A Saudi woman was allowed to drive the family car through the Saudi customs and immigration areas on the King Fahd Causeway despite a strict ban on women's driving in Saudi Arabia.
According to a report published on Sunday in the Saudi Arabia daily Al Yaum, the woman had to take over from her husband after he collapsed suddenly and could no longer drive.
Police and customs officers at the Saudi exit point on the 25-kilometre causeway linking Bahrain and Saudi Arabia allegedly appreciated the situation and for humanitarian reasons, allowed the woman to continue driving to the nearest hospital in Bahrain despite the ban on women driving.
A Saudi passports control officer later told the newspaper that their duty was to oversee matters related to the nature of their tasks and that they were not professionally concerned with who was behind the steering wheel.
"The ban is within the prerogatives of the traffic police and whenever a car goes through customs, we have to complete the paper work regardless of who is driving the vehicle," the officer said.
Even though women are barred from driving in Saudi Arabia, local media at times report the arrest of women for violating the rule. However, the frequency of such arrests is not known.
Do you think this incident would lead to a change in the current driving laws? Should there be exceptions made to the ban on women from driving?
