TED talk

At Los Altos High female students are not allowed to wear short shorts or
show too much skin. Its kind of the same in Saudi Arabia, but a lot worse.
Imagine yourself living in the heat of Saudi Arabia and being forced to
wear a headscarf the whole time and cover yourself with a black cloak,
also known as an abaya or a burka.
In Saudi Arabia women arent allowed to do much by themselves. Without their
male guardian, they cannot obtain a passport or travel. Their male guardian is
usually their husband, but sometimes it can be an uncle, a brother or another male
in the family. This person decides what the female can and cannot do. These are
rights of women all over the world but its still getting violated in Saudi Arabia.
Women are not allowed to drive a car in Saudi Arabia. In late 2014, a woman named
Loujain Hathloul filmed herself while driving into Saudi Arabia from the neighboring
United Arab Emirates, after filming she got arrested because of the fact that she
was driving. Its strictly forbidden for females to drive a car and she broke the law.
Shes gone on to become one of Saudi Arabias most prominent womens rights
activists.
King Salman is the leader of the country and he has enacted changes enabling
women to vote and stand in local elections.. In 2011 King Abdullah declared that
women would be able to vote and run in the 2015 local elections for the first time.
Eventually women finally did get the right to vote last year in Saudi Arabia..
During the 2015 elections 978 women entered as candidates but many were barred
from registering, including the woman who had been detained for two months for
driving from the United Arab Emirates to Saudi Arabia. Women were not allowed to
use pictures without their burka for their campaign so they all looked the same. And
they depended on the goodwill of their husbands or male guardian to take them to
the polling station. People have protested against these injustices and now three
women pilots have become Royal Brunei Airlines first all-female flight crew to make
a flight from Brunei to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.
While some incidents of violence are reported most go unrecognized. Those that are
reported are often ignored and provide almost no chance of avenging the victims.
For the second time in three years, dozens of Saudi women are getting behind the
wheel to protest their countrys practice of forbidding drivers licenses for women. A
lot of people are blogging about it and sharing pictures of the women and the
violations. This will hopefully help the government see what theyre doing wrong
and it also shows the outside world the conditions women have to live in. We could
also ask outside help from the United Nations and protest. Women are often taught
from an early age to approach the world outside their male guardians home with
fear and shame.
On the first day of February a woman was banned from entering a Starbucks in the
Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh. There was a gender wall to keep men and women
separated but it had collapsed. A sign was posted on the coffee shops door that

read,On order by the Commission please no women allowed in women can

send in their drivers to buy for them Women also cant open a bank account
without their husbands permission. They cant go anywhere without their male
guardian, not even shopping trips, visiting the doctor or run errands
We should convince the government that what theyre doing is wrong and that
women and men are equal. Hopefully women wouldnt get discriminated anymore if
they change the law.