the planned protest by female activists who have obtained driver’s licenses abroad. Though no specific law bans women from driving, the rules are enforced by Saudi clerics who hold far-reaching influence over the monarchy.

Tarabzouni, a graduate student at the University of Southern California, has leant her voice to the cause this time around; she’s posted a cover of Lord’s Team on YouTube in support of the protesters.

Speed Sisters Film @speedsisterfilm

It's a woman's right to drive - and to dance. Shyrine from the Ramallah Ballet Center #women2drive #oct26driving

9:35 AM - 15 Oct 2013

Al-Faisal, the ministry spokesman, was quoted as saying the cyber dissident law, “will be applied against violators” while other measures will be taken against “those who gather to support” the planned protest.