Daring to Drive

A Saudi Woman’s Awakening

• Author(s): Manal Sharif,
• Publisher: Simon and Schuster
• Pages: 289
• ISBN_10: 1476793026
  ISBN_13: 9781476793023
  
• Language: en
• Categories: Biography & Autobiography / Cultural, Ethnic & Regional / General , Biography & Autobiography / Cultural, Ethnic & Regional / Arab & Middle Eastern , Biography & Autobiography / Women , Biography & Autobiography / Social Activists , History / Middle East / Arabian Peninsula , Political Science / General , Political Science / Women in Politics , Religion / Sexuality & Gender Studies , Social Science / Women's Studies , Transportation / Automotive / General ,

Description:... A ferociously intimate memoir by a devout woman from a modest family in Saudi Arabia who became the unexpected leader of a courageous movement to support women’s right to drive.

Manal al-Sharif grew up in Mecca the second daughter of a taxi driver, born the year fundamentalism took hold. In her adolescence, she was a religious radical, melting her brother’s boy band cassettes in the oven because music was haram: forbidden by Islamic law. But what a difference an education can make. By her twenties she was a computer security engineer, one of few women working in a desert compound that resembled suburban America. That’s when the Saudi kingdom’s contradictions became too much to bear: she was labeled a slut for chatting with male colleagues, her teenage brother chaperoned her on a business trip, and while she kept a car in her garage, she was forbidden from driving down city streets behind the wheel.

Daring to Drive is the fiercely intimate memoir of an accidental activist, a powerfully vivid story of a young Muslim woman who stood up to a kingdom of men—and won. Writing on the cusp of history, Manal offers a rare glimpse into the lives of women in Saudi Arabia today. Her memoir is a remarkable celebration of resilience in the face of tyranny, the extraordinary power of education and female solidarity, and the difficulties, absurdities, and joys of making your voice heard.