Sharief, the 32-year-old Saudi woman detained for driving a car in Al-Khobar Saturday, intends to withdraw from the campaign for women to drive, a source at the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) said Tuesday. The source said members of the NSHR met with Al-Sharief at Dammam's Women's Prison for 90 minutes and described her condition and treatment as “good”. “Manal wants to be released,” the source said. “She said the investigation had been carried out and that she will withdraw from the campaign calling for women to drive cars.” The source added that the NSHR had contacted the Ministry of Interior requesting Al-Sharief's release. Al-Watan Arabic daily, meanwhile, reported that Al-Sharief broke down in prison and asked investigators to look into the role of “other Saudi women” she named as leading her to take to the wheel. Some of them, she reportedly said, lived abroad. According to the newspaper, Al-Sharief claimed the women “encouraged her to go out into the streets and drive a vehicle and film the event”. Sources told Al-Watan that Al-Sharief “blamed them for getting her to do it and said they reassured her that there is no punishment for her driving a car, which they based only on what is stated in the traffic laws”. The sources said Al-Sharief broke into tears upon entering prison in Dammam and appeared in “disbelief” at what was happening to her. Adnan Al-Salih, the lawyer who volunteered his services to Al-Sharief, told Al-Watan that he had seen the legal papers containing the charges against his client and that they entailed “breaking public law by inciting women to drive cars and rallying public opinion”. Al-Salih was also quoted as saying that the case had, as of Monday, not yet been passed on to the Bureau of Investigation and Prosecution. Saudi Gazette reported Tuesday that Al-Salih had made a request for his client to be released on bail and that they were awaiting a response from the Eastern Province Emirate.
