Update on Manal Al Sherif

According to Sabq, a local news organization, Manal Al Sherif has been sentenced to five days in prison. She has been charged with bypassing rules and regulations, driving a car within the city, enabling a journalist to interview her while driving  a car, deliberately disseminating the incident to the media,  incitement of Saudi women to drive cars, and turning public opinion against the regulations. As of writing this, this outcome has not been confirmed by her lawyer or her support campaign. Also Manal’s Twitter account was duplicated. (links to original and fake) Someone pretending to be her tweeted that she has repented once she realized that the call to lift the ban is an Iranian and atheist conspiracy that will lead society to moral decadence.

Update:

Human rights activist, Waleed Abu Alkhair, has prepared a letter and petitionto be sent to King Abdullah. Within hours of posting the letter, it has gotten over three hundred signatures from Saudi citizens and the list is still growing. This a translation of the letter originally translated by Rafah:

To the Custodian of the two holy mosques Peace be upon you We the children of this country have been very hurt by the news of the arrest of your citizen Manal Masoud Al Sharif on Saturday 22//5/2011 on the grounds of her driving her car in the streets of Khobar in the company of her brother. And while we were relieved at her release in the evening, we were shocked by her detention again at dawn in a very humiliating way for both our country and its people, since she was asked to sign a warrant and was instead tricked and arrested against her will, Manal is at Dammam’s Correctional to this very moment.

The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques,

you have stated in 2007 to the Russian News Network that the issue of Women Driving is a social one and that the state was to facilitate the suitable environment for any decision that the society deems appropriate. The Minister of Interior have also stated that the issue is a social one and not religious, which theoretically means that if the society wants to lift the ban then there should be no obstacles. The same thing was repeated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs: that the decision for women to drive the car is up to her family. Abdullah Al Munee’a, a member of the Higher Council of Ulama, have said that there is no objection from the religious point of view for women to drive. In addition, article 38 of the Basic Law states: there should be no personal or criminal punishment that is not based on a religious or official decree; and since the issue of women’d driving is not a violation of any official law or any religious law, then women should not be arrested for driving their cars based on article 36 that prohibits the baseless restriction on actions and arrest.

The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques,

we call on you to release your daughter and citizen Manal Al Sharif immediately and lift the injustice that have been placed on her, since she drove her car with her brother’s company and consent, and she has a recognized driving license in accordance with the Traffic law as outlined by article 2 section 34 of the law. We also believe that the time has come to resolve the issue of women’s driving for once and for all in a clear manner. To say that its a social issue and is not prohibited by religion, and then for women to get arrested is completely unjust and it leaves us trapped in a vicious circle. We are in desperate need for a clear law that either prohibits or allows women to drive.

The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques,

you have said your famous saying that women are your wife, mother and daughter. Your daughter Manal Al Sharif is in jail for no crime that she committed. Will you remove this injustice? We all hope for the prompt freedom of Manal.

May God Bless You and Look after You..

[The signatories]