{"id":32260,"date":"2017-09-28T14:27:54","date_gmt":"2017-09-28T14:27:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/?p=32260"},"modified":"2017-09-28T14:27:54","modified_gmt":"2017-09-28T14:27:54","slug":"un-chief-welcomes-saudi-arabias-decision-to-lift-ban-on-women-drivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/blog\/2017\/09\/un-chief-welcomes-saudi-arabias-decision-to-lift-ban-on-women-drivers\/","title":{"rendered":"Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ chief welcomes Saudi Arabia\u2019s decision to lift ban on women drivers"},"content":{"rendered":"

United Nations\u00a0Secretary-General<\/a>\u00a0Ant\u00f3nio Guterres has welcomed the decision by Saudi Arabia to allow women to drive cars in the country.<\/p>\n

In a tweet, the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ chief noted that ending the restrictions represents an \u201cimportant step<\/a>\u00a0in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to reports, under the new law, women can legally obtain a driving licence without asking a male guardian for permission.<\/p>\n

Also welcoming the announcement, the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Women<\/a>) \u201cexpressed hope<\/a>\u00a0that the move would \u201cstart the journey\u201d to substantive equality for women and girls in the country, with more access to public spaces and life, increased participation in the job market and a life free of violence in all spheres.<\/p>\n

\u201cWomen being able to apply for a driver\u2019s licence in Saudi Arabia, and subsequently drive, is a long-awaited milestone in the [country], that puts them at par with their male counterparts in this one area of public life and gives them a right to a life-saving skill that they should never have been denied,\u201d said Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the Executive Director Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Women, in a statement today.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ability to move independently within their country is a vital step to the other freedoms that are their right as economic, political and social actors, and that bring benefits to all of society,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Via Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ News Centre<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

United Nations\u00a0Secretary-General\u00a0Ant\u00f3nio Guterres has welcomed the decision by Saudi Arabia […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":243,"featured_media":32264,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,4],"tags":[293],"class_list":["post-32260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gender-equality","category-news","tag-gender-equality"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/243"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}