Saudi Arabia Extends Detention Of Two Women Arrested For Driving

 

The detention of two women arrested at the Saudi Arabian border for trying to drive in the country has been extended by another  25 days, a relative says. UPI reports:

 
  According to several activists and social media users, Lujain Hathloul, 25, and Maysa Amoudi, 33, were detained last Monday by authorities at the border of Saudi Arabia, where it is illegal for women to drive.

    According to a relative, both women’s detention is being extended another 25 days, adding to the six in which they have already been held.

    Both Hathloul and Amoudi, a journalist who works in the United Arab Emirates, are Saudi citizens with UAE drivers licenses. Each has been outspoken in opposition to a Saudi Arabian law barring women from driving.

    After Hathloul posted a Nov. 30 YouTube video documenting herself driving from Abu Dhabi to the Saudi border, Twitter followers documented an ordeal in which border guards confiscated Hathloul’s passport and held her in place for hours.

    Before her Twitter account went silent, Hathloul said she had been at the border for 24 hours. “They don’t want to give me my passport nor will they let me pass,” she tweeted.