RIYADH: Saudi King Salman on Tuesday ordered that women be allowed to drive cars, ending a conservative tradition seen by rights activists as an emblem of the Islamic kingdom’s repression of women. Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has issued a decree that will allow women to drive and which is to be implemented by June 2018. Saudi Arabia was the world's only country where women were not allowed to drive. Women with a license from any of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries would be allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, he added. The position of Saudi women gradually improved under late King Abdullah and since King Salman took over in 2015, the kingdom has been opening more areas for women through the government’s modernising reforms.

Source: New Strait Times September 26, 2017 22:18 UTC