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PEOPLE / ARTS Wednesday 14 June 2017
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Review: ‘Daring to Drive’ illuminates Saudi woman’s life

incessantly to provide the ing to Drive” ranges from Al-Sharif notes that some
barest necessities. They are Al-Sharif’s first period to Saudi royalty are more pro-
overbearing, yet absolutely how she struggled to man- gressive, but readers are
determined to see Al-Sharif age a crush on a co-worker left to ponder how much
get a good education so to marriage, motherhood longer such outdated views
she can escape the pov- and workday issues. will survive. President Don-
erty that plagued them. The book ends with a blow- ald Trump’s recent visit to
Despite Kafkaesque ob- by-blow account of her ar- Saudi Arabia didn’t explain
stacles, Al-Sharif manages rest in May 2011 as part of much: like previous official
to become a pioneering a larger protest against the trips it showed us pictures
computer professional. At driving ban. That November of princes, kings and ornate
school, male professors she filed a lawsuit challeng- palaces.
taught young women by ing the government refusal Al-Sharif presents a more
closed-circuit TV, since they to give licenses to women. valuable and honest view:
couldn’t be face-to-face. Soon afterward leading a look into the hearts and
The women had no way to religious scholars warned minds of people who live
ask questions, either. that doing so would lead in a society that is mostly
Al-Sharif deftly uses a wide to a surge in prostitution, off-limits to Westerners.
storytelling lens. During pornography, homosexual- Her literary achievement is
a year working in Boston ity and divorce. The experts that despite the huge cul-
she is shocked to meet so proclaimed that “within ten tural differences, “Daring
many young Americans years there would be no to Drive” shows that Saudi
overwhelmed by college more virgins” in the country women and men have
debt — her education was if women were allowed to dreams and fears much like
free in Saudi Arabia. “Dar- drive. our own.q

This cover image released by Simon & Schuster shows “Daring
to Drive: A Saudi Woman’s Awakening,” by Manal Al-Sharif.
Associated Press

KEVIN BEGOS its aftermath.
Associated Press The book provides a rare
Beset by traffic, smog and glimpse into Saudi society,
other distractions, it’s easy and especially into the
to forget that driving a car lives and emotions of wom-
is an act of free will, in theo- en. Rules — especially for
ry transcending race, class women — are everywhere,
and gender. and so are the punishments
Then imagine what life for breaking them. “Every
would be like if American public and most private
women weren’t allowed spaces were saturated with
to drive. Need to go to the radical books, brochures,
hospital? No. Pick up kids and cassette sermons ...
after work? No. Visit fam- (and) these pieces of re-
ily or friends? No. The only ligious propaganda were
options are call a driver or overwhelmingly intended
wait for a male relative. to enforce the compliance
Manal Al-Sharif illuminates of women,” she writes. “Ta-
the insidious nature of that boos included wearing
reality in Saudi Arabia. pants, styling one’s hair,
“Daring to Drive” is a brave, and even parting one’s
extraordinary, heartbreak- hair on the side — because
ingly personal story of one doing so causes a woman
woman’s battle for equal to resemble the infidels.”
rights, told through the min- Al-Sharif’s father and moth-
ute details of an everyday er beat her; teachers beat
life that boiled over after students; her husband beat
years of frustrations. her; and other men beat
Al-Sharif was arrested for their wives, usually with few
driving; afterward, people consequences. Those pas-
bombarded her with both sages are searingly painful
abuse and praise. The sto- to read, but Al-Sharif has
ry of her time in a filthy jail the rare ability to put her
is riveting, but “Daring to suffering in context. Her
Drive” does far more than family was poor, and her
explore that episode and mother and father worked