The key to change
Occasionally periods of social regression and progressive developments occur simultaneously. After all, among the many catastrophic reports emerging from the Arab world there are also a few glimmers of hope – for women. Report by Mey Dudin
It is rare that a decision by the Saudi King moves a women s rights activist to tears. Thirty-eight-year-old Manal al-Sharif wrote that she shed tears of happiness upon hearing the monarch issuing a decree allowing women in the world s most conservative Islamic nation to drive in future. In a column for the Washington Post, she stresses: the car key is the key to change . And adds: For the first time, I dare to dream of a different Saudi Arabia.