Manama: Authorities in Saudi Arabia have denied reports that a Saudi made history by becoming the first woman to drive through a border checkpoint into Kuwait.
“The claim posted by a man on social media about a woman driving through the Raqi border checkpoint is not true,” Mualla Al Otaibi, the spokesperson for the Passports directorate in the Eastern Province, said.
“We did not record any woman driving out of the kingdom or arriving into the kingdom,” he said, quoted by Saudi daily Okaz on Thursday.
Saudi director Fahad Al Sharif shared a picture of him with his mother driving. In the caption he said the two were heading to Saudi Arabia from Kuwait and thanked security men for the smooth entry.
His post was retweeted more than 3,000 times. Many Twitter users encouraged more people to share their own pictures under a hashtag in support of women driving.
Al Sharif is a director who has a master’s degree in filmmaking from Hollywood and has won several awards, including for ‘The Arab Swan’ and ‘Cockroach.’
The daily said they attempted to contact the man to get further information about the post, but he reportedly declined to comment, saying his mother was not interested in commenting.
Several social media users posted angry reactions, criticising the new tendency to claim fictitious heroism in breaking rules in anticipation of the implementation of the decision to allow women to drive announced last month.
The ban is set to be lifted in June after the recommendations of an ad hoc ministerial committee are presented and all necessary arrangements are taken to ease the implementation of the breakthrough decision.
Several female social media users have been warning against the emergence of accounts that would focus on the lack of commitment of women to complying with traffic rules in an attempt to discredit them or to cast doubts.
Such accounts would not hesitate to look for negative stories, concoct claims, present fake news and post false images in their attempt to incite against women driving, they said.
