The bicycle freed 19th-century women from their homes and from their dependence on men. I hope that in Saudi Arabia, the car will do the same.
Manal Al-SharifRead
For me, driving - or the right to drive - is not only about moving from A to B; it's a way to emancipate women. It gives them so much liberty. It makes them independent.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Driving symbolizes freedom and independence, particularly for women.
In this quote, Manal Al-Sharif emphasizes that driving is more than just transportation; it serves as a powerful tool for women's liberation. By advocating for the right to drive, she underscores the importance of mobility in granting women autonomy, freedom, and independence in a society where these qualities might be restricted.
Themes
DrivingWomen'S RightsFreedomIndependenceLiberty
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about women's empowerment and mobility rights.
More from Manal Al-Sharif
All quotes →In Saudi Arabia, they always tell us we are queens. We are pistachios. You know the nut? Like something that is protected. So even if you have a very good education, restraints are put on women.
Manal Al-SharifRead
In May 2011, I drove a car in the city of Khobar, Saudi Arabia, to protest the kingdom's ban on women driving.
Manal Al-SharifRead
I love my sons, I love my husband, and I love my country. But in kingdoms of men, there are few - if any - choices for women. Or the choices are such that there is no greater pain than having to choose.
Manal Al-SharifRead
Women's rights are nothing but a part of the bigger picture, which is human rights. Women are trusted with the lives of their kids, even serve as teachers and doctors, but they aren't trusted with their own lives.
Manal Al-SharifRead
In the Saudi system, women are considered inferior. No matter our age, we have male guardians. We must get permission from men to attend school, to work, to marry, to travel overseas - even to have basic medical procedures.
Manal Al-SharifRead
Similar quotes
I knew that when the great guiding spirit cleaves humanity into two antagonistic halves, I would be with the people. I know this, I see it printed in the night sky that I, eclectic dissembler of doctrine and psychoanalyst of dogma, howling like one possessed, will assault the barricades or the trenches , will take my bloodstained weapon, and consumed with fury, slaughter any enemy who falls into my hands.
Che GuevaraRead
If I hadn't been a drunkard, I probably would have committed suicide long ago.
Charles BukowskiRead
Sometimes I would come back from a run, and my artificial leg would have a puddle of blood from my stump. I wouldn't go to sick bay. In that year, if I had gone to sick bay, they would have written me up. I didn't go to sick bay. I'd go somewhere and hide and soak my leg in a bucket of hot water with salt in it--an old remedy. Then I'd get up the next morning and run.
Carl BrashearRead
I have to make sure that I don't silence myself about the things that I believe in, because sometimes the fear creeps in of 'What if fewer people watch the show or fewer people hire me because I express my politics?' For me, the commitment is to never be quiet just because I'm in the public eye.
Kerry WashingtonRead
Somebody said to me the other day, 'You know, it's really senseless, what you're doing. There's always been suffering, there will always be suffering, and you're just prolonging the suffering of these children [by rescuing them].' My answer is, 'Okay, then, let's start with your grandchild. Don't buy antibiotics if it gets pneumonia. Don't take it to the hospital of it has an accident. It's against life-against humanity-to think that way.
Audrey HepburnRead
One of the marks of a gift is to have the courage of it.
Katherine Anne PorterRead