The fight is not about driving a car; it's about being in the driver's seat of our destiny-2012 Oslo Václav Havel Prize Acceptance Speech In late May 2011, a YouTube channel called ksawomen2drive posted an eight-minute video. On the first day it became the most viewed clip in Saudi Arabia and became so popular that it started trending around the world. Any non-Arab viewer would have been slightly disconcerted by its popularity. To them it would simply be a clip of a woman in a hijab driving while talking to her passenger, and a poorly shot clip at that. The hundreds of thousands of Arab viewers, however, overall saw something very different. They were witnessing a crime, an act of dissent. The video gained over 600,000 people in the few days it was posted, but was removed following the arrest of the driver shown in the clip. Manal al-Sharif was that guide. The place of women in Saudi society is determined by a deeply conservative culture, claimed by a narrow interpretation of religion and imposed by law. That place would appear to be at home, submissive and legally dependent on their male guardian. Saudi society suffers from pervasive segregation along gender lines and women's freedom of movement is hampered, forcing them to rely on male chaperones. There is a place where Saudi women can escape marginalization; online. Twitter does not yet have a separate site for either gender, nor are women confined to their Facebook account page, where they can have as many male friends as they want. As in all oppressive societies, the Internet has had a deliciously corrupting effect in Saudi Arabia, not only giving access to a free global flow of information, but also facilitating organization and dissent. ......middle of paper......and threats of violence against her. Fighting an unjust system is hard enough, but women's empowerment is still on the wrong side of popular opinion in a still deeply conservative kingdom. And while progress has been made; the first Saudi athletes at the 2012 Olympics and the promise of women to participate in the 2015 municipal elections, progress is slow. Compared to other injustices faced by Saudi women, the right to get behind the wheel may seem trivial, but for someone expected to stay home and remain submissive, the sudden freedom to come and go as they wish is incredibly powerful. It means more women are seen in public. This means more women are finding work and building their own careers. This means more women live their daily lives independently and unsupervised. Nothing gives more weight to calls for equality than the roar of an engine.