Check it out yourself on you tube. 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 a 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 the bya are now allowed to drive a car but they still cant travel work or attend University Without the permission of a male guardian. Get 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 lead 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 activists rush i have seen is now one of two women who have a seat on the jetta 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 public life my jeopardize the holiness of the society was the relationship between a person and god or that is shipped with families itself. People think that its protection its meaning that thinking about segregating covering. This kind of protection of 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 women 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 side 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 were distributed 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 as transportation. Is the great hurt here in the show that youre going to. Get a member once we had that meeting and neither one of us saw the drive right away in a bit when we try to find we try to find a driver and i we have a car having the logistics for that work in all it was just going to be a good thing that were letting the good out of the off thing at which i have a tightening of the mind yeah home for him you know i have to put to at this one hundred by im off to follow him and suddenly he left the key where the driver left the game you know got a good job you know its just its not realistic its like a mirror you know better than Everything Else are you guys. Inside a. Woman in 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 adonis 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 mis interpreted that so that the had the personal against they practice their person a. Psychic and will being and then preach and hide behind the problems of the system of guardianship is complete he misled. Me is one 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 work ok look at the first modern of a woman was the wife of prophet mohammad. 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 and you want to look at it who is the guardian the. Leagues esteemed scholars are more of preachers who are actually teaching the existing interpretation of the text today you need innovative women. To look into the text look into the context and go with new yorkers and dont know yoga and debates regarding laws debate is the mechanism of change i dont believe. 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 feared women in the west are subject to being a merchandise. I am wearing my my and i lie. Rabbi i never felt since subject of limitation its a limitation when people in the west demands that i appeared the way they perceive women to appear i mean why do you want me to be like you. Did so. And so i did it. And women are leading change you know it is that there were not leading from the front toward leading from behind where are jacking 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. Women and girls are not allowed to engage in sports in public and hardly any school has a sports all one consequence of this is medical problems stemming from a lack of exercise there 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 and my enough. If a bunch of us decide to play basketball in a public area they would try to stop us even if your male guardian has no idea and is against that obviously. This is all about children is them and not wanting women to have to be empowered and sports is a great way to empower women. Time for a break but not to relax. You know. I used to get the opposition mainly on social media and the newspapers a few phone calls. That. Some of. The women. That we were. Very exposed to the world and even the. Day. Too. The rich desert monarchy is able to by its citizens loyalty it can therefore stifle the call for rights and individual freedom through a free supply of water and electricity i 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 jeta other forms of public entertainment such as cinema theatre and music clubs are against the law. One of the few places where locals can let off steam as at the outcome of the club. Yet here too there is a strict gender separation and jokes about religion or the royal family are to move. Selfcensorship offers protection from draconian punishment. If not the ivy. Oh. Yes municipal elections but recently held and this time women were not only allowed to vote they could also stand as candidates and like russia have even one 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 has 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. Personally i never thought it would ever happen in my lifetime appointing a woman saudi woman as it was when she found her a Saudi National newspaper i did not think that it would be approved by the Board Members i didnt think it would 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 i hear you and i miss i dont know. And frankly speaking i really wasnt keen on being put in that position youre under the spotlight and its an experiment so its a huge responsibility in terms of if something goes wrong then its going to backfire on all suddenly i think that my being appointed to this position is about showing the world that we are progressive or that we are 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 writing 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 editor in chief ari and fortunately its not by as stated policy for each newspaper. And i may be a symptom of that at the time. Youre changing im not proof in itself things are changing your saw there are elements that need to change and media 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 time 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 no came and looked at her sister and shes like mommy when you had 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 saudi woman. Needing to have a permission to study something youre passionate about or. Not do your certificate not being recognised or are you having a male guardian companionship when used to be or you needed permission from your guardian just trouble. 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 day is that people look at you as a person or failing. But in the same time it can use frustration as a poor step when you drive you you can use your anger and there was no way to keep running from your fears you have limitations. With them. People are very sad about the oil dropping down and very happy change happens when economically people are going through hardship were no longer living the luxuries but it was so in a couple of years men are going to ask women to go out and start working im sure in a while people cannot afford drivers great then youre going to start finding men asking you know what lets let we let the women drive let them drive the kids to school its cheaper. Death fundamentalists i human beings and Money Matters to them. And im a hundred percent sure theyre going to corn for a change soon. The nemmco factory is a pioneering project. Its not eastern asian women who work here as youd normally find but more than sixty saudi women. The managing director of this industrial embroidery firm is a mother of three runner so my yes 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 when the first thing they know nothing of that how i can be in the mine they are all women and some of the customers meet the order in minimum point they can because they not trust that we can deliver votes after the first deal and the fucking deal and the third deal no they even dont us in all of their quantity and big point because. We keep it female because we want to provide our women with them one in environment they feel relieved if they want to work freely and without waiting here we feel more comfortable. The women are only wearing their bales inside the factory today because of the camera in the beginning it was only i want to walk because i need the money but the later discovered that the work you mean more than this that work can mean i bet you are you also feel revile you go right in your community now the target of the girl when she graduates from the sunday school not only focus whats meant he will marry she will marry no because she can live without. For the. Husband of someone who also one married is forty madi. The most important thing for me is to know that im no longer financially dependent on my parents and that makes me feel so strong and. All of a sudden i can just go out and undertake something. On my own do things. In 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 for you. Or guys. But the rest were. On the scene. They were not officially say it but they have just. Hold it for me. Because i like to pinpoint if possible id like to id like to know who is instigating this since theyve made the statement they should claim it with their name they should be given the liberty to hide their identities only if they really believe in something philidor and be a free for the yeah exactly they need to fix that you and the music you guys will. Know how little it up with them up and you know were distributing you know a damn. Good view is doable but we just didnt bother to go through the process because we didnt think it would make that much of a difference. The culture itself they have no authority over the system 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 because you need to be 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. I do differently believe that women are breaking ground but the legal status of women here leaves a lot wanting. The idea that im 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 ok internet stream sort of into a bit of a volcanic explosion. As a woman i need your consent on. My mouth harden all right in something the traveling during the revolution i wanted to go cover square. And initially he said no and we had a 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 every day life the strict guardians going to diminish citizens at any time for immoral behavior and hand them over to the official police were nothing more serious than nonrelated men and women meeting or simply because and a buyer is too short. Its not only the Younger Generation that finds the strictly conservative saudi system increasingly anachronistic. So fun to don comes from an influential a pro 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 and a return to jeddah she and her two daughters have been living with her family and that there is a limitation and you know what kind of the lead is it that we hear giving the workers. For free freedom to go anywhere they want without their whole different culture that comfy with. For them what is that guy or girl who had. A good evening from their father that i have bigger prize they gave this to i was religious. No meaning do i have fever or bribers in our house and those are good in our borders or something because right theyre saying in a very crowded city like barriers or london or new york they gripe that. You cannot see any them from the other or there is no meaning to you kid there and have them see how. They have to work they have to go out that change is going to have to happen because its a necessity of life. During the first instance of oppression or midnight and a great sense of the fifteenth so i do see a very bright light in the end of the town its a little bit further it isnt right. The fast pace of life in the Digital World shift has the lowdown on the web showing new developments and providing useful information the wittiest finds and interviews with makers and users. Next on d w. Its all about the moments that lie before. Its all about the story inside. Its all about George Chance to discover the world from different perspectives. Join us and do so fired by distinctive instagram or others at g. W. Stories the new topic each week on instagram. Shift living in the digital age. Coming up premium gaming