This report presents a rare insight into a society largely hidden from the outside world an insight into the life of women in saudi arabia. We meet women who are fighting for their rights secretly silently and courageously. No longer willing to be banished from public life theyre now challenging traditional constraints. Their goal to emerge from the shadow of their male compatriots. Its a life behind the veil a life in black even in jeddah the city on the red sea the most liberal place in the country saudi women are forced into a straight jacket of restrictions they can only be seen in public wearing a full length of maya they are now allowed to drive a car but they still cant travel work or attend University Without the permission of a male guardian. Hid behind the veil resentment is growing. Women are increasingly treading new kinds as they turn against fundamentalist dog was a challenge for the strictly conservative saudi kingdom. Women are pushing back the systems boundaries and even questioning the religious leader based segregation for men. And the Municipal Council elections in two thousand and fifteen women not only voted for the first time they also stood. As candidates. Since female politicians are not allowed to address men directly in an Election Campaign they hired several actors as mouthpieces. Communication consultant and social activism rush i have seen is now one of two women who have a seat on the jet as city council there was a confrontation at the very first session not all the male councillors wanted to sit at the same table as the two women. F. C. Refused to take a seat behind a wall since then shes received Death Threats from strictly religious conservatives people are claiming that some women who enter the council are not mature enough to carry this responsibility but are all men mature. Enough to face thoughts of people from the extremist backgrounds who would think that Women Participation in the public life my jeopardize the holiness of the society it was a year relationship between a person and god or that is a simple family so. People think that its protection its meaning the thinking is about segregating covering. This kind of protection or what they call protection remove the individual will and then youre turning protection into a seat. We need to make sure that we have more woman participating in the public life by ensuring that women they have here all of the departments of government officials are preparing the ground by the introduction the involvement having a say pushing. One site you will let this go the political decision will change. The. Two women who have overcome those traditional barriers after studying abroad funny my masonic and mara obeyed set up a Management Consultancy today their company is in the black but their Success Story began ten years ago when the growing population could no longer be provided with comfortable jobs as Civil Servants plus the foreseeable end of its oil reserves forced the state to adopt a new Economic Policy and Education Program was launched for women too. Lifting the driving ban could eventually change a lot in a country with no public transport. But your mother and my wife and their families share an expensive transport service this requires logistic effort and forces them into the immediate proximity of a strange man a paradox in the land of gender segregation or businesswoman and obstacles that she faces every day. Number one is transportation. Is the good for. The show that youre going to. Get a member once we had that meeting and neither one of us have the drive readily get in a bit when we try to find we try to find a driver and i we have a car to bring the logistics for that work in all it was just i did i mean i think there were never any good not bad off thing at which you have a guy that you know the mind yeah home for him enough to put to at this one hundred by. The bottle again and suddenly he left the key whether the driver left the key again you know got a good job you know its just its not realistic its like here you know with Everything Else are you guys. Inside of a. Woman and saudi arabia have learned how to be smarter fast thinkers because of the meaning of the soul of women youre always resourceful thinking of solutions and we managed to get out off the living. Bone is there like fungus out of nowhere. After studying law so fine a donna fought for thirteen years before the saudi state finally approved her registration as a lawyer one of the first fee. Male attorneys in saudi arabia. During that time she built up a Placement Agency for Creative Minds she still campaigns for modernization of the religious law the wrong perception today is some people took some elements of the verses and misinterpreted that so that they have the person against the practice their person a. Psychic and will being and then preach and hide behind the covers of the system of guardianship is completely misled as you. Know i didnt mean his wife that you are responsible for supporting women it doesnt mean that you are going to control women it doesnt mean that you are going to boss her around a lot of things today they tell you women cannot wear ok look at the first modern of a woman was the wife a prophet mohammed. This woman is a business woman. She was so empowered he is the one who proposed to him he has been his support to all the time if you want to look at it who is the guardian the. Leagues this seems colors are more of creatures who are actually teaching the existing into big asian of the text today you need innovative women. To look into the text look into the conflicts and dont come with new yorkers and dont know you and debates regarding laws debate is the mechanism of change i dont believe that its. A lot of women from my generation are pushing the border further every day but because the freedom for an individual is different from my perspective i fear women in the west are subject to being a merchandise. I am wearing my my and i lie. Whereby it ive never felt its the subject of limitation its a limitation when people in the west demands that i appear to the way they perceive women to appear to me why do you want me to be like you. But so what ever comes out of it. And women are eating changes you know but in certain there were not leading from the front toward leading from behind we are driving our lives and were driving the vehicle to change but nobody can see it because were not sitting in the tribe or this seat that were giving instructions for. The women and girls are not allowed to engage in sports in public and hardly any school has a sports hall one consequence of this is medical problems stemming from a lack of exercise there are just a few private practice areas for sports women for instance where the girls objet are united one of the first female basketball teams in the country it was founded by lena my enough. If a bunch of us decide to play basketball in a public area they would try to stop us then if your male guardian has no idea and is against it obviously this is all about chauvinism and not wanting women to be empowered and sports is a great way to empower women. Time for a break but not to relax. I used to get the opposition mainly on social media and the newspapers a few phone calls messages on my phone call but honestly that was an attempt to scare us. Some of it was that. Homosexuality its going to lead to women being immodest and not dress properly the women are going to be getting out of their houses not taking care of the kids or home and whatever and the society will break up that it was going to distract from religious duties this was immoral that were not patriotic we dont love our country we are not religious that we have no sense of identity and that were american that we were out there to corrupt the girls. But im thinking what i feel that there has been a shift in society it is the twitter generation it is the instagram generation it is the seventy percent of the youth in the country and theyre very exposed to the world and even the Saudi Society is changing. The but. The state religion in saudi arabia is. A particularly strict form of sunni islam that pervades everyday life. The. Saudis are required to pray five times a day at prayer times all Public Institutions businesses and restaurants close for a short while the buyer the saudis also refer to the state religion to justify the ban on women driving and on women appearing in public with men they are not related to. And. The rich desert monarchy is able to buy its citizens loyalty it can therefore stifle the call for rights and individual freedom through a free supply of water and electricity wages for the many Civil Servants and through waiving income tax. At the same time the regimes rule is a strict one executions continue to take place on squares and in front of mosques even in liberal jetta other forms of public entertainment such as cinema theatre and music clubs are against the law. And. One of the few places where locals can let off steam is at the comedy club. Yet here too theres a strict gender separation and jokes about religion or the royal family are to move. Selfcensorship offers protection from draconian punishment. But its not going on here. That he. Must mean a simple election but recently held and this time women were not only allowed to vote. They could also standouts candidates and like russia have even won they just imagine two women rivals meet and one says to the other what on earth are you wearing Premium Brands were no way its all cheap stuff and the other one replies before looking at my clothes you should take a look at your body youd be better off in a Fitness Studio than on the Municipal Council. At the theatre men and women must sit separately but the oconnors Publishing Company is just done away with it separate entrances. And thats not the only revolution at the front. The english language Saudi Gazette one of the most important daily newspapers in saudi arabia now has the countrys first female editor in chief and so my party personally i never thought it would ever happen in my lifetime appointing a woman saudi woman as it was when chief of a Saudi National newspaper i did not think that it would be approved by the Board Members i dont think it need be approved by the ministry of information and culture no i just thought it was talk and you know i said you know who are you kidding you know this is either you and imus i dont. And frankly speaking i really wasnt keen on being put in that position youre under the spotlight and its an experiment and its a huge responsibility in terms of if something goes wrong then its going to backfire on almost anyone i think that my being appointed to this position is about showing the world that we are progressive or that were willing to move forward im concerned about tokenism all right where women are used as a token for a particular reason or particular cause or to sell us a particular idea ok i wont be a mouthpiece only be a mouthpiece for what i believe in. But how free is an editor in chief in a country where you can be sent to prison for years just to reading a poem. Im not going to the question. Im not going to answer the question i will say that. There is a lot of selfcensorship all right there are maybe one or two red lines. But there is so much below or around those two red lines that could be utilized that can be exposed but the lines are defined by each and two in chief ari and fortunately its not by as stated policy for each newspaper. And i may be a symptom of that in the time. Youre changing im not proof in itself but things are changing your saw there are elements that need to change and leo being appointed to this position doesnt really change that much in the reality in the in the solomons reality on the ground. So funny has taken our own path to freedom. A significant moment that really changed my life it was just a few hours after i had my second daughter and wait. And i remember that my elder daughter had not all came and looked at her sister and shes like mommy what will you have to be when she grows up. And i saw my life like a movie and i saw also what it is like to be a sad human. Needing to have a permission to study something youre passionate about or. Not yours is difficult not being recognized or are you having a male guardian companionship when used to be or you needed permission from your guardian just travel. And it was then that i felt that i dont want them to grow up remembering me or a person who was suppressed or oppressed and i just felt that it was time for me to face my own fears and stand for who i. Am i took the decision to to leave boy and. Be a single mother gets a divorce. It wasnt easy. The perception of about single mothers is that people look at you is a personal failing. But in the same time it can use frustration as a poor step will drive you you can use your anger and there was no way to keep running the room your fears you have limitations. Be with them. People are very sad about the oil dropping down im very happy change happens when economically people are going through hardship were no longer living where it was so in a couple of years men are going to ask women to go out and start working im sure and while people cannot afford drivers great men youre going to start finding men asking you know what lets let well let the women drive let them drive the kids to school its cheaper. Deafened the mentalists i human beings and many methodist. And im a hundred percent sure theyre going to chorley for a change. And then go factory is a pioneering project. Its not eastern asian women who work here as youd normally find but more than sixty saudi women in the managing director of this industrial embroidery firm is a mother of three promising my nose and shes placed a mini bus service and even a Child Daycare Center at the disposal of her well paid staff of women. Precisely because shes a shy housewife she should grab this job opportunity. In the beginning they know nothing of the to how i can be in the mine they are all women and some of the customers make the order in minimum quantity because they do not trust that we can deliver votes often the first and the sucking the the third deal no they dont us in all. There are quantity and big quantities. We keep it female because we want to provide our women muslim women invited me they feel relieved if they want to work freely without wearing hijab we feel more comfortable. The women are only wearing their bills inside the factory today because of the camera or in the beginning it was only i want to walk because i need the money but the later this covered up the work its meaning more than this war can mean cure your so feel revile you your rights in your community now the target of the girl when she graduates from this Country School not only focus whats meant he will marry she will marry not because she can live without marriage. For the. Husband of someone him also one marriage is for. The most important thing for me is to know that im no longer financially dependent on my parents in with them and that makes me feel so strong and. Well all of a sudden i can just go out and undertake something. On my own do things. Like been the things our society doesnt think are good for women being with friends or being out and about on my own in the past i was never among people i was always at home today ive made so many good friends. Through. The conflict at the Municipal Council is intensifying editor in chief so my agent party has called for a meeting of the Publishing Companys management the local politician sessions have just been suspended because the two Women Council are still refused to be put in a separate room. Politician in russia have c. Refuses to take part in meetings until this ridiculous issue settled with your people who are guys. That did not want this but the rest were ok with me saying. No to them they might not officially say it was but they have to. Hold it for me. Because id like to pinpoint if possible id like to id like to know who is instigating this since they made the statement they should claim it with their name they should be given the liberty to hide their identities if they really believe in something fortunately for the state yeah exactly they need to fix the music and you guys will. Know that however without you know with history they know that. We used to go but we just didnt bother to go through the process because we didnt think it would make that work. If. The girls are itself they have no authority over them because you only want to come in to the process when everything is ready made and its going as you think it should be going yes so you wouldnt you wont be allowed to register by the time i had it up to me is uniquely part of the change neatly part of the struggle or else how do you earn your right to be there you know we just stand by and let other people do the dirty work. And. I do differently believe that women are breaking ground but the legal status of women here leaves a lot wanting. The idea that i am a minority does bother me and this injustice that frustration is always there like a silent stream under your skin ok and it just takes hearing one story here and there to uniteds of the internet stream sort of into a bit of a volcanic explosion. As a woman i need the consent of my male party and all right in something the traveling during the if youre of illusion i wanted to go cover the head used where. And initially he said no and we had that huge argument because im not a child to be told no you do not humiliate me its offensive and i simply want to accept it you may not be able to do something to him legally all right but i wouldnt have agreed to continue in the relationship. I think has more to do with a Patriarchal Society than it has to do with religion. At prayer times the eye of the religious police is particularly watchful over saudi everyday life. The strict guardians going to diminish citizens at any time for immoral behavior and hand them over to the official police are nothing more serious than nonrelated men and women meeting or simply because and a bias is too short. For them. Its not only the Younger Generation that finds the strictly conservative saudi system increasingly anachronistic. To find a don comes from an influential upper class family her father was vice governor of the mecca region her mother was a professor of economics and her brother is a manager of an oil company. Since her divorce from the Kuwaiti Union to return to jeddah she and her two daughters have been living with her family in that there is a limitation and they know what kind of they leave easy but we cant be giving her. Feet dont go anywhere they want with their whole different culture that comes with. Guys who have sort. Of good even from their father that i have bigger price not their game is she said and i would religious no meaning to have any for drivers in our house and those are our daughters because right theyre saying in a very crowded city like baghdad its not london or new york they go right but you cannot bury them from the other or there is no meaning to you kids there and have them see home. They have to or they have to go out that change is going to have to happen because its a necessity of life. The focus of suppression and grief. So i do see a very bright light in the end of the tunnel its a little bit further that theres a bright light with. The fast pace of life in the digital. Shift as the lowdown on the web showing new developments and providing useful information the wittiest finds and interviews with makers and users. Shifts next on d. W. And then w. That i may speak your language does not have a. For content in dari pashto and order prospects for returning our web special refugio journeys like germany and the prospects for those returning home. Join the discussion on g. W. Dot com and on facebook. Prospects for returning news d. W. Maybe for my. Shift living in the digital age. Coming up freemium gaming an app for gore makes and skateboard acrobat