'Arab Spring' Breezes Blowing Through the Magic Kingdom?

Saudi chicks want to drive, dammit:

Fed up with having no driver to ferry her to the hospital, Shaima Osama decided to take matters into her own hands and drive there herself, an act of defiance in a country where women are banned from sitting behind the wheel.   

Emboldened by the winds of change sweeping the Arab world, which have toppled leaders in Tunisia and Egypt, women in the conservative kingdom of Saudi Arabia see no better time to seek greater freedoms by demanding the right to drive, something they would not have dreamed of doing a year ago.

"I learned that there is no law banning women driving. I took the keys, took a deep breath and started the car," Osama described how she drove in Jeddah last month.

Saudi Arabia has no written ban on women driving but Saudi law requires citizens to use a locally issued license while in the country. Such licenses are not issued to women, making it effectively illegal for them to drive.

Thousands of Saudi men and women joined Facebook groups calling for women's right to drive and challenge the ban. But only a few, like Osama, turned those calls into action.

Osama, 33, who has a severe vitamin D deficiency, drove herself to the hospital, received her vitamin injection but was stopped and arrested by police on her way home. She was released just hours later...

Now, if only they could ban those all-encompassing black shrouds chicks are forced to wear in public (the source of more than a few cases of severe vitamin D deficiency). Oh, well. One repression at a time, eh?