Saudi women defy driving ban

Saudi Facebook campaign sees women drive cars

The call to defy the ban that spread through the social networking sites is the largest en masse action since November 1990, when a group of 47 Saudi women were arrested and severely punished after demonstrating in cars.

"*We've just returned from the supermarket. My wife decided to start the day by driving to the store and back," said columnist Tawfiq Alsaif on his Twitter page.

Source: Daily Telegraph

Vocabulary:

to t_____ - to cause sth (eg a governement, a statue) to lose balance and fall down

b______ (adv) - for a short time

f______ (unc n) - a piece of film that shows an event

to d___ - to refuse to obey a law, a person etc / to do sth in d_______

a s______ d___ - someone who is very easy for an enemy to shoot at or attack

from h___ to t__ - completely covering your body

a p_______ - a thin book of only a few pages which gives some kind of information

a w____ - a prostitute

to h___ an event - to make an event happen / h___ (past, past part)

t______ (n) - the number of people who are present at an event

to d__ - to give sth or sb a particular name

a ban / to ban

to punish / punishment (n)

an array of sth -

a contraint / to constrain -

to stage a demo

to pledge

to scare sb off -

entrenched (adj) -

to encourage -

to take the lead -

as you see fit -

to spread -

a plot of land -


Grammar point:

*"We've just returned from the supermarket."

In the above example, "just" has the sense of a short time ago.

Structure:

have + just + past participle

Don't walk all over the floor with those dirty shoes. I've just cleaned it.

You'll never guess who we have just seen.

Why is she going to London? Hasn't she just come back from there?


Comments

Montse said…
I’ve never understood why in some religions women are considered as second-class citizens. Do men really think that women are lower than they are or are they afraid of the women are able to live without needing to them?
Graham said…
Montse,

I am sure that the roads in Saudi Arabia will be among the safest in the world.

Ooops. Was that a politically incorrect joke?!

It's true that in the name of religion, many injustices are committed.



Do men really think that women are lower than they are or are they afraid THAT women WOULD BE able to live without NEEDING THEM?
Anonymous said…
I've read the text and seen the video and I think it's very interesting because nowdays some wealthy countries live with others traditions. These women want to be like antoher woman in the world, and I agree. But we have to know that they couldn't change it in one day because it's part of their culture.

Majda
Graham said…
Hi Majda,

I think that in the West we are very quick to criticize OTHER PARTS of the world. Until not so long ago, women here didn't have that much freedom and even nowadays there are injustices.

with OTHER TRADITIONS / want to be like ANY OTHER WOMAN IN THE WORLD / ...THEY CAN'T CHANGE...