A Saudi woman has been arrested for defying a driving ban in kingdom, an activist said Sunday as female motorists prepared to break the traditional ban next month. Manal al-Sharif was arrested on Saturday while driving, a day after she posted footage on the video-sharing website YouTube showing her driving in the Eastern Province city of Al-Khobar.
Although she was released after a few hours, she was taken back into custody, the activist said. "She was detained for hours at a police station until her brother came to secure her release," said the activist, who added the notorious religious police was called by traffic police to help in arresting Sharif. But the activist said that Sharif, a 32-year-old computer security consultant, was taken again into custody in the early hours of Sunday.
The Twitter page of Women2Drive, managed by women calling for a driving protest in June, said police arrested Sharif at her home, and that she had been taken to a correctional prison, usually used for women, after a brief detention at Al-Khobar police station.