The Real Reason Saudi Arabia Is Letting Women Drive

Earlier this year, Hatoon Al-Fassi, a Saudi academic who teaches at Qatar University, told CityLab that for over a quarter of a century, Saudi women activists fighting for the right to drive had heard the occasional rumor that they would be granted licenses. Though the rumors had always come to naught, Al-Fassi believed that change would come—sooner rather than later. “It could happen at anytime,” she said.

This week, it did. On Tuesday, King Salman issued a royal decree allowing women to obtain driver’s licenses. Social media erupted. Manal Al-Sharif, an activist who was jailed in 2011 for posting a YouTube video of herself driving, posed behind the wheel of her car in a celebratory Twitter photo.