Saudi's ban on women driving officially ends
Riyadh, June 24 : Saudi women are officially allowed to get behind the wheel, after a decades-old driving ban was lifted. The change was announced last September and Saudi Arabia issued the first licences to women earlier this month, BBC reported on Sunday.
It was the only country left in the world where women could not drive and families had to hire private chauffeurs for female relatives.
However, the move comes amid an intensified crackdown on activists who campaigned for the right to drive.
At least eight women's rights activists are being detained and could face trial in a counter-terrorism court and long prison sentences for their activism, human rights group Amnesty says.
They include Loujain al-Hathloul, a well-known figure in the campaign for women's driving rights. Amnesty has also called for wider reforms in Saudi Arabia, where women remain subject to male guardianship laws.
Human rights groups in the kingdom have campaigned for years to allow women to drive.
Dozens of women were arrested for driving in Riyadh in 1990 and some Saudi women began posting videos of themselves at the wheel in 2008, and between 2011 and 2014.
Thousands of women could soon take to the roads. "It is a historic moment for every Saudi woman," Saudi television presenter said.
She said she was behind the wheel minutes after the end of the driving ban at midnight local time (21:00 GMT Saturday).
"Those days of waiting long hours for a driver are over," said pharmacy student Hatoun bin Dakhil, 21.
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Human teeth not a dangerous weapon: Bombay HC after woman alleges being bit by sister-in-law
Mumbai (PTI): Human teeth cannot be considered as a dangerous weapon which would cause serious harm, the Bombay High Court said quashing an FIR filed on a woman's complaint against her in-laws wherein she alleged her sister-in-law bit her.
The complainant's medical certificates show there was only simple hurt caused by teeth marks, Justices Vibha Kankanwadi and Sanjay Deshmukh of the HC's Aurangabad bench said in the order on April 4.
As per the FIR lodged in April 2020 on the woman's complaint, during a scuffle, one of her sisters-in-law bit her, thus causing her harm with a dangerous weapon.
The accused were booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code for causing harm with dangerous weapons, hurting someone and causing injury.
The court in its order said, "Human teeth cannot be said to be a dangerous weapon."
It allowed a petition filed by the accused and quashed the FIR.
Under section 324 of the Indian Penal Code (causing hurt using a dangerous weapon), the hurt should be by means of an instrument that is likely to cause death or serious harm, the HC said.
The medical certificates of the complainant in the present case show there was only simple hurt caused by teeth marks, the court said.
It would be an abuse of the process of law to make the accused face trial when the offence under section 324 is not made out, the HC said and quashed the FIR.
The court noted there appears to be a property dispute between the accused and the complainant.
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