Saudi Arabia has released veteran women’s rights activist Aisha al-Manea following her arrest last week with several other activists in a crackdown just weeks before a ban on women driving is set to end, Amnesty International said on Thursday. Manea, 70, had been campaigning for women’s right to drive since the 1990s. She was among six detainees publicly identified by Amnesty, along with Eman al-Nafjan, Loujain al-Hathloul, Aziza al-Yousef, Ibrahim Modeimigh and Mohammed al-Rabea. Ending a decades-old ban on women driving has been hailed as proof of a new progressive trend in the country, but has been accompanied by a crackdown on dissent, including dozens of arrests last September that appeared to pave the way for lifting the driving ban. Some of those arrested this week nonetheless continued to speak out.

Source: Egypt Independent May 24, 2018 07:18 UTC